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JAMESON, ANNA BROWNELL (1794-1860)

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Originally appearing in Volume V15, Page 147 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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JAMESON, See also:ANNA BROWNELL (1794-1860) , See also:British writer, was See also:born in See also:Dublin on the 17th of May 1794. Her See also:father, See also:Denis Brownell See also:Murphy (d. 1842), a See also:miniature and See also:enamel painter, removed to See also:England in 1998 with his See also:family, and eventually settled at See also:Hanwell, near See also:London. At sixteen years of See also:age Anna became governess in the family of the See also:marquis of See also:Winchester. In 1821 she was engaged to See also:Robert Jameson. The engagement was broken off, and Anna Murphy accompanied a See also:young See also:pupil to See also:Italy, See also:writing in a fictitious See also:character a narrative of what she saw and did. This See also:diary she gave to a bookseller on See also:condition of receiving a See also:guitar if he secured any profits. See also:Colburn ultimately published it as The Diary of an Ennuyee (1826), which attracted much See also:attention. The author was governess to the See also:children of Mr See also:Littleton, afterwards See also:Lord See also:Hatherton, from 1821 to 1825, when she married Robert Jameson. The See also:marriage proved unhappy; when, in 1829, Jameson was appointed See also:puisne See also:judge in the See also:island of See also:Dominica the couple separated without regret, and Mrs Jameson visited the See also:Continent again with her father. The first See also:work which displayed her See also:powers of See also:original thought was her Characteristics of See also:Women (1832). These analyses of See also:Shakespeare's heroines are remarkable for delicacy of See also:critical insight and fineness of See also:literary See also:touch.

They are the result of a penetrating but essentially feminine mind, applied to the study of individuals of its own See also:

sex, detecting characteristics and defining See also:differences not perceived by the See also:ordinary critic and entirely overlooked by the See also:general reader. See also:German literature and See also:art had aroused much See also:interest in England, and Mrs Jameson paid her first visit to See also:Germany in 1833. The conglomerations of hard lines, See also:cold See also:colours and pedantic subjects which decorated See also:Munich under the patronage of See also:King See also:Louis of See also:Bavaria, were new to the See also:world, and Mrs Jameson's See also:enthusiasm first gave them an See also:English reputation. In 1836 Mrs Jameson was summoned to See also:Canada by her See also:husband, who had been appointed See also:chancellor of the See also:province of See also:Toronto. He failed to meet her at New See also:York, and she was See also:left to make her way alone at the worst See also:season of the See also:year to Toronto. After six months' experiment she See also:felt it useless to prolong a See also:life far from all ties of family happiness and opportunities of usefulness. Before leaving, she undertook a See also:journey to the depths of the See also:Indian settlements in Canada; she explored See also:Lake See also:Huron, and saw much of emigrant and Indian life unknown to travellers, which she afterwards embodied in her See also:Winter Studies and Summer Rambles. She returned to England in 1838. At this See also:period Mrs Jameson began making careful notes of the See also:chief private art collections in and near London. The result appeared in her See also:Companion to the Private Galleries (1842), followed in the same year by the Handbook to the Public Galleries. She edited the See also:Memoirs of the See also:Early See also:Italian Painters in 1845. In the same year she visited her friend Ottilie von See also:Goethe.

Her friendship with See also:

Lady See also:Byron See also:dates from about this See also:time and lasted for some seven years; it was brought to an end apparently through Lady Byron's unreasonable See also:temper. A See also:volume of essays published in 1846 contains one of Mrs Jameson's best pieces of work, The See also:House of See also:Titian. In 1847 she went to Italy with her niece and subsequent biographer (Memoirs, 1878), Geraldine Bate (Mrs See also:Macpherson), to collect materials for the work on which her reputation rests—her See also:series of Sacred and Legendary Art. The time was ripe for such contributions to the traveller's library. The Acta Sanctorum and the See also:Book of the See also:Golden See also:Legend had had their readers, but no one had ever pointed out the connexion between these tales and the See also:works of See also:Christian art. The way to these studies had been pointed out in the See also:preface to Kugler's Handbook of Italian See also:Painting by See also:Sir See also:Charles See also:Eastlake, who had intended pursuing the subject himself. Eventually he madeover to Mrs Jameson the materials and references he had collected. She recognized the extent of the ground before her as a mingled See also:sphere of See also:poetry, See also:history, devotion and art. She infected her readers with her own enthusiastic admiration; and, in spite of her slight technical and See also:historical equipment, Mrs. Jameson produced a book which thoroughly deserved its See also:great success. She also took a keen interest in questions affecting the See also:education, occupations and See also:maintenance of her own sex. Her early See also:essay on The Relative Social Position of Mothers and Governesses was the work of one who knew both sides; and in no respect does she more clearly prove the falseness of the position she describes than in the certainty with which she predicts its eventual reform.

To her we owe the first popular enunciation of the principle of male and See also:

female co-operation in works of See also:mercy and education. In her later years she took up a See also:succession of subjects all bearing on the same principles of active benevolence and the best ways of carrying them into practice. Sisters of charity, hospitals, penitentiaries, prisons and workhouses all claimed her interest —all more or less included under those See also:definitions of " the communion of love and communion of labour " which are inseparably connected with her memory. To the clear and temperate forms in which she brought the results of her convictions before her See also:friends in the shape of private lectures—published as Sisters of Charity (1855) and The Communion of Labour (1856)—may be traced the source whence later reformers and philanthropists took counsel and courage. Mrs Jameson died on the 17th of See also:March 186o. She left the last of her Sacred and Legendary Art series in preparation. It was completed, under the See also:title of The History of Our Lord in Art, by Lady Eastlake.

End of Article: JAMESON, ANNA BROWNELL (1794-1860)

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