Charlotte Gere: Virginia Surtees Signed/inscribed Copy
Merchant: Oxfam
Merchant's Category: Media> Books
Virginia Surtees (1917-2017) was a British art historian and author. Her maternal grandparents were Brig. Gen. Sir Herbert Conyers Surtees and the former Madeleine Augusta Crabbe (a daughter of Edward Crabbe and Ruth Herbert, artist's model to the English poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, of whom Virginia later wrote a catalogue of his drawings and watercolours). She concentrated on research in art history, publishing several books and editing several others. Her books included a biography of George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle, and his wife, Rosalind Howard, Countess of Carlisle, a biography of Louisa Baring, Lady Ashburton, the Scottish art collector and philanthropist, and a book about the friendship of art critic John Ruskin and Pauline, Lady Trevelyan. In 1937, Virginia Bell married the diplomat Henry Ashley Clarke in Tokyo. During their marriage, he was posted to Lisbon and Paris and in 1953 became the British Ambassador to Italy in Rome. In 1956, she met David Craig, the general manager in Italy for British European Airways and began an affair which led to Lady Clarke divorcing Sir Ashley in 1960. Virginia was photographed by Cecil Beaton and was friendly with critic and biographer Percy Lubbock, writer Osbert Sitwell and essayist Max Beerbohm. Upon the death of her grandmother, Lady Surtees, in 1948, Virginia inherited Mainsforth Hall. Until 2014, she lived in a London flat overlooking Onslow Square in South Kensington. She sold her most important works at Christie's in 2014 and bequeathed others to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ashmolean Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum. This item recounts "a life in two halves" as the wife of an ambassador and then as a respected art historian. Extremely scarce item. Signed and dedicated to James Dearden, renowned Ruskin scholar on a piece of paper inserted in the book (see image 2).
More details from Oxfam
Follow Oxfam to get news updates and products on your homepage.
Oxfam is being followed by 0 people.
Follow Oxfam
Delivery Details
Specific details for this product: No specific details given.General Delivery details for Oxfam:
Oxfam delivers only to the UK
�3.95 flat fee and free returns.
UK Delivery only- Free returns
UK Delivery only
No review added yet - be the first!
Reviews and Comments
If you own this product already, please write a quick review to help others:
Current Special Offer at Oxfam:
Comments and Feedback
This is an experimental quick comments form. Please use it to point out a mistake, tell us about a closed shop or a quick comment about the page you are on. Any comment/feedback left here may be added to the page if it is helpful.
Oxfam
Read more about Oxfam
Shop at Oxfam online! There are the usual Oxfam goodies as well as a huge selection of second hand and vintage clothes, music, dvds, books and homewares. Also find wedding favours, rare books, ceramics, stamps and coins.