Anthony Bailey

Anthony Cowper Bailey (5 January 193313 May 2020) was an English writer and art historian. He was evacuated to Dayton, Ohio, in 1940 during World War II. After returning to England in 1944, he attended several Hampshire grammar schools before studying history at Oxford University. In 1955, he emigrated to New York City and became a staff writer at The New Yorker for more than 30 years. He wrote twenty-three books, including biographies of artists J. M. W. Turner, John Constable, and two books on Rembrandt. He lived on Mersea Island, near Colchester, Essex, with his wife Margot. They had four daughters together. Early life and education Bailey was born on 5 January 1933 in Portsmouth, England. His parents were Cowper Goldsmith Bailey and Phyllis Molony. While his father served in the British Army and his younger sister Bridget remained in England with their mother during World War II, Tony was taken in for four years by Otto and Eloise Spaeth, who had four children of their own, including a boy also named Tony. Otto Spaeth was the owner of a Dayton machine tool factory and both he and his wife were passionate art collectors. Bailey's lifelong interest in art was influenced by his time living with the Spaeths. The family's private art collection included such artists as Cezanne, Paul Gauguin and Edward Hopper.