Cruttwell, Maud

première publication en 1897 (source : Cruttwell, Maud. « Three Mysterious Profiles of the Fifteenth Century ».

Art Journal

. octobre 1897, p. 312-316)

« Cruttwell had lived in Frome with her widowed father for several years before moving to London where she pursued an artistic career and, between 1889 and 1894, exhibited her work at the Royal Academy, the Royal Institute of Oil Paintings, and the Society of Women Artists. » (source : Johnston, Tiffany L. « Maud Cruttwell and the Berensons: ‘A preliminary canter to an independent career’ ».

19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century

. n° 28, 2019 [en ligne])

« Maud Cruttwell worked in Kensington at 25 Bolton Studios on Redcliffe Road. Her works, usually of small scale and modest quality, often depicted genteel pastimes. In 1891 she exhibited a picture at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition bearing a title reminiscent of the contemporary vogue for collecting and connoisseurship, A Doubtful Bargain (cat. no. 944). See Christopher Wood, Dictionary of Victorian Painters (Woodbridge: Antique Collector’s Club, 1995), p. 125. » (source : Ventrella, Francesco. « Writing Under Pressure: Maud Cruttwell and the Old Master Monograph ».

19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century

. n° 28, 2019 [en ligne])

secrétaire d’Eugene Lee à Florence en octobre-novembre 1893 (source : Johnston, Tiffany L. « Maud Cruttwell and the Berensons: ‘A preliminary canter to an independent career’ ».

19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century

. n° 28, 2019 [en ligne])

gouvernante de Mary Costelloe et assistante de Bernhard Berenson à partir de 1894 (source : Ventrella, Francesco. « Maud Alice Wilson Cruttwell (1860-1939) ».

19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century

. n° 28, 2019 [en ligne])

« As Cruttwell planned to return to England when Mary did, Mary suggested they travel together, informing her mother that it seemed possible that Cruttwell might ‘take up my studies and possibly travel with me a great deal in the future’. To allay her mother’s concerns, Mary added that travelling with Cruttwell could be ‘the removal of one difficulty at any rate’, reiterating that with very little encouragement, Cruttwell could do excellent work as her ‘definite pupil’ […]. In fact, by March 1894, Mary had invited Cruttwell to rent a small villa together and it was arranged that Cruttwell, with her ‘exquisite sense of order’, would act as housekeeper in exchange for Mary’s instruction in the study of Italian Renaissance art. […] She lived quietly at Villa Rosa with Cruttwell, studying books, paintings, and photographs, working collaboratively with Berenson on his writing, and quickly discovering that her pseudonym could also be used effectively to shape the reception of his scholarship — work to which her own future prospects were intimately tied. Cruttwell managed the house deftly and economically and they had no visitors except when a class gathered once a week around ‘Bernard’s table’ to examine photographs and ask questions. […] Mary’s arrangement with Cruttwell remained congenial until February 1896 when Berenson made a careless remark about Cruttwell’s mental capabilities to a third party who, unbeknown to Mary, then repeated it to Cruttwell. Almost predictably, Cruttwell entered ‘a state of smoldering wrath’, reproaching the villa for having ‘degenerated’ and losing her temper at the table, the only time they were typically in contact. Mary initially took the outbursts as Cruttwell’s ‘way’, but the episode ended with Cruttwell renting rooms in Florence and Mary staying at Villa Rosa, sharing the expenses with her friends Janet Dodge and the archaeologist Eugénie Sellers instead. After enduring several months of Sellers’s arguments with Vernon Lee and Dodge’s illnesses, however, Mary longed for the days of Cruttwell’s cheerfulness and independence […]. » (source : Johnston, Tiffany L. « Maud Cruttwell and the Berensons: ‘A preliminary canter to an independent career’ ».

19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century

. n° 28, 2019 [en ligne])

Formation :

formation de peintre à Londres ; formation en histoire de l’art auprès de Bernhard Berenson et Mary Costelloe (source : Johnston, Tiffany L. « Maud Cruttwell and the Berensons: ‘A preliminary canter to an independent career’ ».

19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century

. n° 28, 2019 [en ligne])

Langues maîtrisées :

italien ; français

Mentions dans la littérature :

Leavitt, David.

Florence, a delicate case

. New York : Bloomsbury, 2002, p. 83, 170 ; Parker, Robert Allerton.

Transatlantic Smiths

. New York : Random House, 1959, p. 102-110, p. 160-161 ; Samuels, Ernest.

Bernard Berenson: The Making of a Connoisseur

. Cambridge (Mass.) ; Londres : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1979, p. 354 ; Seymour, Miranda.

Ottoline Morrell : life on the grand scale

. Londres ; Sydney ; Auckland : Hodder & Stoughton, 1992 ; Weber, Nicholas Fox.

Freud’s Trip to Orvieto: The Great Doctor’s Unresolved Confrontation with Antisemitism, Death, and Homoeroticism; His Passion for Paintings; and the Writer in His Footsteps

. New York : Bellevue Literary Press, 2017, chapitre 12.