Susanna Arethusa Gibson, née Cullum, Society Hostess and Political Activist (1850). Spiridion
Susanna Arethusa Gibson, née Cullum, Society Hostess and Political Activist (1850). Spiridione Gambardella (Italian, c.1815-1886). Oil on canvas. St Edmundsbury Museums.When Arethusa married she used her social position, intelligence, wit and energy to attract and entertain the most significant artistic, political, and diplomatic figures of her time. She was a close friend of Charles Dickens. Arethusa shared her husband’s radical outlook although on some issues the two differed. She knew Thackeray, Richard Cobden, and Disraeli. Victor Hugo, Louis Napoleon (before he became Napoleon III), and Mazzini, the founder of Young Italy, were amongst the foreign dissidents she entertained. She raised funds for Mazzini and advocated the cause of a united Italy to her many influential friends. -- source link
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