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Marion Harry Alexander Spielmann (London, 22 May 1858 – 1948) was a prolific Victorian art critic and scholar who was the editor ofThe Connoisseur andMagazine of Art. Among his voluminous output, he wrote a history ofPunch, the first biography ofJohn Everett Millais and a detailed investigation into the evidence forportraits of William Shakespeare.
Marion Spielmann (perhaps confusingly, several female relatives were similarly called Marian Spielmann) was born inLondon in 1858, the youngest son and eighth child of Adam Spielmann (1812–1869), one of three brothers who had emigrated from Schokken (nowSkoki), near Posen (nowPoznań).[1] Of Marion's own brothers, two were also celebrated figures: SirIsidore Spielmann (1854–1925) was the eldest and was a civil-engineer turned art-connoisseur, knighted in 1905; the middle brother, Sir Meyer Spielmann (1856–1936) was primarily concerned with education and youth-rehabilitation, knighted in 1928, but was also an art-collector. Marion's nephews and nieces included thewomen's suffrage campaignerEva Hubback.
Spielmann was educated atUniversity College School andUniversity College London. He soon established himself as an art journalist, writing for thePall Mall Gazette from 1883 to 1890, most notably discussing the work ofG. F. Watts.[2]
By the 1880s, Spielmann had become "one of the most powerful figures in the late Victorian art world".[3] From 1887 to 1904 Spielmann edited theMagazine of Art. The influence ofImpressionism andAestheticism was particularly strong at this period, and under Spielmann's editorship, the journal encouraged lively debate about these movements. Spielmann commissioned articles from traditionalists likeWilliam Powell Frith and Millais as well as supporters of the new art. He also foundedBlack and White, a journal devoted to the print revival, and was a regular contributor toThe Graphic, theIllustrated London News, and other periodicals."[3][4]
Spielmann was also active in arts administration and was closely involved with the controversy over theChantrey Bequest, which led to his altering the conditions under which works were purchased for the bequest by theRoyal Academy of Arts. He was the juror for England in the 1898 Brussels Fine Art Exhibition.[2] He also advised internationally on art collecting.[5] He was a member of theAthenaeum.
Spielmann was himself essentially a traditionalist who resisted the advance of Post-Impressionist and modern art. He typically emphasised masculine and decisive qualities in art, for example describing the sculptorGeorge Anderson Lawson as "strong, manly and artistic".[6] For Spielmann, Millais epitomised these qualities. With the rise ofModernism, Spielmann's influence became increasingly marginal.
In 1880, Spielmann married his first cousin, Mabel Henriette Samuel (1862–1938), sister ofHerbert Samuel; they had one son, Percy Edwin Spielmann (1881–1964). Mabel was herself an accomplished writer,[7] best known as a children's author, but also a biographer ofCharlotte Brontë and a writer on the history of art. As a children's author, Mabel Spielmann is probably best known for her 1909 work:The Rainbow Book: Tales of Fun and Fancy.[8]
