Woman Behind the Painter

Download or read book Woman Behind the Painter written by Rosalie Hook and published by University of Alberta. This book was released on 2006-03-04 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Rosalie Hook's diaries of her doings at home and abroad with her painter husband provide a fascinating window on the Victorian art world. James Clarke Hook, a brilliant and successful painter whose "Hookscapes" uniquely acquainted the British public with the beauties of their shores, first took his young bride to Italy on a traveling studentship awarded by the Royal Academy; and Rosalie eagerly records her response to the art treasures around her, to the ceremonies surrounding the Pope at Easter, to Vesuvius in eruption, and then to the political upheavals of the Risorgimento. Her Italy Diary vividly documents a sympathetic English response to the volatile southern culture. The son of a bankrupt, James Clarke Hook (1819-1907) managed, at a time of unprecedented prestige for the artist, to paint himself into country-gentlemanhood.