Definition
Expatriates had a strong influence on Victorian art history and criticism. A proponent and friend of American poet Walt Whitman in her youth, Mary Berenson became a historian and connoisseur of Italian Renaissance painting who worked collaboratively with her second husband, Bernard Berenson. Employing a unique method of connoisseurship and an extensive photographic archive, the Berensons together established a foundational canon for Italian Renaissance painting, publishing the results of their research in art periodicals and books. As Mary’s first husband, Frank Costelloe, refused to grant her a divorce, her own art historical writings were published under the pseudonym “Mary Logan” in order to avoid scandal, but Mary quickly realized that the pseudonym could also be used to emphasize Bernard Berenson’s contributions and defend his school of connoisseurship. Because of the furtive nature of Mary’s early work, she later found it more profitable to assist and manage her...
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References
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Johnston, T.L. (2020). Berenson, Mary Costelloe. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women's Writing. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_221-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02721-6_221-1
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