In life one should value chance encounters.
Earlier in June we spent some time
with our friends in Dorchester
In a chance encounter with Andrew
Lloyd Webber, Josceline Dimbleby asked him bluntly if she could go and see the
portrait he had of her great-aunt, Amy Gaskell.
“Ah, that wonderful dark picture,”
Andrew said. “Yes, please come……Well, I think she looks rather like you......”
“Did you know that she died young?”
Josceline asked Andrew.
“Of a broken heart.”
She told Andrew that she would try to
find out more. This led her to start researching into the life of Amy, her
mother May and the famous Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones and the
result was the book A Profound Secret.
I looked at the book cover and
thought the portrait reminded me of the Picasso I used for my Anorexia Blog.
Leighton House Museum 2004/Andrew Lloyd Webber
Girl in a Chemise Picasso
Tate
It is said that as a young
man Picasso admired the pre-Raphaelites and Edward Burne-Jones so much that in
1900 he would have gone to London rather than Paris
“There was a hint in the
book that she might well have died of Anorexia!” My hostess said.
It was a fascinating book,
like good family biographies are, as long as you accept that it is not going to
be as organised as fiction. A good writer helps and Josceline Dimbleby is a
well established food and travel writer.
For a psychiatrist, it is
especially interesting as he is allowed glimpses into the various
personalities, their psychiatric problems and the resulting family dynamics,
without the interference of the usual psychiatric labelling or coding.
Unfortunately self medicating with alcohol, opium and other fancy substances
was rife in that era and the result could often be tragic.
Indeed Josceline thought
at one point in the book that Amy might have suffered from Anorexia although it
was not a known condition at the time. She left it till the end of the book to
let us into the final secret. You will have to find out for yourself.
Without the effect of
drugs that would double the bodyweight, we have in the end one of the most
beautiful portraits of the Pre-Raphaelites. Burne-Jones’ life is of course
another psychiatric book: his mother died when he was six days old and many
felt that all his life he was searching for the perfect mother he so missed. It
is indeed ironical that the art world has been much enriched by what was
essentially untreated bereavement.
Psychiatry may need to
look again at what we have been doing, as we do not seem to have found another
Burne-Jones.
Reference: "There had
been a considerable vogue in Barcelona
........"Picasso
assured me, when he was staying in London in
1950, that for him his [1900] trip to Paris was
merely a halt on a journey that would take him further north to London England
Other References:
Related Posts:
The Book: The Cockroach Catcher
Read more:
NHS: The Way We Were! Free!
FREE eBook: Just drop me a line with your email.
Email: cockroachcatcher (at) gmail (dot) com.
A Brief History of Time: Anorexia Nervosa
In life one should value chance encounters.
Earlier in June we spent some time
with our friends in Dorchester
In a chance encounter with Andrew
Lloyd Webber, Josceline Dimbleby asked him bluntly if she could go and see the
portrait he had of her great-aunt, Amy Gaskell.
“Ah, that wonderful dark picture,”
Andrew said. “Yes, please come……Well, I think she looks rather like you......”
“Did you know that she died young?”
Josceline asked Andrew.
“Of a broken heart.”
She told Andrew that she would try to
find out more. This led her to start researching into the life of Amy, her
mother May and the famous Pre-Raphaelite painter Edward Burne-Jones and the
result was the book A Profound Secret.
I looked at the book cover and
thought the portrait reminded me of the Picasso I used for my Anorexia Blog.
Amy Gaskell by Edward Burne-Jones
Leighton House Museum 2004/Andrew Lloyd Webber
Girl in a Chemise Picasso
Tate
It is said that as a young
man Picasso admired the pre-Raphaelites and Edward Burne-Jones so much that in
1900 he would have gone to London rather than Paris
“There was a hint in the
book that she might well have died of Anorexia!” My hostess said.
It was a fascinating book,
like good family biographies are, as long as you accept that it is not going to
be as organised as fiction. A good writer helps and Josceline Dimbleby is a
well established food and travel writer.
For a psychiatrist, it is
especially interesting as he is allowed glimpses into the various
personalities, their psychiatric problems and the resulting family dynamics,
without the interference of the usual psychiatric labelling or coding.
Unfortunately self medicating with alcohol, opium and other fancy substances
was rife in that era and the result could often be tragic.
Indeed Josceline thought
at one point in the book that Amy might have suffered from Anorexia although it
was not a known condition at the time. She left it till the end of the book to
let us into the final secret. You will have to find out for yourself.
Without the effect of
drugs that would double the bodyweight, we have in the end one of the most
beautiful portraits of the Pre-Raphaelites. Burne-Jones’ life is of course
another psychiatric book: his mother died when he was six days old and many
felt that all his life he was searching for the perfect mother he so missed. It
is indeed ironical that the art world has been much enriched by what was
essentially untreated bereavement.
Psychiatry may need to
look again at what we have been doing, as we do not seem to have found another
Burne-Jones.
Reference: "There had
been a considerable vogue in Barcelona
........"Picasso
assured me, when he was staying in London in
1950, that for him his [1900] trip to Paris was
merely a halt on a journey that would take him further north to London England
Other References:
Related Posts:
The Book: The Cockroach Catcher
Read more:
NHS: The Way We Were! Free!
FREE eBook: Just drop me a line with your email.
Email: cockroachcatcher (at) gmail (dot) com.
FREE eBook: Just drop me a line with your email.
Email: cockroachcatcher (at) gmail (dot) com.
A Brief History of Time: Anorexia Nervosa
: Yo Yo Ma
You may also want to read about Amanda.
Anorexia Nervosa Posts
May 22, 2012
She had been hospitalised for Anorexia Nervosa. She was cured. She got married. Then she had Chris. If she did not tell me, I never would have guessed she had Anorexia Nervosa. At first I did not even know how I knew
Mar 01, 2008
FREE eBook: Just drop me a line with your email.
Email: cockroachcatcher (at) gmail (dot) com.
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