Phoebe Anna Traquair

A fully updated and expanded edition of the definitive study of Phoebe Anna Traquair. This is a compelling account of the life and career of Phoebe Anna Traquair, a leading figure in Britain’s Arts and Crafts movement. The new edition features new research about her artistic practice, materials and technique as well as her intellectual life, including her correspondence with John Ruskin. Her total commitment to the place of art in her daily life is revealed alongside new details on her family and social life. Traquair was remarkable for her openness to all types of art, and worked in a range of media including embroidery, enamels, illuminated manuscripts and murals. This new edition features 120 illustrations including new discoveries, as well as some of her most famous and best-loved works. Beautifully illustrated and featuring the artist’s own words, this book is at once a fascinating biography and an artistic study of one of Scotland’s first professional women artists. AUTHOR: Elizabeth Cumming is an art historian and freelance curator who lives and works in Edinburgh. She has written numerous texts on British, and especially Scottish, art and design. Her books include The Arts and Crafts Movement (co-author), Thames and Hudson’s World of Art series and exhibition books, Glasgow 1900: Art and Design for the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and The Scottish Colourists 1900-1930 for the National Galleries of Scotland. SELLING POINTS: . The author is the recognised authority on Phoebe Anna Traquair, having curated the 1993 Scottish National Portrait Gallery exhibition on the artist, and published extensively on her life and works . The new edition features a new introduction with more details on the artist as a person, including her total engagement with and dedication to her art . Woven throughout the rest of the revised edition are new details on: her practice, including materials and technique; her travels at home and abroad; her friends and family; her inspirations, ranging from medieval and Renaissance art to William Blake and the Pre-Raphaelites . Traquair was immersed in Edinburgh’s cultural scene in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Details are given of her correspondence with John Ruskin and W.B. Yeats, as well as her friendships with Robert Lorimer and William Holman Hunt . The new edition features twice as many illustrations as the previous, including specially commissioned new photography, depicting the vibrant range of Traquair’s work 107 colour, 13 b/w illustrations

Author Biography

Elizabeth Cumming is a historian of Scottish art and design and an Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh. Her books include studies of the Scottish Arts & Crafts movement, the Scottish Colourists, Dovecot Studios and the painter Robin Philipson. She has researched the life of Phoebe Anna Traquair for more than 40 years.