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Loading... The Rare and the Beautiful: The Lives of the Garmansby Cressida Connolly
   None No current Talk conversations about this book. 2   Sarahursula | Sep 9, 2013 | 
 It cannot have been easy to gather together the lives of four individuals in one volume. The danger in embarking on such an exercise is that energetic hopscotch ensues; that you end up with a series of dots rather than one elegant line. But Connolly, admirably in charge of her sparky material, is careful to keep the reader in touch with the other Garmans even when her beady eye is focused momentarily on one alone.
A compelling biography of a family, and a portrait of an era.Each of the seven Garman sisters were strikingly beautiful, artistic and wild. Born around the turn of the nineteenth century, most of the siblings were to become involved in the radical literary and political circles of British life between the First and Second World Wars. Their morals were unconventional: bisexuality, unfaithfulness and illegitimate children were a matter of course. Nevertheless they were high-minded and intensely loyal.They were the last muses: women who were prepared to sideline their own talent, friendships, material comforts -- even their own children -- in order to beguile and inspire the men they loved.Cressida Connolly's family biography will focus on three sisters in particular: Kathleen Garman: The father's favourite who ran away to London to study music. There she was spotted by the American sculptor Jacob Epstein, who promptly fell in love with her. She was to remain his muse until his death. She had three children by Epstein, was shot in the shoulder by his first wife and at last became Lady Epstein in 1955.Mary Garman: Came to London with Kathleen and studied art at the Slade. She married p No library descriptions found. |
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 Google Books — Loading...GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)920History and Geography Biography, genealogy, insignia BiographyLC ClassificationRatingAverage: (3.55)
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Wikipedia in English (5)
5
There was Kathleen, Epstein’s mistress and muse. Mary was the wife of the poet Roy Campbell and was seduced by Vita Sackville-West. Virginia Woolf was so jealous she wrote Orlando in response. Lorna was first the mistress of Laurie Lee and then the lover of Lucian Freud. Douglas, the communist brother and who was nearly as beautiful as Ivor Novello, was Peggy Guggenheim’s lover. Then there was Sylvia who looked like George Sand and wept ‘because no one ever invited her out.’ Family legend said she seduced T.E. Lawrence but ‘only once’.
The echoes of the Bloomsbury circle are evident – love affairs, indifferently fathered children, complicated families and lots of art. However, the Garmans have one advantage over the Bloomsbury set. As the grand, widowed Lady Epstein (finally), Kathleen donated her family art collection to Walsall Library in Birmingham where they had all begun their lives. A public library. The Garmans also had better perfumes. Kathleen used Patou’s Adieu Sagesse and later Arpège. Lorna glided between Chanel No. 5, Caron’s Fluers de Rocaille and Caron’s Incre. Helen, meanwhile, favoured Chanel No. 5 too and Soir de Paris. Much better really than the Bloomsbury set who must have smelt of turpentine and ink.