Emilie Ashurst Venturi
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Emilie Ashurst (Hawkes) Venturi (6 July 1821 – 16 March 1893) was an artist, writer, and activist who pushed for reforms in nineteenth-century Britain. She was the primary English translator of the works of Giuseppe Mazzini, the renowned Italian intellectual, and his devoted disciple. She corresponded with Mazzini, the Italian revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi, the artist James McNeill Whistler, the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne, the activist Josephine Butler, and the Irish politician John Dillon.[1] She also painted portraits and published essays, translations, and some fiction. She and her first husband, Sidney Milnes Hawkes (1821-1905), separated in 1854. After her divorce was granted in 1861, she married the Italian patriot Carlo Venturi (c. 1831-1866) and became known as Madame Venturi.[2] Their marriage ended with Carlo’s sudden death from a stroke.[3] She also published as E.A.V and Edward Lovel. She belonged to a family, the Ashursts, who agitated for reforms across three generations and were the central figures in the Muswell Hill Brigade.