Ellen Heaton

Ellen Heaton
Blue plaque on her house, 6 Woodhouse Square
Born 1816
Died 1894
Leeds
Monuments Blue Plaque
Occupation Arts patron, women's rights campaigner

Ellen Heaton (1816–1894) was a philanthropist and art collector in Leeds, best known for her patronage of and friendships with members and associates of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the influential art critic John Ruskin.[1]

Biography

Heaton was born on 8 November 1816 at 7 Briggate, Leeds, the daughter of bookseller John Heaton and sister of physician John Deakin Heaton.[2] Discouraged from continuing her studies by the prevailing antipathy towards female education, she joined Leeds Literary and Philosophical Society (of which her brother was, at one time, President).

In her account of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, Fiona MacCarthy describes her as "a wealthy, well-travelled, forthright maiden lady." She was less keen on the more sensual and erotic Pre-Raphaelite paintings, and left Ruskin embarrassed when she refused a Burne-Jones painting he had brought to her attention.[3]

Her house is now the campus of the Swarthmore Education Centre, which holds an annual lecture in her memory.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Kevin M. Moist; David Banash (9 May 2013). Contemporary Collecting: Objects, Practices, and the Fate of Things. Scarecrow Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-8108-9114-2.
  2. ↑ Macleod, Diane. "Oxford DNB Article: Heaton, Ellen". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  3. ↑ Fiona MacCarthy (5 March 2012). The Last Pre-Raphaelite: Edward Burne-Jones and the Victorian Imagination. Harvard University Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-674-06556-7.
  4. ↑ "Ellen Heaton Lecture 2012 flyer" (PDF). Swarthmore. Retrieved 5 March 2016.


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