Uncle Harry, the Venetian Life of Henry Woods RA

We, like the Victorians, engage with Venice through the 19th century writings of Byron, Ruskin, Browning and Henry James, and the paintings of Turner, Whistler and John Singer Sargent. James, returning to the city in 1881, finally succumbed to its power, declaring he had ‘fallen deeply and desperately in love’. ‘The magic potion has entered my blood.’ He became a regular guest at Ca’ Alvisi, the palazzo of the wealthy American Mrs Katherine de Kay Bronson. A fellow guest of the Bronsons was the English artist Henry Woods. Unlike many artists and writers inspired by the city Woods made Venice his permanent home from the late 1870s until his death in 1921. He took a temporary studio in London only so that he could be elected Associate of the Royal Academy (1882) and full Academician (1895). This paper introduced his life and work in and around Venice. What circles did he move in? What Venice did he choose to depict? Who bought his paintings? What sort of material do his diaries and letters provide us with? What did he think of his fellow artists and writers and they of him?