Anna Brownell Jameson was born Anna Brownell Murphy in
Dublin, Ireland, in 1794. Her family moved to England in 1798,
settling first in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and moving in 1806 to
London, which became the family’s permanent home. Her father, Denis
Brownell Murphy, was a miniaturist and portrait painter.
Anna Murphy worked as a governess from the age of sixteen until her
marriage in 1825 to Robert Jameson. When he left England in 1829
for an appointment as chief justice of Dominica, his wife, already
aware of their incompatible relationship, stayed in England, where
she was gaining increasing fame as a writer of biography and travel
literature.
In mid-December 1836, Anna Jameson joined her husband, somewhat
reluctantly, in Toronto, where in 1833 he had become attorney
general of Upper Canada (Ontario) and was hoping to become
Vice-Chancellor of the Court of Chancery, the highest legal post in
the province. In September 1837, having reached a separation
agreement with her husband, Anna Jameson left Upper Canada for
England. Written in the form of a journal to an absent friend,
Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada (1838) records both her
winter in Toronto and her summer trip throughout Ontario.
Upon her return to England, Jameson devoted most of her time to art
history, and her impressive art catalogues and art history books
commanded her scholarly attention for the final decades of her
life.
Anna Brownell Jameson died in London, England, in 1860.
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