Edith Hacon: Difference between revisions

Edith became a socialite in [[London]] in her 20s when she worked as a model for [[Selwyn Image]], Charles Shannon and other artists and used the alias ''''Amaryllis'''<nowiki/>'.<ref name=":2" /> Her portrait ''The Lady with the Green Fan (Portrait of Mrs Hacon)'' may be the one mentioned in a poem by [[W. B. Yeats|WB Yeats]], ''The Municipal Gallery Revisited'', in which he calls her ‘beautiful and gentle in her Venetian way.'<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Genet |first=Jacqueline |date=2006 |title=Warwick Gould ed. : Poems and Contexts |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/irlan_0183-973x_2006_num_31_2_1777_t1_0166_0000_2 |journal=Etudes irlandaises |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=166–167}}</ref> The portrait is held in the collection of the [[Hugh Lane Gallery]] in [[Dublin]]. Her social circle included [[Oscar Wilde]], [[Aubrey Beardsley]], [[Selwyn Image]], [[Herbert Horne]] and international visitors, such as [[Paul Verlaine]].<ref name=":5" />

Edith was also called '<nowiki/>'''Muriel'''' in the poems of [[Arthur Symons]].<ref name=":5" /> [[Arthur Symons|Symons]] wrote Edith's (partly fantasy) life story in 'The Life of Lucy Newcome', with extracts published in ''[[The Savoy (periodical)|The Savoy]].'' The fictional Lucy Newcome was brought up in an affluent home but following the death of her parents lived with an aunt and uncle. She was assualtedassaulted by her elder cousin and was turned out of their house because she was pregnant. The baby later died..<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |last=McCall |first=Alison |date=November 4, 2013 |title=Before they were Guiders |url=https://www.historylinksarchive.org.uk/pictures/document/11898.pdf?r=201155 |access-date=29 July 2023}}</ref> It is not clear whether this fictional narrative reflects Edith's experience in her early life. 'Muriel' also appeared in a poem ''To Muriel: At the Opera'' (14 November 1892) published in his collection ''London Nights''.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=|first=|title=Arthur Symons, 'Spiritual Adventures'|publisher=The Modern Humanities Research Association|year=2017|isbn=9781781886137|editor-last=Freeman|editor-first=Nicholas|location=Cambridge, UK|pages=57–88}}</ref>