An Illustrated Devotion: The Calling and Creativity of Lilias Trotter

Editor's note: this article was adapted from a paper written for a class at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

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Lilias Trotter was born on July 14, 1853 in London, England. From an early age, she was gifted with a sensitive heart toward spiritual things, and when she grew older she attended the deeper-life conferences which stirred her even more (Trotter and Rockness 2022, 16–17). She longed to put her faith to work, serving at the YWCA and even helping prostitutes find a marketable skill, sharing the gospel with them as well (Trotter and Rockness 2022, 17).

A Chance to be Great

She also had a great proclivity for the visual arts. One day her mother sent the great John Ruskin samples of her artwork (Trotter and Rockness 2022, 18). Ruskin recognized she had extraordinary talent and could, with proper training and effort, become a truly great artist. Ruskin did work with Lilias, helping her develop an eye for drawing by focusing on nature, a skill she would later use on the mission field (Trotter and Rockness 2022, 19).

However, one day, Ruskin grew concerned about Lilias: though she was making great strides in her artwork, he saw that she was divided by her interest in spiritual things. So, one day he shared that with his training “she would be the greatest living painter and do things that would be immortal” (Trotter and Rockness 2022, 20). But she had to dedicate herself fully to her artwork. Trotter considered his proposal, and decided she could not pour her life into artwork and “seek first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness” at the same time (Trotter and Rockness 2022, 20). So, she chose the latter.

A New Mission

She found this decision freed her. For the next ten years she served the Lord in London and then felt the call to move to Algeria as a missionary. Although the mission board rejected her for health reasons, in March 1888, she went to Algeria with a handful of Christians. Lilias made it a priority to first understand the local language and visit homes of the locals (Rockness 2023, 8). In 1906, they purchased a home to serve as a base for their missions work where they held conferences, camps, and various meetings, calling it “House of Grace.” 1907 marked the year when they organized themselves as the Algiers Mission Board.

Lilias and her team faced grave difficulties and opposition while doing the work. One obstacle was political as the 1896 French Entente limited their travels and made them suspicious in the eyes of the locals. Another obstacle was emotional turmoil and spiritual warfare (Rockness 2023, 9). But a key to perservering through these trials and demands were morning times of devotional where she would escape to the nearby woods, read Scripture, journal, draw, and pray (Rockness 2023, 10).

Painting by Lilias Trotter / Found here

Alongside ministering the gospel to the Algerians, Lilias used her gifts and training in art to illuminate biblical truths and magnify the beauty of God’s creation, leaving behind a multitude of journals and devotionals. Her diaries and journals demonstrated that she thought much of the simple, everyday matters of life and how they related to eternal things. “It is from the fusion of these two realities, the seen and unseen that hard spiritual truths are hammered out” (Trotter and Rockness 2022, 25). In addition to her journals and devotionals, she published books, such as Parables of the Cross.

Painting by Lilias Trotter / Found here

Russ Ramsey in Rembrandt is in the Wind notes that she utilized some groundbreaking approaches to missions work (Ramsey 2022, 206). First, she used her artwork to communicate the gospel, “effectively inventing wordless evangelism.” And second, she focused on building relationships with women and children as a way to build trust in the community. Additionally, she focused on cafe-style encounters with the locals, an approach Smither notes “challenged European forms of mission” (Smither 2019, 133).

When she died in 1928, she had served for forty years in Algeria, helping start thirteen mission stations and overseeing a sizable staff under the Algiers Mission Board. From her notes and records, we see that “scores, possibly hundreds, of national believers” existed because of God’s work through her in her ministry (Rockness 2023, 9).

The Hope in Surrender

Lilias Trotter inspires me in many ways, for at the heart of her life was a desire to put Christ above all, even over a future that promised her God-given gifts would be highlighted. “She laid down her life,” Ramsey writes, “and felt the weight of the cost for the rest of her life” (Ramsey 2022, 204). I often consider how the secular artist has an upper hand in human ambitions, for he can place his craft or work above all else. The Christian cannot, for this is idolatry.

It means we must seek a balance, one in which Christ always remains the priority. And if God calls us to surrender our gifts, we can be confident that God will use them still—in ways that he thinks best for His Kingdom. What we see in Lilias’s life is that even though she forsook a life of notoriety and success with her art, God still used her gift and training. Perhaps it was more humble in appearance, but who are we to judge how God, the great Artist, will use her brush strokes of devotion.

We may never gain notoriety or a worldly standard of success, but a devoted life to Christ is never a wasted life.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ramsey, Russ. Rembrandt is in the wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith. Zondervan, 2022. 

Rockness, Miriam Huffman. “A Key in the Master’s Hand.” Christian History, 2023. https://christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine/issue/lilias-trotter-ch-148.

Smither, Edward L. Christian Mission: A Concise Global History. Lexham Press, 2019.

Trotter, Lilias, and Miriam Huffman Rockness. A Blossom in the Desert: Reflections of Faith in the Art and Writings of Lilias Trotter. Lilias Trotter Legacy, 2022. 

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Dane Bundy is President of Stage & Story and Director of Fine Arts at Regents School of Austin.