Maud Cruttwell

In 1897 Cruttwell began to publish articles on Renaissance art in art journals; her first monograph, on Luca Signorelli, was published in London in 1899.^[9] This was followed by a work on Mantegna (London, 1901).^[10] In her third book Luca and Andrea della Robbia and their Successors (London, 1902), she demonstrated the difference and superiority of the work of Andrea della Robbia as compared to that of his nephew Luca.^[11] Her work on this book involved extensive research in collections throughout Europe, and led to her reassigning many attributions.^[12] The book was generally well received, although it was heavily criticized by the anti-Morrellian art historian Wilhelm von Bode.^[13] Her next two books on Verrocchio (1904) and Pollaiuolo (1907) (of which Bode wrote a further severe review) were issued by a publisher (Arthur Strong) who had quarrelled with Berenson, but Cruttwell sought successfully to ensure that her good relationship with the Berensons continued.^[14]

There followed two books on art in Florence (A Guide to the Paintings in the Florentine Galleries (1907) and A Guide to the Paintings in the Churches and Minor Museums of Florence (1908)), and a guide to Venice, Venice and her Treasures (1909).^[15] In 1907 Cruttwell wrote to the Berensons that she was writing her final book on art, on Donatello (eventually published in 1911), as she intended to relocate to Paris and pursue "modern journalism".^[16]

Cruttwell was associated with some notable feminist and lesbian personalities of her period; apart from Paget and Mary Berenson, she was a regular correspondent of Ottoline Morell, Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. From 1907 onwards she seems to have 'come out'. In 1907 Mary Berenson noted in her diary that Cruttwell was " a maniac à rebours [against nature] loathing men and adoring women." In 1908 she commented that Cruttwell dressed in "a loud, improper way" and on a visit in 1912 Cruttwell appeared to her overweight and "vulgarly dressed." In 1913 Cruttwell published a novel Fire and Frost, whose heroine, clearly based on the author, adores beauty and Italian art, determines never to marry, and befriends a couple evidently based on the Berensons.^[17] Cruttwell continued to live in Paris but her only further publications were biographies of the Princesse des Ursins (1927) and Madame de Maintenon (1929).^[18] By this time she was writing to Paget (letter of 3 December 1929) of "that hideous Berenson element, pretentious & false even to the art they pretend to care for."^[19]

Cruttwell died in Paris on 25 April 1939; her obituary in The Times noted that her books on Italian artists, though written "many years ago [...] are still valued as standard works."^[18] In recent years interest in Cruttwell has rekindled as part of the growing recognition of the work of female art scholars from the late 19th century onwards.^[20]

• Ginzburg, Carlo (1984), "Morelli, Freud, and Sherlock Holmes: Clues and Scientific Method", in Umberto Eco; Thomas Sebeok (eds.), The Sign of Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce, Bloomington, IN: History Workshop, Indiana University Press, pp. 81–118, ISBN 978-0-253-35235-4
• Johnston, Tiffany L. (2019). "Maud Cruttwell and the Berensons: 'A preliminary canter to an independent career'". Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century. 2019 (28): 1–18. doi:10.16995/ntn.821. S2CID 195411773.
• Ventrella, Francesco (2019). "Writing Under Pressure: Maud Cruttwell and the Old Master Monograph". Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century. 2019 (28): 1–27. doi:10.16995/ntn.831. S2CID 195495140.