Sharp's Travels

This list of William Sharp's most significant travels and pauses during his lifetime is drawn largely from information scattered through Mrs. Sharp's Memoir and checked wherever possible against other external evidence of his movements. Mrs. Sharp's accuracy at all points is, of course, impossible to determine, though it is quite clear that she considered her husband's mobility an important matter for record. The fact that I have omitted several briefer summer excursions within England and Scotland and the posibility that she may have omitted some trips to Paris to cover the Salon exhibitions indicate that probably no gap of years can be construed as a standstill. Regardless of precision, it remains obvious from this itinerary that Sharp spent an incredibly large part of his lifetime in motion.

Sept. 12, 1855-
Sept.1876           Born, raised, and educated in Scotland (Paisley,
                           Glasgow, and "the West").

Summer 1873      joins troupe of wandering gypsies on "truant" excursion                               through western highlands.
Sept. 1876          June 1877 South Seas, Australia;
travels through Australian bush country.

1877-1890          London established as home base, from which Sharp
makes various other trips.

Feb.-June 1883    Italy, as art critic (Rome, Assisi, Florence, Venice).

April-June 1884   Paris, as art and literary critic.

[June 1884           Marriage to Elizabeth Sharp.]

August-Nov.1889 Canada, New England, New York.

Summer 1890       Argyll, Scotland; beginning period of artistic retrenchment.

Fall 1890               Antwerp, Bonn, the Rhine Valley, and Stuttgart
                              (to work out collaboration with Blanche Willis Howard                                on A Fellowe and His Wife).

Dec. 1890-
        Sept. 1891    Settles in Rome.

Sept. 1891            Stuttgart again.

Oct. 1891              Returns to London.

Jan.-March 1892   New York.

April-June 1892     Paris again (meets Verlaine, acquaints himself further
with "decedents," "symbolistes").

Summer 1892         The Sharps make "home" of a cottage in Sussex.

Jan.-March 1893      Algeria and Tunisia.

July 1893                   Scottish Highlands.

Summer 1894           Iona.

Fall 1894                   Edinburgh (collaboration with Patrick Geddes and                                    Edinburgh Celtic movement).

Feb. 1895                  The Hebrides ("with Fiona").

Summer-fall 1895      Edinburgh; begins lecture series at University and
                                 collapses after first lecture; retires briefly to Isle of Bute.

Jan. 1896                   France (Paris and Rémy de Provence to visit the Thomas Janviers).

May 1896                  Venice.

Summer 1896            London, then Lake Country and Scotland.

Oct. 1896                   New York.

Jan. 1897                    Brief stop in London, then southern France again.

Summer 1897            Ireland (meetings with George Russell,
                                  Standish O'Grady, Edward Martin, Douglas Hyde,
                                  Lady Gregory).

May 1898                  Holland.

Jan. 1899                   Sharps settle briefly in Hampstead,

Summer 1899           Highlands, then Ireland again.

Fall 1900-fall 1901   Through France and Italy to Sicily for winter, then return to England with long pause in Florence.

Winter-spring 1902    Sicily again; stays near Taormina with Duke of Bronte (at Castello di Maniace).

Summer 1902            Lismore (Scotland).

Oct.-Dec. 1902         Castello di Maniace (Sicily). 

Jan. 1903                    Athens and Greece.

Fall 1903                    Wales.

Jan. 1904                    Athens again.

Winter 1904                New York.

Feb. 1905                    Rome.

April 1905                   Scotland, especially Iona.

Oct. 1905                    Switzerland, Italy (Venice and Florence), to Sicily again, there he plans and postpones a second trip to North Africa.

[Dec. 6,1905                Dies at Castello di Maniace (Sicily).]