Julia Cartwright Ady

Julia Mary Cartwright Ady (7 November 1851 – 28 April 1924) was a British historian and art critic whose work focused on the Italian Renaissance. Early life Cartwright Ady was born at Edgcote, Northamptonshire, into a respected Northamptonshire family, the daughter of Richard Aubrey Cartwright and Hon Mary Fremantle, daughter of Thomas Fremantle, 1st Baron Cottesloe. She had a liberal Anglican upbringing and was home-schooled in art, literature, languages, dance and music. Cartwright Ady developed a fascination with art early on, particularly of the Italian Renaissance. Her cousin William Cornwallis Cartwright was an art collector and supporter of the Italian Risorgimento, and Cartwright Ady regularly visited his house at Aynhoe Park where she had her first exposure to works of the Old Masters. Her cousin's collection included paintings by Murillo, Canaletto, Spagnoletto and Albano. Cartwright Ady read widely from a young age, covering historical Italian texts, contemporary fiction and current British art publications. She greatly admired the poetry of Robert Browning and his collection Men and Women (1855) with its poems ‘Fra Filippo Lippi’ and ‘Andrea del Sarto’, inspired by Italian Renaissance painters, was particularly influential. She was also an avid reader of John Ruskin, George Eliot and early Italian writing and poetry such as by Savonarola and Torquato Tasso. In 1868, she toured France, Austria, and Italy with her family.