I met Mrs Bibily in the early 1970's at the home of her sister, Mrs Neville Heber-Percy, in Fortune, Prince Edward Island. She was an artist specializing in portraiture. She lived at that time in San Fransisco but had spent summers with her sister and lived for some time in Montreal. As a young lady she studied art in Paris, copying old masters at the Louvre. It was in Paris that she met her husband who was a diplomat or civil servant, possibly employed in the French Colonial Service. She showed me several paintings done as studies from masterworks, some "grand tour" landscapes and most notable several original watercolour portraits painted in North Africa during a posting there sometime before the First World War. These four watercolours were portraits of a Nubian Prince on horseback, an elderly Jewish Merchant in the Marketplace, a gentleman she described simply as "the Pasha" and a Wife in a Harem, unveiled. All I remember of her stories of these was that the Nubian Prince had agreed to pose but refused to make eye contact with her, the Merchant had taken her request to remain very still so literally that tears began to stream down his face as he tried not to blink in the dry North African heat and that the Wife was probably the first portrait ever painted within a Harem. She had been allowed in to visit the Pasha's wives but little attention was paid to her reason for visiting since she was simply a woman.
I believe she was English by birth. Her brother-in-law, Capt Neville Heber-Percy served in the British Army in WW I and was later a Broadway actor and a member of the Actors' Colony at Fortune. Mrs Bibily completed several commissioned portraits while visiting Prince Edward Island as the following excerpts from the local newspaper attest:
The Guardian (Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island) February 22, 1958
A SPEAKING LIKENESS
Portrait for McGill of Noted P. E. Islander
Mrs. Cyrus Macmillan, 294 Richmond Street, Charlottetown is presenting a portrait of her husband the late Hon. Dr. Cyrus Macmillan, to McGill University where Dr. Macmillan was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Science in the 1940's. The painting shows him as he looked at that time. He is wearing his Harvard gown and hood which he wore when he officially opened the new Prince of Wales College building here. The portrait is by Jabi Bibily who is a sister of Mrs. Heber Percy of Fortune Bridge in this province. Mrs. Bibily has enjoyed summer vacations here at various times. She has spent several winters in Montreal but now has returned to California for permanent residence. At the Sausolito Episcopal Church is a beautiful screen by Mrs. Bibily given to the church in memory of her mother. She held a small exhibition of her works at the Civic Centre in the summer of 1956. Among the well known persons featured were Edward VIII when he was Prince of Wales, Ethel Barrymore and Gertrude Lawrence. The exhibition elicited a great deal of favorable comment at the time.
The Guardian (Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island) November 30, 1962
PORTRAIT UNVEILED AT COLLEGE (Photo caption)
Honor was paid to the memory of Dr Lily Seaman, a member of Prince of Wales College staff for more than 50 years, at the college yesterday. A portrait in oils of the late Dr Seaman was unveiled by Dr G D Steel, former principal of the college and a friend and colleague of Dr Seaman’s. The portrait, by Mrs J C Bibily who recently spent several months in Charlottetown, was commissiones by the University Women’s Club of Charlottetown.
David Bennett
April 17 2015
