Jameson, ANNA, authoress and art-critic, was the daughter of an Irish miniature-painter named Browell Murphy, and was born at Dublin in 1794. Her girlhood was passed in the north of England, and then for a dozen years she had been a governess, when in 1823 she married Mr Robert Jameson, a barrister, who in 1829 was appointed a puisne judge in Dominica. In consequence of her husband's harsh treatment, Mrs Jameson refused to accompany him; and save during a brief visit to Canada in 1836-38, she ceased to live with him. Mrs Jameson published in 1831 her first important work, entitled Memoirs of Female
Sovereigns, and this was succeeded in the following year by her subtle and fascinating Characteristics of Shakespeare's Women. Among other topics upon which she wrote at this time were female labour, penitentiaries, and hospital nursing. She further published, in 1833, Beauties of the Court of Charles II., in 1837 Sketches of Germany, in 1838 Rambles in Canada, and in 1846 Memoirs and Essays. But it is as an art-critic that she is best remembered, for her Handbook to Public Galleries in and near London (1832); Lives of Early Italian Painters (1845); Poetry of Sacred and Legendary Art (1848); Legends of the Monastic Orders (1850); Legends of the Madonna (1852); and a Commonplace Book of Thoughts, Memories, and Fancies (1854). Her work on our Lord and John the Baptist as represented in art was completed by Lady Eastlake. She died at Ealing, March 19, 1860. See the Memoirs by her niece (1878), and the new edition of her works (6 vols. 1890).