Esther Wood (born 1866, died 1952/3) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

art critic. Born Esther Walker, Wood trained as a journalist. She was an early member of both the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. T ...

and the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse working-class candidates ...

, and also joined the Pharos Club. She married J.W. Wood in 1893, and then followed him in joining the Social Democratic Federation. In 1902/03, she served on the executive of the Fabian Society. In ''Dante Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement'' (1894), Wood argues that the Pre-Raphaelites reinvented a mediaeval tradition. She also edited the works of

George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...

, and wrote numerous articles for magazines, principally on subjects relating to art. She shared a house in

Witley Witley is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Waverley in Surrey, England centred south west of the town of Godalming and southwest of Guildford. The land is a mixture of rural (ranging from woodland protected by the Surrey Hills AO ...

, Surrey with a fellow writer and Fabian, Gertrude Dix. She divorced J.W. Wood in 1897. Esther Wood died in 1952 or 1953.

References

Bibliography

* 1866 births Year of death missing English art critics Members of the Fabian Society Social Democratic Federation members {{England-bio-stub