Francesca Alexander

Francesca Alexander (born Esther Frances Alexander; February 27, 1837 – January 21, 1917) also known as Fanny Alexander, was an American expatriate illustrator, author, folklorist, and translator.

Early life

Esther Frances Alexander was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on February 27, 1837. Her father was the portrait painter Francis Alexander and her mother Lucia Grey Alexander (née Swett) was a philanthropist from a wealthy Massachusetts family. When she was 16, the family moved to Florence, Italy.

Career

In Italy, Alexander's early artistic output was as part of her mother's charity work and she wrote about and drew portraits of poor Tuscan farmers as gifts for wealthy American donors to their cause. In the process, she became familiar with local folkways and customs, collecting songs and stories and translating them for publication.

In 1882, she was introduced to the English critic John Ruskin by a family friend. He was interested in her work, especially her simple, spiritual illustrations, and purchased two manuscripts from her for £600. The first was published in 1883 as The Story of Ida with its author identified as "Francesca". The volume was republished in several editions in both the United States and Great Britain.

Ruskin published her most celebrated work, Roadside Songs, in 1885. The book drew from the work of celebrated story-teller Beatrice Bernardi of Pian degli Ontani. It also contained a translation of a 17th-century ottava rima ballad with the Italian original opposite the translated English stanzas. A third collection, Christ's Folk in the Apennines, was published in 1887-89.