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The Rare and the Beautiful: The Art, Loves, and Lives of the Garman Sisters
The garman sisters, who were born in England's Midlands and whose scandalous lives placed them at the center of European cultural activity in the middle of the twentieth century, were famous for their passion for the arts, defiance of convention, and the power to turn heads and break hearts. Their exquisite taste, colorful personalities, and unleashed pursuit of romance earned them a unique place in London's legendary bohemia, inspiring a generation of artists and writers. Kathleen, an enigmatic artist's model and aspiring pianist, was the lover of the controversial American-born sculptor Jacob Epstein, who immortalized her in seven sensual portraits, fathered her three children, and became, at the end of his life, her husband. Kathleen's sister Mary married the maverick poet Roy Campbell, whose verse attack on the Bloomsbury group following Mary's affair with Vita Sackville-West caused a literary scandal. Mary and Roy, enamored by Mediterranean culture and lifestyle, lived in Spain, Portugal, and the south of France during the continent's turbulent decades, where inspiration and destruction came to them in equal measure. Lorna, the youngest and most radiant of the sisters, became the lover of the young poet Laurie Lee and the painter Lucian Freud, each of whom later married one of her nieces. The Garman sisters became involved in the radical literary and political circles of Europe between the two world wars. Their lifestyle was outside the prevailing bisexuality, unfaithfulness, and illegitimate children were a matter of course. Headstrong and flamboyant, they sidelined their own talent for writing, painting, and music, their friendships, material comforts -- even their own children -- in the cause of art and beauty. In fourteen short chapters, The Rare and the Beautiful -- inspired by the exquisite Garman Ryan art collection, bequeathed by Kathleen Garman and including works by Bonnard, Constable, Picasso, Degas, Pissarro, Braque, Modigliani, and van Gogh -- evokes the extraordinary milieu of scandal, high drama, and high culture that defined twentieth-century bohemia. An unorthodox biography of women who broke the rules with inimitable style, it is also a thoughtful meditation on the power of the muse, the glamour of art, and the personal sacrifice it exacts.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2004
23 people are currently reading
333 people want to read
About the author
Cressida Connolly
6 books58 followersCressida Connolly is a reviewer and journalist, who has written for Vogue, the Telegraph, the Spectator, the Guardian and numerous other publications. Connolly is the author of three books: The Happiest Days, which won the MacMillan/PEN Award, The Rare and the Beautiful and My Former Heart.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
March 15, 2014
3.5
The 7 Garman sisters might not have names that all begin with a K but certainly if they had been born 100 years later they'd have been all over the Celebrity Press. Strikingly beautiful and with a wild, unconventional streak, they mixed with all the artistic movers and shakers of the 1920's and 30's.
This book explores the lives of just 3 of them (Mary, Kathleen and Lorna), but in many ways each in their turn deserves a book to themselves so it often felt a bit rushed.
During a period when the fashion was for bobbed hair and calf length flapper dresses, the Garman girls floated around in a hippyish manner with long flowing locks, floor length skirts and flowers in their hair.
I could never quite work out if they deliberately set out to shock or if they were just 'doing their own thing' and didn't care what people thought of them.
There was definitely some seriously bad parenting going on, with the various children often parked with relatives, educated in a haphazard manner (f at all) and often left to roam free across the countryside when barely out of nappies.
Enjoyed the book but have definitely had enough of the Garmans!
The 7 Garman sisters might not have names that all begin with a K but certainly if they had been born 100 years later they'd have been all over the Celebrity Press. Strikingly beautiful and with a wild, unconventional streak, they mixed with all the artistic movers and shakers of the 1920's and 30's.
This book explores the lives of just 3 of them (Mary, Kathleen and Lorna), but in many ways each in their turn deserves a book to themselves so it often felt a bit rushed.
During a period when the fashion was for bobbed hair and calf length flapper dresses, the Garman girls floated around in a hippyish manner with long flowing locks, floor length skirts and flowers in their hair.
I could never quite work out if they deliberately set out to shock or if they were just 'doing their own thing' and didn't care what people thought of them.
There was definitely some seriously bad parenting going on, with the various children often parked with relatives, educated in a haphazard manner (f at all) and often left to roam free across the countryside when barely out of nappies.
Enjoyed the book but have definitely had enough of the Garmans!
August 22, 2018
"Like" is such as strong word. Is it better to give no rating? I don't want to sink Cressida Connolly's rating in any way; there is nothing wrong with the writing. I just came away from this look at "The Art, Loves, and Lives of the Garman Sisters" thinking that I had never spent so much time with such unappealing, spoiled, and selfish people. Like many minor celebrities today, they were mildly infamous for being mildly infamous. Kathleen was the long time mistress and eventual widow of Jacob Epstein. Mary was married to Roy Campbell and had a fling with Vita-Sackville West. Lorna had flings with Lucien Freud and Laurie Lee. All three were negligent mothers, involved in pursuing "beauty" to the extreme detriment of their offspring. If you have an interest in the period, you will find some names to help you play 6 Degrees of Kevin Bacon, though.
March 29, 2013
Biography of (mostly) Kathleen, Mary, and Lorna Garman, who were born around the turn of the century and ran around with artists and writers in England and France. Mary married poet Roy Campbell (but had affairs with other people including Vita Sackville-West); Kathleen was the lover of sculptor Jacob Epstein for 30 years and they had three children before his wife died and they married; and Lorna married a wealthy publisher when she was 16, and also had many lovers including poet Laurie Lee and painter Lucian Freud. She modelled for several of his paintings. Freud and Lee each married one of her nieces, to whom she'd introduced them. Other Garman siblings are mentioned too. None of them are terribly important people in their own right, but it's a very entertaining book.
July 27, 2015
It's a very interesting book, but I do find myself wondering how anyone can have the time or the energy to sleep with so many people
And indeed, why anyone would marry someone who had had an affair with their aunt
And indeed, why anyone would marry someone who had had an affair with their aunt
July 4, 2013
Had never heard of this interesting family. So happy women now make their own light! London scene in the 1920s.
August 13, 2016
I really enjoyed this, it transported me back to the days when Bloomsbury reigned, but the cooler girls were the Garmans (always watch the quiet ones!)
September 11, 2018
"They had lived at the center of European literary and political life between the two world wars, numbering some of the greatest artists and writers among their husbands, friends, and lovers. They were very exotic, dark and tall and graceful, with huge, limpid eyes. They had been dazzling company, brilliant mimics who set out to enchant everyone they met, and generally succeeded. The Garmans had an intoxicating quality, and people felt their lives had been transformed by knowing them. Almost everybody who knew them called them 'just magical.'" (xiii).
The biography focuses on the lives of four of the nine Garman siblings - Mary, Kathleen, Douglas, and Lorna. Born between 1901 and 1911, the nine Garman siblings were the children of Dr. Walter and Marjorie Garman and seem to have an idyllic childhood in Wednesbury, England, where their father was a well known and well respected physician and devoted husband. The children seem to have been artistic and intellectual and not at all compelled to follow social standards, as several had children out of wedlock and were known for wearing their hair long and loose at a time when it was standard to have it neatly pinned up. Mary and Kathleen, two of the oldest sisters, ran off to London as teenagers and began living in a studio apartment and seem to have instantly had dozens of admirers: "No other contemporary women ever had so much poetry, good, bad and indifferent, written about them, or had so many portraits and busts made of them" (22). The Garman counted numerous well known figures among their friends and lovers including Vita Sackville-West, Lucian Freud, Ferruccio Busoni, Jacob Epstein, and Laurie Lee.
All of the Garmans seem to have had a charisma and charm that instantly enchanted those around them. The biography is littered with nearly fantastical descriptions of the whimsical behavior of the sisters such as this description of the youngest Garman, Lorna who "set out to create magic. She gathered glowworms from the side of a stream and put them in wine glasses lined with leaves to make natural lanterns, which she'd place all along the mantelpiece. She loved spontaneity and surprises. She went riding on her horse at night, through the steep streets of Arundel, where people were sleeping, a small tame goat following behind. […] She loved swimming and would do so anywhere, at any time of year, and long into her old age. She'd strip to her knickers and plunge into thirty-foot waves in Cornwall in the winter or into remote lakes or fast-flowing, icy rivers" (168-169). The sisters all seem to have been fond of elaborate picnics, at any time of the year and in any weather, principally because they hated housework and a picnic allowed them to avoid the inevitable clean up afterwards.
The family is reminiscent of tales of the famed Mitford family, but less aristocratic and more eccentric. In many ways, given their notoriety at the time and their social set, it's surprising that this is the first book every written about them, but them seem to have been wholly uninterested in having their lives recorded in print and indeed many of them destroyed all of their correspondence, making biographies difficult. I found this biography fascinating but also tantalizing since this book only begins to scratch the surface of the Garman family. I would love to read a comprehensive biography of the whole family but am so glad that Connolly has written this biography capturing in print some of the magic of the Garmans.
The biography focuses on the lives of four of the nine Garman siblings - Mary, Kathleen, Douglas, and Lorna. Born between 1901 and 1911, the nine Garman siblings were the children of Dr. Walter and Marjorie Garman and seem to have an idyllic childhood in Wednesbury, England, where their father was a well known and well respected physician and devoted husband. The children seem to have been artistic and intellectual and not at all compelled to follow social standards, as several had children out of wedlock and were known for wearing their hair long and loose at a time when it was standard to have it neatly pinned up. Mary and Kathleen, two of the oldest sisters, ran off to London as teenagers and began living in a studio apartment and seem to have instantly had dozens of admirers: "No other contemporary women ever had so much poetry, good, bad and indifferent, written about them, or had so many portraits and busts made of them" (22). The Garman counted numerous well known figures among their friends and lovers including Vita Sackville-West, Lucian Freud, Ferruccio Busoni, Jacob Epstein, and Laurie Lee.
All of the Garmans seem to have had a charisma and charm that instantly enchanted those around them. The biography is littered with nearly fantastical descriptions of the whimsical behavior of the sisters such as this description of the youngest Garman, Lorna who "set out to create magic. She gathered glowworms from the side of a stream and put them in wine glasses lined with leaves to make natural lanterns, which she'd place all along the mantelpiece. She loved spontaneity and surprises. She went riding on her horse at night, through the steep streets of Arundel, where people were sleeping, a small tame goat following behind. […] She loved swimming and would do so anywhere, at any time of year, and long into her old age. She'd strip to her knickers and plunge into thirty-foot waves in Cornwall in the winter or into remote lakes or fast-flowing, icy rivers" (168-169). The sisters all seem to have been fond of elaborate picnics, at any time of the year and in any weather, principally because they hated housework and a picnic allowed them to avoid the inevitable clean up afterwards.
The family is reminiscent of tales of the famed Mitford family, but less aristocratic and more eccentric. In many ways, given their notoriety at the time and their social set, it's surprising that this is the first book every written about them, but them seem to have been wholly uninterested in having their lives recorded in print and indeed many of them destroyed all of their correspondence, making biographies difficult. I found this biography fascinating but also tantalizing since this book only begins to scratch the surface of the Garman family. I would love to read a comprehensive biography of the whole family but am so glad that Connolly has written this biography capturing in print some of the magic of the Garmans.
June 18, 2017
The Rare and the Beautiful is a historical novel that follows three of the Garman sisters from the 1910’s to the 1960’s. The book follows Kathleen, Mary, and Lorna through bohemian London and recounts their loves and lives. It starts with the Garman sister’s parents and how they fell in love and had nine children. It continues to show the childhood of the sisters and how they became who they were. Once it reaches the girl’s late teens then it starts to get more detailed about their lives. Kathleen falls in love with an already married man named Jacob Epstein. Epstein falls in love with Kathleen but refuses to divorce his wife so that his children do not become illegitimate. Mary falls in love with Roy Campbell and travels around Europe with their daughters. Lorna has love affairs with Laurie Lee and Lucien Freud after her first husband Ernest Wishart. The three have lives that are very focused on themselves and their loves with little regard to those outside their circle.
I really enjoyed this book and the way it was written. It was a little confusing with all of the characters and switching back and forth between them, but otherwise the story was well written and interesting. The story shows the beauty and sorrow of the fast paced world of Bohemian London. With the speed of the environment many of the Garman family is swept up and tragedy ensues. It also shows that amount of ignorance these people had for the world events happening around them and how they only moved or paid attention when it affected them. This book was very beautiful and thought provoking to read, but had many moments that were tear jerking. I recommend this book to everyone, but I recommend this book especially to anyone who likes history or female lead stories.
I really enjoyed this book and the way it was written. It was a little confusing with all of the characters and switching back and forth between them, but otherwise the story was well written and interesting. The story shows the beauty and sorrow of the fast paced world of Bohemian London. With the speed of the environment many of the Garman family is swept up and tragedy ensues. It also shows that amount of ignorance these people had for the world events happening around them and how they only moved or paid attention when it affected them. This book was very beautiful and thought provoking to read, but had many moments that were tear jerking. I recommend this book to everyone, but I recommend this book especially to anyone who likes history or female lead stories.
January 5, 2017
There were nine Garman children - seven girls and two boys - all beautiful, wild and talented. To be fair, this book mostly looks at the lives of just four of the girls (Mary, Sylvia, Kathleen and Lorna) and one of the boys (Douglas), as they seem to be the most interesting. Living mostly in and around London, but also South Africa, Italy and France, the list of their friends and lovers is like a roll-call of literary and artistic circles in the first half of the twentieth century - Lucien Freud, Augustus John, Vita Sackville West, Jacob Epstein, Peggy Guggenheim. Although talented themselves, most of the Garmen daughters were muses rather than creators themselves, sublimating their talents and devoting themselves to the artists in their lives.
I was torn between admiring and envying them for being so bohemian, disdaining housework and convention to have passionate love affairs, throw wonderful dinner parties and picnics, and sometimes live in almost abject poverty for the sake of Art, and being disturbed by their often cruel neglect of their children, who were mostly left to fend for themselves. While the Garman's are certainly fascinating, and really should be as well-known as the Mitford sisters, the book tends to jump back and forth in time as each new sibling is discussed, which made it a little difficult to follow at times.
I was torn between admiring and envying them for being so bohemian, disdaining housework and convention to have passionate love affairs, throw wonderful dinner parties and picnics, and sometimes live in almost abject poverty for the sake of Art, and being disturbed by their often cruel neglect of their children, who were mostly left to fend for themselves. While the Garman's are certainly fascinating, and really should be as well-known as the Mitford sisters, the book tends to jump back and forth in time as each new sibling is discussed, which made it a little difficult to follow at times.
December 7, 2018
This is a fascinating group biography of the Garman sisters (primarily Mary, Kathleen and Lorna), who became lovers/muses of some of the great names in British art and literature in the early-mid 20th century. As such it offers a new viewpoint on these men and their work as well as an insight into bohemian society and culture during these years. Switching from one sister (or brother) to another keeps a strong narrative momentum going, skilfully interweaving their individual stories. Many times I exclaimed over discovering links between people that I had not connected before. There were of course many gaps in the life stories of the sisters (and almost nothing on two or three of them - the less notorious) as they were not famous in their own right, but Connolly's research and collected personal anecdotes combine to create a satisfying and stimulating story, and left me wanting to find out more about them all and the work they inspired.
August 19, 2021
I enjoyed this biography of the captivating Garman sisters, who escaped from provincial obscurity to embark on what could arguably be described as careers as professional muses.
I’m not sure whether I agree with the popular view that, had they been born half a century later, these women would have been mere socialites, C-list celebrities, ‘OK!’ and ‘Heat’ fodder, or if, had they lived in the post-feminist era, they would have been empowered to step out of their lovers’ shadows and establish themselves as artists or women in their own right.
In any event, I found this account of their bohemian lives fascinating.
I’m not sure whether I agree with the popular view that, had they been born half a century later, these women would have been mere socialites, C-list celebrities, ‘OK!’ and ‘Heat’ fodder, or if, had they lived in the post-feminist era, they would have been empowered to step out of their lovers’ shadows and establish themselves as artists or women in their own right.
In any event, I found this account of their bohemian lives fascinating.
April 25, 2018
Although I had never heard of the Garman family before, I found this book very interesting. Each of the family members had an unusual history. I was surprised to see that some of them lived near my home and will now try to find where they lived and are buried.
November 26, 2018
Enjoyed this so much it made me want to visit Walsall - which is not something I ever expected to say.
September 26, 2019
Completely fascinating.
Want to read
January 24, 2020Recommendation from Cosy Books Blog - January 2020
November 20, 2021
Not much to like about the Garman family; however, Cressida Connolly has written a vivid and impartial account of their lives and the interesting times in which they lived.
October 29, 2010
Compared to the Mitford sisters, the Garmans were really dull. Besides encountering famous people, those sisters (and brothers) did not contribute much to the world. Those siblings were no writers, not married to any Nazi follower or warriors, just persons happening to meet interesting people and leading amoral lives (mostly).
As for the quality of the book, except that sometimes it was somehow difficult to follow who the writer is talking about by using inadequately the pronouns, either the research was poorly done by the writer or there was not much to tell about that family since within 260 pages she managed to cover the lives of 9 siblings, for some more extensively and others less.
As for the quality of the book, except that sometimes it was somehow difficult to follow who the writer is talking about by using inadequately the pronouns, either the research was poorly done by the writer or there was not much to tell about that family since within 260 pages she managed to cover the lives of 9 siblings, for some more extensively and others less.
May 1, 2013
Yes, I can see that these were fascinating people who had significant impact on the artistic and literary etc circles in which they moved, but I found something vaguely unsatisfactory about this account (quite aside from a number of contextual detail errors). My takeaway impression is that taken as a group (which contemporaries seemed to do, it's just a bit icky the way some people just shifted their attentions from one sister to someone else within the kinship network) they were fascinating, but possibly not really very nice people.
September 8, 2010
What worryingly fascinating people. Moving in the circles of politics and art, this family were an unashamedly debaucherous, yet unselfconscious bunch.
For anyone interested in finding out more about the Garman family, the "Garman Ryan Collection" at the Walsall Art Gallery has much of the art work on display and many gems hidden in the archives.
For anyone interested in finding out more about the Garman family, the "Garman Ryan Collection" at the Walsall Art Gallery has much of the art work on display and many gems hidden in the archives.
August 7, 2008
Very interesting biography, I came across it at the library and had never heard of the Garmans before but what fascinating lives they led!
June 17, 2010
Fascinating family and such beautiful women - if only there were more pictures available! Really interesting read but some shocking parenting...
June 12, 2012
Fascinating look at the lives of six sisters, several of whom had connections to the Bloomsbury group in London.
March 29, 2013
I was just telling someone about this book which I have and realised I'd not added it to my catalogue. It is fascinating and I bought it as one of the sisters was local to me where I used to live.
July 13, 2015
Utterly fascinating lives.
January 14, 2017
interesting bawdy and compelling. 3.5
April 11, 2017
In honesty I can't remember how I came by this book..which suggests it was either a charity shop impulse buy or one of those deals where you buy three for a quid or whatever and I just picked up to make up numbers.
Anyhow however I came by it I am glad I did...though mainly looking at the sisters in this family I does also look at one brother and reveals a family steeped in the arts and society who seemed to be free thinkers and also free spirited.
That said this isn't a salacious nor scandalous book despite most of the relationships within not being of the norm neither now nor really then ..and you suspect if the tabloid press was as voracious then as it is now this family would have outdone most modern celebrity family's in the talkability stakes.
This book oozes class and is informative in regard art and literature of the early twentieth century as the Garmans are steeped in this environment...it has made me want to visit the collection of art gifted by the family at Walsall which as that's pretty near will be a decent trip out.
Ultimately fascinating.
Anyhow however I came by it I am glad I did...though mainly looking at the sisters in this family I does also look at one brother and reveals a family steeped in the arts and society who seemed to be free thinkers and also free spirited.
That said this isn't a salacious nor scandalous book despite most of the relationships within not being of the norm neither now nor really then ..and you suspect if the tabloid press was as voracious then as it is now this family would have outdone most modern celebrity family's in the talkability stakes.
This book oozes class and is informative in regard art and literature of the early twentieth century as the Garmans are steeped in this environment...it has made me want to visit the collection of art gifted by the family at Walsall which as that's pretty near will be a decent trip out.
Ultimately fascinating.
September 15, 2017
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December 4, 2018Worth reading just to get to this moment, in the section on Lorna Garman, "Chanel No. 5 was a favorite of Lorna's, as was Caron's heady Fleurs de Rocaille. Compared to the chasteness of floral toilet waters, these new perfumes were almost shocking, with their sweaty animal tang only barely disguised by rich jasmine, ylang-ylang, mimosa, gardenia, and violet. The smell was provocative, sexy, not meant for wives or mothers, but for mistresses."
Sadly, the writing is not consistently as romantic as the above. Odd, considering the subject matter. Why biographies of such fascinatingly alive, daring figures are written like police reports is beyond me.
But an engaging story if you want to be engaged beyond the everyday, ho-hum life of middle-class mediocrity. Good to know that there are women--and men--like this in the world, who butter their bread deeply, who drench money in Chanel No. 5 to send to down-on-their-luck lovers, who ravish recklessly.
Sadly, the writing is not consistently as romantic as the above. Odd, considering the subject matter. Why biographies of such fascinatingly alive, daring figures are written like police reports is beyond me.
But an engaging story if you want to be engaged beyond the everyday, ho-hum life of middle-class mediocrity. Good to know that there are women--and men--like this in the world, who butter their bread deeply, who drench money in Chanel No. 5 to send to down-on-their-luck lovers, who ravish recklessly.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews