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When I think of Victorian women from privileged British families, I imagine fashionable young ladies trained in the arts of embroidery, music, and dancing. These girls expected to attract a husband, so needed no practical skills or knowledge. But one of these refined young women shows us what God can do with a life fully surrendered to Him.
Lilias Trotter, born in 1853, had a comfortable childhood in a loving home with the advantages of a wealthy British family in London. Her father died when she was a young teen, which drew Lilias’s heart toward her Heavenly Father. Her love for the Lord and study of the Bible led her to volunteer at a hostel for young working women in London. With deep compassion for the lost, she would walk the dangerous streets at night, reaching out to prostitutes at the rail station and persuading them to come to places of safety and get job training.
Lilias showed extraordinary talent in painting, and her mother was determined to give her every advantage. In her early twenties. Lilias and her mother vacationed in Venice, Italy. Her mother discovered that the famous and very influential art critic, John Ruskin, was staying at the same hotel. Her mother sent Ruskin a sample of Lilias’s watercolor paintings, hoping that he would give Lilias some input. Ruskin was impressed by her talent and invited Lilias to sketch with him. Both Ruskin and Lilias loved nature and could be moved to tears by the beauty of the Alps. Amazed at how quickly she learned, Ruskin invited Lilias to study with him in England and they formed a life-long friendship. Years later he would say that he thought “women could not draw or paint” until he met Lilias and observed her rare talent.
But after several years, Ruskin was disturbed by how Lilias’s mission work in London hindered the development of her art. Ruskin invited Lilias to his country home and laid out a beautiful future. He told Lilias that with his skilled teaching and influence in the art world, "she would be the greatest living painter and do things that would be Immortal." But he insisted that she must devote her time wholly to her art and put aside her mission work.
Lilias didn’t take the offer lightly; she knew the value of what Ruskin was offering to her. After days of consideration, she made her decision. “I cannot give myself to painting and continue still to 'seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.’” Many of her friends and family were critical of her choice to throw away such a phenomenal opportunity and a chance for fame and acclaim.
Lilias continued her work in London, but after a few years her heart became drawn toward those who had never heard of Jesus in North Africa. She applied to a mission board but was turned down because of her weak heart. But, still determined, in 1888, at age thirty-five, Lilias traveled to Algiers in Northern Africa with two other financially independent young women. They knew no one, had no training, and spoke not a word of Arabic. Though they were accustomed to servants bringing them tea each morning, they rented a house and slowly began to learn domestic skills, study Arabic, and reach out to their new neighbors. They found creative methods, such as copying Arabic Scriptures on little cards and going to the cafes and asking, with their limited language skills, for the men to read the cards to them.
Lilias spent the next forty years in Algeria. At the time, Algeria was a French colony, and the English were looked at with suspicion, which sometimes hindered her ability to travel within the country. Many of the new believers were banished or beaten, and some were killed. Lilias spent weeks traveling by camel into the Sahara Desert, visiting places never before reached by a European woman.
Lilias used her talent of painting to produce tracts and booklets to reach the color-loving Arabs. Her poor health often forced her to rest, and on some of these mandatory visits to England, she wrote and illustrated devotional books. Others joined the work, and by her death, in 1928, the team included thirty workers and thirteen mission stations.
I was first introduced to Lilias Trotter years ago when I read Elisabeth Elliot’s book, A Path Through Suffering. In this book, Elliot began each chapter with an excerpt from Trotter’s devotional book Parables of the Cross with a description of her paintings. Trotter’s words were beautiful, but reading about a painting is a bit disappointing. I searched for a copy of the original book, but could only find old exorbitantly priced collector’s copies. I gave up on finding more information about Lilias.
Thankfully, Miriam Huffman Rockness prompted renewed interest in this amazing woman when she wrote Lilias’s biography in 1999 and helped produce a documentary about Lilias a few years later. Reproductions of Parablesof the Cross and Parables of the Christ-Life with Lilias’s paintings can now be purchased from Amazon or read online at Project Gutenberg.
Today you can’t find Lilias’s painting in famous museums. She died mostly unknown. But she continues to inspire those who work in areas that are closed to the Gospel. Since she couldn’t use traditional evangelistic methods, such as building churches, she searched for new methods, some of which are considered to be a hundred years before their time. We can continue to read her words about the joy of surrender to Christ and know that Lilias lived out this message.
Resources on Lilias Trotter
(Some are out of print, but may be found through online used book sellers)
A Blossom in the Desert by Lilias Trotter– a compilation of Lilias’s paintings and writings
A Passion for the Impossible: The Life of Lilias Trotter by Miriam Huffman Rockness (biography)
Daringin the Desert by Irene Howat (middle-grade biography)
Lily: The Girl Who Could See by Sally Oxley and Tim Ladwig (children’s picture book biography)
Liliastrotter.com (A website dedicated to sharing Lilias’ life and legacy)
ManyBeautiful Things – film documentary on Lilias Trotters’ life available on youtube
This article was first published for the Brighter Winter email newsletter.
