Virginia Woolf 1927

I removed some spots and cracks and gave it some contrast.

Photograph of Virginia Woolf with hand on face wearing a fur stole (10 x 15... more

by Unknown Photographer - Linda Howes Website

Title

Virginia Woolf 1927

Artist

Unknown Photographer - Linda Howes Website

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

I removed some spots and cracks and gave it some contrast.

Photograph of Virginia Woolf with hand on face wearing a fur stole (10 x 15 centimeters).This is a picture from one of Virginia Woolf's own photo albums at Monk's House which were acquired at an auction at Sotheby's in 1982 (cf. Maggie Humm, Snapshots of Bloomsbury: The Private Lives of Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell, p. 187), gifted in 1983 by Frederick R. Koch to the Harvard Theater Collection, Houghton Libray, Harvard University, and afterwards scanned and uploaded by the library. The Guide published by the library describes collectively the photographs in the album as "snapshots possibly taken by Virginia Woolf or by her friends and family". When the Harvard librarians know who took the picture, they generally indicate it (e.g. Man Ray for this one). This particular photograph is simply described as "Woolf Virginia [1927]". The verso of the photograph bears no mention allowing an identification of the photographer, but simply indicates - faintly pencilled - the portrait has been made in London (see file:Virginia Woolf 1927 verso detail.png).

London-born Virginia Woolf came from a wealthy family and, unlike her
brothers, received her education at home, an unusual step for the
times. Her parents had both had children from previous marriages, so
she grew up with a variety of siblings, stepbrothers and stepsisters.
Her father was a well-respected editor and author and the former
son-in-law of
William Makepeace Thackeray.
Author James Russell Lowell was her godfather, and
Henry James and
George Elliott were regular
visitors and guests at the family home. As she recalled later in life,
her most pleasant childhood memories were of the summers spent at the
family home in Cornwall, by Porthminster Bay (the Godrevy Lighthouse
there was the basis for her novel "To the Lighthouse").

The sudden death of Virginia's mother in 1895, when she was 13, and the
passing of her sister two years later led to the first of Virginia's
mental breakdowns. In 1904 her father died, which caused a complete
mental and physical collapse and for a while she was sent to a mental
institution to recover. Nervous breakdowns and bouts of severe
depression tormented Virginia throughout her life, and the fact that as
children she and her sister Vanessa were sexually abused by two of
their stepbrothers added to her already considerable feelings of guilt
and inferiority.

She studied at London's Kings College, where she became acquainted with
such literary figures as
Lytton Strachey, Saxon Sydney-Turner and
Leonard Woolf. She married Woolf in 1912.
Virginia was always ashamed of what she termed her "unattractive
countenance", and once wrote that "being wanted [was] a pleasure that I
have never felt". In 1922 she met
Vita Sackville-West, and the two
women began a relationship that lasted for almost ten years. She was
said to have written her novel "Orlando" as a love letter to West.

After the publication of her novel "Between the Acts" she fell into a
deep depression, exacerbated by the destruction of her London home by
Nazi planes during the bombing of that city, and the less than
enthusiastic critical reaction to her biography of her close friend
Roger Fry. Her condition deteriorated to the point where she was unable
to write or even read. She finally had a full-blown nervous breakdown.
Unable and unwilling to continue, she wrote a note to her husband
saying that "I am certain I am going mad again" and "I shan't recover
this time . . . I can't fight any longer . . . I can't go on spoiling
your life any longer." On March 28, 1941, she left her home, walked to
the banks of the nearby River Ouse, loaded heavy stones into her
pockets and walked into the water. She was 59 years old.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com

Uploaded

March 24th, 2024