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Francesca Alexander (February 27, 1837 – January 21, 1917), born Esther Frances Alexander and also known as Fanny Alexander, was an American
In Italy, Alexander's early artistic output was as part of her mother's charity work and she wrote about and drew portraits of poor Tuscan farmers as gifts for wealthy American donors to their cause. In the process, she became familiar with local folkways and customs, collecting songs and stories and translating them for publication.
In 1882 she was introduced to the English critic
File:Brooklyn Museum - S. Zita - Esther Frances (Francesca) Alexander.jpg, An illustrated page from Roadside Songs of Tuscany
File:Ritratto di Beatrice poetessa pastora.JPG, Alexander's drawing of Beatrice di Pian degli Ontani
The Ballad of Santa Zita
Francesca Alexander translation from ''Roadside Songs of Tuscany'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Francesca 1837 births 1917 deaths Artists from Boston 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters Italian–English translators American women illustrators 20th-century American women artists 19th-century American women artists 20th-century American translators 19th-century American translators 20th-century American women writers Writers from Boston 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American writers American expatriates in Italy Literary translators
expatriate
An expatriate (often shortened to expat) is a person who resides outside their native country. In common usage, the term often refers to educated professionals, skilled workers, or artists taking positions outside their home country, either ...
illustrator, author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
, folklorist, and translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...
.
Early life
She was born Esther Frances Alexander in Boston, Massachusetts. Her father was the portrait painterFrancis Alexander
Francis Alexander (February 3, 1800 – March 27, 1880) was an American portrait-painter.
Biography
Alexander was born in Windham county Connecticut in February 1800. Brought up on a farm, he taught himself the use of colors, and in 1820 we ...
and her mother Lucia Grey Alexander (née Swett) was a philanthropist from a wealthy Massachusetts family. When she was 16, the family moved to Florence, Italy.
Career
In Italy, Alexander's early artistic output was as part of her mother's charity work and she wrote about and drew portraits of poor Tuscan farmers as gifts for wealthy American donors to their cause. In the process, she became familiar with local folkways and customs, collecting songs and stories and translating them for publication.
In 1882 she was introduced to the English critic John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...
by a family friend. He was interested in her work, especially her simple, spiritual illustrations, and purchased two manuscripts from her for £600. The first was published in 1883 as ''The Story of Ida'' with its author listed simply as "Francesca." The volume went into several editions in both the United States and Great Britain.
Ruskin published her most celebrated work, ''Roadside Songs,'' in 1885. The book drew from the work of a celebrated story-teller, Beatrice Bernardi of Pian degli Ontani. It also contained a translation of a 17th-century ottava rima
Ottava rima is a rhyming stanza form of Italian origin. Originally used for long poems on heroic themes, it later came to be popular in the writing of mock-heroic works. Its earliest known use is in the writings of Giovanni Boccaccio.
The ott ...
ballad with Italian original opposite the translated English stanzas. A third collection, ''Christ's Folk in the Apennines'', was published in 1887-89.
After Ruskin's death Alexander published ''Tuscan Songs'' (1897) and ''The Hidden Servants and Other Very Old Stories Told Over'' (1900).
Alexander was blind and in poor health in her final years, and died in Florence on January 21, 1917. She is buried in the Cimiterio degli Allori.
Selected illustrations
Selected writings
* 1883 ''The Story of Ida'', John Ruskin, ed. Boston: Cupples, Upham. * 1884-85 ''Roadside Songs of Tuscany'', Francesca Alexander, tr. and ill. John Ruskin, ed. 4 vols. New York: Wiley. * 1887-89 ''Christ's Folk In The Apennini. Reminiscences of Her Friends Among the Tuscan Peasantry.'' London: George Allen. * 1897 ''Tuscan Songs.'' * 1900 ''The Hidden Servants and Other Very Old Stories Told Over.''Legacy
Francesca Alexander's papers are collected in theBoston Athenæum
The Boston Athenaeum is one of the oldest independent libraries in the United States. It is also one of a number of membership libraries, for which patrons pay a yearly subscription fee to use Athenaeum services. The institution was founded in ...
. Correspondence between Alexander and Ruskin and letters from Alexander to Ruskin's cousin and heir Joan Severn are held by the Morgan Library
The Morgan Library & Museum, formerly the Pierpont Morgan Library, is a museum and research library in the Murray Hill neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. It is situated at 225 Madison Avenue, between 36th Street to the south and 37th S ...
.
Her book ''The Story of Ida'' inspired poems by James Russell Lowell
James Russell Lowell (; February 22, 1819 – August 12, 1891) was an American Romantic poet, critic, editor, and diplomat. He is associated with the fireside poets, a group of New England writers who were among the first American poets that ...
and John Greenleaf Whittier
References
External links
The Ballad of Santa Zita
Francesca Alexander translation from ''Roadside Songs of Tuscany'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Francesca 1837 births 1917 deaths Artists from Boston 19th-century American painters 20th-century American painters Italian–English translators American women illustrators 20th-century American women artists 19th-century American women artists 20th-century American translators 19th-century American translators 20th-century American women writers Writers from Boston 19th-century American women writers 19th-century American writers American expatriates in Italy Literary translators