Martin Ferguson Smith All Books Coombe sku-5042395283

Martin Ferguson Smith's All Books listing, SKU sku-5042395283, is for The Artist Helen Coombe (1864 to 1937): The Tragedy of Roger Fry's Wife, a hardcover and the first biography of Coombe. It covers her family, education, art, personal life and place in the arts and crafts movement. Coombe was admired for her artistic skill, intellect, personality and wit.

She married Roger Fry, an artist who became known as an art critic, historian and figure in the Bloomsbury Group. Soon after their 1896 marriage, she showed symptoms of schizophrenia. Following the first episode, she briefly returned to her career and had two children with Fry. She spent the last thirty years of her life in an institution.

The biography draws on correspondence, diaries and medical records to examine Coombe's life, Fry, and late Victorian and Edwardian society and culture, including the treatment of mental illness.