Franny Moyle

Culta, comprometida con el feminismo, de familia acomodada y mentalidad progresista, Constance Lloyd se convirtió en celebrity a raíz de su matrimonio con uno de los hombres más brillantes de su tiempo, aunque supo defender su propia parcela creativa en el campo literario y las artes decorativas. Madre de dos hijos, al compartir la vida de Wilde compartio tambien su destino: la caida de una figura estelar, chivo expiatorio de la hipocresia victoriana. En el cementerio protestante de Genova un sencillo monumento funerario evoca la memoria de Constance Holland (1859-1898). Aunque sobre una breve cita biblica en su dia solo se grabo un nombre, Constance Mary, hija de Horace Lloyd, en 1960 a la enigmatica inscripcion se añadio otra, escueta pero muy reveladora: Esposa de Oscar Wilde. La sepultura plantea un autentico enigma cuyas claves Franny Moyle se ocupa de desvelar en esta biografia. Constance es el retrato de una epoca, pero sobre todo nos permite comprender la insolita y tragica peripecia vital de una de las mujeres mas conocidas de la Gran Bretaña de finales del XIX. Una mujer fuerte, cuyo lema fue Qui patitur vincit: Quien sabe sufrir, triunfa.

In the late autumn of 1789 two of Europe s most celebrated painters met in Rome One Angelica Kauffman was a Swiss born prodigy who had conquered the art scenes of London and Italy The other Élisabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun a Parisienne portraitist and favourite of the ancien regime had just fled revolutionary France under threat of violence and scandal Both were feted in their time both were trailblazers in a male dominated world visionaries who helped define eighteenth century art and feminism before the term existed This dual biography framed within a thrilling story restores these two extraordinary but unjustly overlooked figures to their rightful place in history Set against a backdrop of revolution empire and Enlightenment it traces the dramatic lives and remarkable careers of Vigee Le Brun and Kauffman artists who not only achieved unparalleled success and influence but did so while pushing the boundaries of what women could be both on canvas and in society With vivid storytelling one of the most gifted living writers of artistic biography Franny Moyle reclaims their legacies She examines how each artist navigated fame scandal and exile explores the relationships between them and their peers and considers how they were caught up in the

The man behind the paintings: the extraordinary life of J. M. W Turner, one of Britains most admired, misunderstood and celebrated artistsJ. M. W. Turner is Britains most famous landscape painter. Yet beyond his artistic achievements, little is known of the man himself and the events of his life: the tragic committal of his mother to a lunatic asylum, the personal sacrifices he made to effect his stratospheric rise, and the bizarre double life he chose to lead in the last years of his life.A near mythical figure in his own lifetime, Franny Moyle tells the story of the man who was considered visionary at best and ludicrous at worst. A resolute adventurer, he found new ways of revealing Britain to the British, astounding his audience with his invention and intelligence. Set against the backdrop of the finest homes in Britain, the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution, this is an astonishing portrait of one of the most important figures in Western art and a vivid evocation of Britain and Europe in flux.

Their Bohemian lifestyle and intertwined love affairs shockingly broke 19th Century class barriers and bent the rules that governed the roles of the sexes. They became defined by love triangles, played out against the austere moral climate of Victorian England; they outraged their contemporaries with their loves, jealousies and betrayals, and they stunned society when their complex moral choices led to madness and suicide, or when their permissive experiments ended in addiction and death. The characters are huge and vivid and remain as compelling today as they were in their own time. The influential critic, writer and artist John Ruskin was their father figure and his apostles included the painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the designer William Morris. They drew extraordinary women into their circle. In a move intended to raise eyebrows for its social audacity, they recruited the most ravishing models they could find from the gutters of Victorian slums. The saga is brought to life through the vivid letters and diaries kept by the group and the accounts written by their contemporaries. These real-lie stories shed new light on the greatest nineteenth-century British art.

In the spring of 1895 the life of Constance Wilde changed irrevocably. Up until the conviction of her husband, Oscar, for homosexual crimes, she had held a privileged position in society. Part of a gilded couple, she was a popular childrens author, a fashion icon, and a leading campaigner for womens rights. A founding member of the magical society the Golden Dawn, her pioneering and questioning spirit encouraged her to sample some of the more controversial aspects of her time. Mrs Oscar Wilde was a phenomenon in her own right. But that spring Constances entire life was eclipsed by scandal. Forced to flee to the Continent with her two sons, her glittering literary and political career ended abruptly. Having changed her name, she lived in exile until her death. Franny Moyle now tells Constances story with a fresh eye and remarkable new material. Drawing on numerous unpublished letters, she brings to life the story of a woman at the heart of fin-de-siecle London and the Aesthetic movement. In a compelling and moving tale of an unlikely couple caught up in a world unsure of its moral footing, she uncovers key revelations about a woman who was the victim of one of the greatest betrayals of all time.