*JAMESON, ANNA, one of our most distinguished female writers on art and general literature, is a native of Dublin, where she was born near the close of the last century. From her father, Mr. Murphy, an artist of considerable ability, she derived her early love of art and knowledge of its technicalities; but an excellent education and dili gent self-culture have enabled her to avail herself of unusual oppor tunities for extending her mathetic attainments, and to take one of the highest places among contemporary English writers on the Fine Arts. Miss Murphy married a barrister named Jameson, who, having accepted an official appointment, removed to Canada. Mrs. Jameson subse quently followed him; but circumstances having led to a separation, Mrs. Jameson returned to England, and devoted herself to the study of literature and art.
Her earliest appearance as an author was by the publication, anony mously, in 1826, of The Diary of an Ennuyee,' a collection of notes of travel in France and Italy ; of which an enlarged and greatly improved edition (in 4 vole. 12mo, 1834) appeared some years later under the title of Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad.' In 1829 she published a series of imaginative sketches, intended to exhibit the influence of female character on poetic minds, under the title of ' Loves of the Poets.' This was followed in 1831 by 'Memoirs of Celebrated Female Sovereigns,' 2 vols. ; to which succeeded, in 1832, a work more akin to the 'Loves of the Poets,' but of a higher order of merit, ' Characteristics of Women-moral, historical, and political,' 2 vols., an analysis of the principal female characters in the plays of Shakapere, displaying much of the subtle criticism and refined observation which have been so eminently evinced in her later :pathetic writings : we may notice that the British Museum possesses a copy of this work with manuscript notes by L Tieck. Her next work was 'The Beauties of the Court of Charles IL' (2 vole. 4to, 1833), a series of biographical sketches written to accompany engravings from copies made by her father of Lely's celebrated portraits at Hampton Court. In 1833 the versatility of her pen was exhibited in a record of her Canadian Winter Studies and Summer Rambles.' In 1840 appeared a translation by her of some dramas by the Princess Amelia of Saxony, with whom she had become acquainted during her residence in Ger many. Mrs. Jameson's great artistic knowledge had been well known in art circles ; she had contributed various papers on art to the periodicals, and she had printed at Frankfurt in 1837, a small volume entitled 'Sketches of Germany -Art, Literature, Character ;' but it first became generally recognised on the publication, in 1842, of a Handbook to the Public Galleries of Art in and near London,' which was followed in 1844 by a Companion to the most celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London ;' and to this succeeded a very pleasing series of Lives of the Early Italian Painters,' from Cimabue to Basun°, which formed two of Mr. Knight's Weekly Volumes.' In
1846 she collected a number of scattered essays-chiefly on art, but including some on literature and social morals-into a volume, entitled ' Memoirs and Essays.' This was followed in 1848 by the most elabo rate work she had yet given to the world-' The Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art,' 2 vols. 8vo. This, the first of a series on which she had been engaged for several years, was an expansion of some papers which appeared in the Athenmum' during the years 1845-46. The other volumes of the series followed-' Legends of the Monastic Orders' in 1850, and 'Legends of the Madonna' in 1852. They thus afforded a pretty complete exposition of the various phases, the poetry, and the symbolism-the literature and the legends-the aesthetics rather than the polemics-of the art which sought to do honour to the Church of the middle ages ; and she has endeavoured to show the inner significance, rather than-what is commonly only thought of by observers and critics--the technical qualities of such works. These volumes at once took the place they had fairly earned, of standard works on subjects which had been singularly neglected by Eaglish literature. They are indeed works of a very superior order of merit-marked throughout by extensive research, by familiarity with the great productions in the realm of art which they were designed to elucidate, and by a highly refined taste and delicate tact; and readers felt that the beautiful drawings and etchings (Mrs. Jameson's own handiwork), while they afforded corroborative evi dence of the technical knowledge and skill of the authoress, really added a new charm to the book. Her next publication on art (it is hardly necessary so to distinguish her useful little ' Handbook to the Courts of Modern Sculpture in the Crystal Palace ') was 'A Common place Book of Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies, Original and Selected' (1854), a gathering-up of the fragments left from the feast she had already presented to the public. Since then no separate work on art has appeared from her pen ; but both by voice and pen-in lectures, addressee, and pamphlets-she has been labouring earnestly in direct ing to a higher and better purpose the thoughts, energies, sympathies, and capabilities of her sex; or, to use her own words, in seeking to ascertain "whether there be any hope or possibility of organisiug into some wise and recognised system the talent and energy, the piety and tenderness of our women for the good of the whole community." These labours may divert her attention perhaps from the graceful studies by which she has made her name celebrated, but if she succeed in her purpose neither herself nor the world will regret the transference of her exertions.