Mary Berenson (born Mary Whitall Smith; 14 February 1864, Germantown, Philadelphia – 23 March 1945, Florence) was an American art historian, now thought to have had a large hand in some of the writings of her second husband, Bernard Berenson.
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Early life and education
Berenson was born in Pennsylvania, in 1864, to Robert Pearsall Smith and Hannah Whitall Smith (born Hannah Tatum Whitall). She studied at Harvard Annex, now Radcliffe College, from 1884 to 1885. At Harvard Annex, she met the Irish barrister Benjamin "Frank" Conn Costelloe, and the two married in 1885. She converted to Catholicism. This marriage served as an occasion for her family, including her brother Logan Pearsall Smith and sister Alys Pearsall Smith, to move to England in 1888. However, already by 1892 the couple had separated, though Frank would not agree to divorce.
Mary and Costelloe had two daughters, Ray Strachey and Karin Stephen. Through them, she was related by marriage to the Bloomsbury Group of English artists and literary figures: Karin married Adrian Stephen, who was Virginia Woolf's brother, and Ray married Oliver Strachey, who was Lytton Strachey’s brother.
Career
In 1888, in London, she met Bernard Berenson. She became an authority on art history and took up with Berenson in Italy. Berenson developed a reputation as an art expert, and it is believed that Mary substantially helped Bernard's work. Their book The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance was published in 1894 under Berenson's name; Mary's mother reportedly asked that Mary not take credit for her work.