 Fanny Alexander is primarily known as Francesca Esther Frances Alexander
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Ad Code: 3
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An example of work by Fanny Alexander
Artwork images are copyright of the artist or assignee
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This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Alexander, "Francesca", also known as Ester Frances
Ester
Alexander, of Boston, was known for her kind deeds, her "sensitive"
drawings of the people and landscape of Italy, especially the peasants
whose folk songs she recorded and who became subjects of her
poetry. She was discovered by John Ruskin, prominent English
artist and writer who was associated with the Aesthetic Movement in
Europe. He purchased 122 drawings from Alexander and referred to
her as his "Sorella" and to her mother as his "Mammina".
She lived most of her life in Italy with her expatriate parents,
Francis Alexander and Lucia Gray Swett Alexander. Her father was
a self-taught portrait painter, and her mother was a domineering woman
from a wealthy Massachusetts family, who spent much of her time doing
charity work and making sure that her daughter was protected from
outside influences deemed unseemly. She even censored her
daughter's mail. Her mother lived to 101 years, and
Francesca, overcome with grief, took to her bed and died one year
later.
Living with this maternal influence, the "plain,
otherworldly Ester (as she was originally named), spent her life
helping the unfortunate and nursing the sick. To encourage the
family's wealthy American friends to aid her charities, she began to do
biographical sketches and drawings of poor Tuscan peasants as gifts for
the donors. In the process, she studied the lives and folkways of the
people and made exquisite drawings of them and of their environs in
Tuscany." (Rubinstein 72)
Sources include:
Charlotte Streifer Rubinstein, American Women Artists, p. 72
Peter Falk, Who Was Who in American Art, p. 79
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Biography from The Columbus Museum-Georgia:
| In 1837, Francesca Alexander, commonly called Fanny, was born in
Boston, Massachusetts. At the age of 16, she and her family moved
to Florence, Italy. While living there, she gained a reputation
as a philanthropist with exceptional care-giving skills. It was
during this time that she began collecting and recording the folk tales
and songs from the people of Tuscany, the region surrounding Florence.
Later, she met John Ruskin who published her collection of folklore that she had carefully recorded and illustrated: (The Story of Ida, 1883; Roadside Songs and Roadside Tales, 1884-1885; Christ’s Folk in the Apennines, 1887).
Alexander published another book, The Hidden Servants and Other Very Old Stories Told Over
(1900), after the death of Ruskin in 1900. Unfortunately,
Alexander was unable to publish any other volumes because of failing
health and blindness that plagued her later years.
Submitted by Staff, Columbus Museum |
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