Nina Hamnett

-
NH , active during the earlier part of the twentieth century, was primarily a visual artist, but also published two books of memoirs (apparently based on diaries kept at the time) as well as a few art gallery reviews.
  • BirthName: Nina Hamnett
  • Married: Kristian
    qtd. in
    Booth-Clibborn, Edward, and Nina Hamnett. “Introduction”. Laughing Torso, Virago, 1984, p. v - x.
    ix
    Hamnett, Nina. Laughing Torso. Ray Long & Richard R. Smith, Inc., 1932.
    70-3
    Readers of Laughing Torso would easily suppose her married name to have been de Bergen, since in the book she gives her husband a pseudonym.
Painting of Nina Hamnett by Roger Fry, 1917. She is seated in a wooden chair with a yellow back and pink seat, wearing a long grey-green skirt and a black turtleneck whose sleeves leave her slender forearms bare. Her dark hair is short, with a fringe. Courtauld Institute.

Milestones

14 February 1890

NH was born at her grandparents' home at 3 Lexden Terrace, Tenby, the eldest of her family: she had two brothers and a sister.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Hooker, Denise. Nina Hamnett: queen of bohemia. Constable and Company Limited, 1986.
15

6 June 1932

NH borrowed the title of a sculpture by Henri Gaudier-Brzeska for her best-selling book of memoirs, Laughing Torso.
TLS Centenary Archive Centenary Archive [1902-2012]. http://www.gale.com/c/the-times-literary-supplement-historical-archive.
401
Solo: Search Oxford University Libraries Online. 18 July 2011, http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?vid=OXVU1&fromLogin=true&reset_config=true.

22 September 1932

The Times reported that a libel action by Aleister Crowley had compelled the publisher Constable to halt all sales of NH 's Laughing Torso. Crowley asserted that anecdotes therein about himself had not a word of truth in them.
“The Times Digital Archive 1785-2007”. Thompson Gale: The Times Digital Archive.
4

16 December 1956

NH died in London at the Paddington General Hospital as the result of her recent fall, which may have been suicidal.
Hooker, Denise. Nina Hamnett: queen of bohemia. Constable and Company Limited, 1986.
258
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

Birth and Early Childhood

14 February 1890

NH was born at her grandparents' home at 3 Lexden Terrace, Tenby, the eldest of her family: she had two brothers and a sister.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Hooker, Denise. Nina Hamnett: queen of bohemia. Constable and Company Limited, 1986.
15

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