The Rare and the Beautiful: The Art, Loves, and Lives of the Garman Sisters

Summary (from the publisher): 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 mores: 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.  

Review: "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.

Stars: 4