 Though his family accepted his occupation as a painter and took a great interest in art, Evelyn’s parents disparaged the achievements of “poor Roddy” and regarded the painters with whom he associated as “unconventional.” Considered among the avant-garde of the 1870s, Stanhope became a regular exhibitor at the Grosvenor Gallery, the alternative to the Royal Academy.Stanhope moved permanently to Florence in 1880.There he painted the reredos of the English Church, and other work in the Chapel of Marlborough College.