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The Lost Pre-Raphaelite: The Secret Life and Loves of Robert Bateman
Nigel Daly
€ 40.99
€ 36.02
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Description for The Lost Pre-Raphaelite: The Secret Life and Loves of Robert Bateman
Hardcover. A page turning forensic biography of a secret Victorian life and love affair.Robert Bateman is an undeservedly forgotten Pre-Raphaelite artist, friend of Burne Jones, Walter Crane and others, and connected via his wife to the highest reaches of Victorian political and social life. Num Pages: 352 pages, 105. BIC Classification: ACVM; BGF. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 237 x 163 x 32. Weight in Grams: 922.
When the author bought a falling down fortified house on the Staffordshire moorlands, he had no reason to anticipate the astonishing tale that would unfold as it was restored. An increasingly mysterious, set of relationships emerged amongst its former owners, revolving round a now almost forgotten artist. Robert Bateman, in his youth was a prominent Pre-Raphaelite and friend of Burne Jones. The son of a local millionaire, he was to marry the granddaughter of the Earl of Carlisle, and to be associated with both Disraeli and Gladstone, and other prominent political and artistic figures. But he had abandoned his life as a public artist in mid-career for no obvious reason, to live as a recluse, while his father lost his money, and his rich and glamorous wife-to-be had married the local vicar, already in his sixties and shortly to die. The discovery of two paintings by Bateman, both clearly autobiographical, led to an utterly absorbing forensic investigation into Bateman's life. The story moves from Staffordshire to Lahore in India, to Canada, to Wyoming, and then, via Buffalo Bill to Peru and back to England. It leads to the improbable respectability of the Wills (now Imperial Tobacco) cigarette business in Bristol, and then, less respectably, to a car park in Stoke on Trent. En route the author pieces together, and illustrates, an astonishing and deeply moving story of love and loss, of art and politics, of morality and hypocrisy, of family secrets, concealed but never quite completely obscured. The result is a page-turning combination of detective story and tale of human frailty, endeavour and love. It is also a portrait of a significant artist, a reassessment of whose work is long overdue
Product Details
Publisher
Wilmington Square Books
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2014
Condition
New
Weight
921g
Number of Pages
352
Place of Publication
, United Kingdom
ISBN
9781908524386
SKU
V9781908524386
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-15
About Nigel Daly
Nigel Daly is an antique dealer and house restorer. This story emerges from discoveries made while restoring an ancient Staffordshire manor house featured on Restored to Glory (BBC, 2006). Daly also won Grand Designs, Restoration award in 2008.
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