William Cosmo Monkhouse (18 March 184020 July 1901) was a British poet and critic.
Biography
Monkhouse was born and raised in London. His father, Cyril John Monkhouse, was a
solicitor
A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...
, and his mother's maiden name was Delafosse. Monkhouse was educated at
St Paul's School, stopped his schooling at the age of seventeen to enter the
board of trade
The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...
as a junior supplementary clerk, from which grade he rose eventually to be the assistant-secretary to the finance department of the office. In 1870–1871 he visited
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
in connection with the hospital accommodation for seamen at
Valparaíso
Valparaíso (; ) is a major city, seaport, naval base, and educational centre in the commune of Valparaíso, Chile. "Greater Valparaíso" is the second largest metropolitan area in the country. Valparaíso is located about northwest of Santiago ...
,
Chile
Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
, and other ports; he served on different departmental committees, notably that of 1894–1896 on the Mercantile Marine Fund. Monkhouse was twice married: first, to Laura, daughter of James Keymer of
Dartford
Dartford is the principal town in the Borough of Dartford, Kent, England. It is located south-east of Central London and
is situated adjacent to the London Borough of Bexley to its west. To its north, across the Thames estuary, is Thurrock in ...
; and, secondly, to Leonora Eliza, daughter of Commander Blount, R.N.
Cosmo Monkhouse was one of those who not only have a vocation, but an
avocation
An avocation is an activity that someone engages in as a hobby outside their main occupation. There are many examples of people whose professions were the ways that they made their livings, but for whom their activities outside their workplaces w ...
. Cosmo's first bias was to poetry, and in 1865 he issued ''A Dream of Idleness and Other Poems'', a collection strongly coloured by his admiration for
Wordsworth
William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798).
Wordsworth's ' ...
and
Tennyson
Alfred Tennyson, 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892) was an English poet. He was the Poet Laureate during much of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1829, Tennyson was awarded the Chancellor's Gold Medal at Cambridge for one of his ...
. It was marked by exceptional maturity and scarcely received the recognition it deserved. Perhaps owing to this circumstance, it was not until 1890 that he put forth ''Corn and Poppies'', a collection containing at least one memorable effort in the well-known "Dead March". Five years later, a limited edition of the striking ballad of ''The Christ upon the Hill'' appeared; it was illustrated with etchings by
William Strang
William Strang (13 February 1859 – 12 April 1921) was a Scottish painter and printmaker, notable for illustrating the works of Bunyan, Coleridge and Kipling.
Early life
Strang was born at Dumbarton, the son of Peter Strang, a builder, an ...
. After Cosmo's death, his poetical output was completed by ''Pasiteles the Elder and other Poems'' (including ''The Christ upon the Hill'').
In 1868 Monkhouse wrote a novel ''A Question of Honour''. Then, after preluding with a ''Life of
Turner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
*Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for turni ...
'' in the "Great Artists Series" (1879), he devoted himself almost exclusively to art criticism. Besides many contributions to the
''Academy'',
''Saturday Review'',
''Magazine of Art'' and other periodicals, he published volumes on ''The Italian Pre-Raphaelites'' (1887), ''The Earlier English Water-Colour Painters'' (1890 and 1897), ''In the National Gallery'' (1895) and ''British Contemporary Artists'' (1899). He wrote a monograph on the illustrator of
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a ...
entitled ''
The Life and Work of Sir John Tenniel, R. I. (London: 1901)''. He was a contributor to the ''
Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
'' from the beginning. Monkhouse also wrote a life of
Leigh Hunt
James Henry Leigh Hunt (19 October 178428 August 1859), best known as Leigh Hunt, was an English critic, essayist and poet.
Hunt co-founded '' The Examiner'', a leading intellectual journal expounding radical principles. He was the centr ...
in the "
Great Writers Series" (1887).
He wrote a monograph on Chinese ceramics entitled ''
''.
According to the
''Encyclopædia Britannica'' Eleventh Edition: "As an art critic, Monkhouse's judgments were highly valued. He had the rare gift of differing without offending, while he invariably secured respect for his honesty and ability. As a poet, his ambition was wide and his devotion to the art ... thorough."
Monkhouse died at Skegness on 2 July 1901.
[Dobson, 1912.]
Family
He was twice married: first in 1865 to Laura, daughter of James Keymer of Dartford in Kent; second in 1873 to Leonora Eliza, the daughter of Commander Blount, R.N., by whom he had two sons and six daughters.
Notes
References
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*
*
* Dana M. Garvey: "Cosmo Monkhouse: Constructing the Late Victorian Artist". ''The Princeton University Library Chronicle'', Vol. 69, No. 1 (Autumn 2007), pp. 140–150
JSTOR
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Monkhouse, Cosmo
1840 births
1901 deaths
English art critics
English male poets
19th-century English poets
19th-century English male writers
English male non-fiction writers