Anna Brownell Jameson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Anna Brownell Jameson
|
|
|---|---|
Salt print of Jameson in 1844 by Hill & Adamson
|
|
| Born | 17 May 1794 Dublin
|
| Died | 17 March 1860 (aged 65) London
|
| Occupation | Writer, feminist, and art historian |
Anna Brownell Jameson (born May 17, 1794 – died March 17, 1860) was an important Anglo-Irish writer and art historian. She was born in Ireland but moved to England when she was four years old. Anna became a famous British writer in the 1800s. She wrote about many different topics. These included early ideas about women's rights (feminism), the history of art (especially religious art), travel, and the works of William Shakespeare. She also wrote about poets and German culture. Anna Jameson knew many famous people of her time. Some of these were the writers Elizabeth Barrett-Browning and Robert Browning, and the social reformer Harriet Martineau.
About Anna Jameson's Life
Anna Murphy was born in Dublin, Ireland, on May 17, 1794. Her father, Denis Brownell Murphy, was an artist who painted small portraits called miniatures. In 1798, her family moved to England and settled in Hanwell, London. Anna was the oldest of four daughters.
When she was sixteen, Anna started working as a governess. A governess was a woman who lived with a family and taught their children at home. In 1821, she became engaged to a lawyer named Robert Sympson Jameson. However, they broke off the engagement. Anna then traveled to Italy with a young student she was teaching. During this trip, she wrote a diary. This diary was later published as The Diary of an Ennuyée (1826). It became very popular and made her known to the public.
Anna worked as a governess for the children of Edward John Littleton, 1st Baron Hatherton from 1821 to 1825. In 1825, she decided to marry Robert Jameson. However, their marriage was not happy.
In 1829, her husband, Robert, got a job as a judge in the island of Dominica. He left Anna in England and never asked her to join him there. Anna continued to travel and write. That same year, she became even more famous when her book Loves of the Poets was published.
Her book Characteristics of Women (1832) showed her unique way of thinking. In this book, she wrote about the female characters in William Shakespeare's plays. People admired her for her careful thinking and beautiful writing.
Anna was very interested in German literature and art. In 1833, she visited Germany for the first time. She wrote about the art she saw in Munich, which helped make it famous in England.
In 1836, Anna's husband, Robert, asked her to join him in Canada. He was working there as a judge. Anna and Robert had been living apart for over four years, and Anna was making a good living as a writer. She was open about being unhappy in her marriage. When she arrived in New York, her husband did not meet her. She had to travel alone in winter to Toronto.
In Toronto, she began writing a travel book called Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada. This book was published in 1838. In it, she described Toronto as "ugly" and "inefficient" at first. After eight months of traveling and writing in Canada, she felt it was best to return home. Before leaving, she traveled to the areas where Indigenous people lived. She explored Lake Huron and learned a lot about the lives of both settlers and Indigenous people. She returned to Great Britain in 1838.
Around this time, Anna started taking notes on the important private art collections in London. This led to her books Companion to the Private Galleries (1842) and Handbook to the Public Galleries (1842). In 1845, she edited the Memoirs of the Early Italian Painters. That same year, she visited her friend Ottilie von Goethe.
In 1847, Anna traveled to Italy with her niece, Gerardine Bate. Gerardine later wrote a book about Anna's life. In Italy, Anna gathered information for her most famous series of books, Sacred and Legendary Art. These books connected old stories of saints and legends with Christian artworks. Before Anna, no one had really explained these connections. She made these stories and artworks exciting for her readers. Even though she wasn't a trained art historian, her books were very successful.
Anna was also very interested in how women were educated, what jobs they could have, and how they could support themselves. She wrote an early essay about the social position of mothers and governesses. She believed that men and women should work together in charity and education. In her later years, she focused on helping others. She was interested in Sisters of Charity (nuns who do charitable work), hospitals, and places for people in need. She gave talks about her ideas, which were later published as Sisters of Charity (1855) and The Communion of Labour (1856). Her ideas inspired many later reformers and people who worked for good causes.
Anna was working on the last book in her Sacred and Legendary Art series when she died. The book, called The History of Our Lord in Art, was finished by Lady Eastlake.
See also
In Spanish: Anna Jameson para niños
