Identity:

John Elliott was a painter, designer and architect. He was the husband of Maud Howe (1854-1948), cousin and biographer of Francis Marion Crawford. They lived in the Palazzo Rusticucci in the Borgo, Rome.

Life:

Elliott studied at the Académie Julian, Paris where he was a pupil of Carolus Duran and in Rome with José Villegas. Later he enjoyed the patronage of a number of American collectors including Mrs Berthe Honorée Palmer (for whom he designed a decorative scheme for her house in Chicago). He also made portraits of Julia Ward Howe, Lady Cromer and the Duke of Cambridge. There is a collection of his work, including a chalk drawing Julia Ward Howe (1901), in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Bibliography:

Bénézit, E., Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs et Graveurs, 8 vols, Paris, 1956-61; Elliott, Maud Howe, John Elliott, the Story of an Artist, Boston, 1930; Spellbound by Rome. The Anglo-American Community in Rome [1890-1914] and the Founding of Keats-Shelley House, exhibition catalogue, American Academy in Rome, Keats-Shelley Memorial House, Church of St Paul's Within-the-Walls and Museo Hendrik Christian Andersen, Rome 2005.