Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Farmer, Emily
FARMER, EMILY (1826–1905), water-colour painter, was one of the three children of John Biker Farmer, of the East India Company's service, by his wife Frances Ann, daughter of William Churchill Frost. Alexander Farmer, a twin brother of her sister Frances, was an artist; he exhibited at the Royal Academy and elsewhere from 1855 to 1867, and is represented in the Victoria and Albert Museum by two small oil paintings of genre subjects; he died on 28 March 1869. Emily Farmer was born in London on 25 July 1826. She was educated entirely at home, and received instruction in art from her brother. In early life Miss Farmer painted miniatures, but she is best known for her refined and well- drawn groups of children and other genre subjects. She exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1847, and again in 1849 and 1850. In 1854 she was elected a member of the New Society (now the Royal Institute) of Painters in Water Colours, and she was a frequent contributor to its exhibitions until the year of her death. She resided for more than fifty years at Portchester House, Portchester, Hampshire, where she died on 8 May 1905. She is buried, with her mother, sister, and brother, in the churchyard of St. Mary's within the castle at Portchester. The Victoria and Albert Museum has two water-colour drawings by Miss Farmer, viz. 'In Doubt' and 'Kitty's Breakfast' (1883). Her best-known work is perhaps 'Deceiving Granny,' which was extensively reproduced. An oil portrait of Miss Farmer by her brother Alexander belongs to Miss M. A. Waller of Portchester.
[Information kindly supplied by Miss M. A. Waller; Catalogues of oils and water-colours, Victoria and Albert Museum; Graves, Dict. of Artists, Roy. Acad. Exhibitors, and British Institution Exhibitors; Cat. of the Roy. Acad. and Roy. Inst. of Painters in Water Colours; Art Journal, 1905, p. 224.]