Sir Sacheverell Reresby Sitwell, 6th Baronet, ( ; 15 November 1897 – 1 October 1988) was an English writer, particularly on baroque architecture, and an art and music critic. Sitwell produced some 50 volumes of poetry and some 50 works on art, music, architecture, and travel.

Early life

thumb|Blue plaque on Wood End, the house in [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough where Sacheverell Sitwell was born]]

Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire on 15 November 1897 and brought up in Derbyshire. He was the youngest child of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall, and the former Lady Ida Emily Augusta Denison. Dame Edith Sitwell and Sir Osbert Sitwell were his older siblings.

His paternal grandparents were Sir Sitwell Sitwell, 3rd Baronet and his wife Louisa Lucy Hutchinson (daughter of the Hon. Henry Hely Hutchinson). His maternal grandparents were William Denison, 1st Earl of Londesborough and Lady Edith Somerset (a daughter of the 7th Duke of Beaufort), who claimed descent through female lines from the Plantagenets.

Sitwell was educated at Eton College. In World War I he served from 1916 in the British Army, in the Grenadier Guards. After the war he went to Balliol College, Oxford but did not complete a degree, and was heavily involved in Osbert and Edith's projects.

Career

Sitwell's poetry collection A Hundred and One Harlequins attracted some attention in 1922, but the first works to gain more widespread notice and acclaim were three prose studies of painting, architecture and music: Southern Baroque Art (1924), German Baroque Art (1927) and Spanish Baroque Art (1931). Cyril Connolly called Southern Baroque Art "a milestone in the development of our modern sensibility". Journey to the Ends of Time (1959), was "a kaleidoscopic series of meditations on death and the possibility of survival".

As his poetry was so severely criticised, particularly by those who disliked the Sitwells in general, and although Canons of Giant Art (1933, including the highly praised poem 'Agamemnon's Tomb') was a work of considerable impact, In 1967 Derek Parker published a selection of his poems in the summer edition of Poetry Review, including 'Serenade to a Sister', an elegy for his sister Edith. An Indian Summer (1982), with a preface by Peter Quennell, collecting together 100 of his best most recent poems, was his final volume of poetry.

In his later life he withdrew from the publicity that attached to the Sitwells collectively, instead preferring to travel and concentrate on writing. He succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his elder brother Osbert in 1969. He was made a Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1984. His main residence was Weston Hall, Northamptonshire, the family home and he served as High Sheriff of Northamptonshire for 1948.

Personal life

thumb|Georgia Doble Sitwell by [[William Acton (painter)|William Acton (1906–1945)]]

On 12 October 1925 Sitwell married Georgia Doble, the daughter of Arthur Richard Doble, a wealthy Canadian banker. They had two sons:

  • Francis Trajan Sacheverell Sitwell (1935–2004), father of Sir George Sitwell, 8th Baronet. He was also a member of White's and St James's clubs.

Georgia Doble had difficulty adapting to married existence and missed the social life in London. Despite affairs on both sides, they remained deeply attached to each other until the end and never officially separated. The personal correspondence of Doble, preserved at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas, include letters with David Stuart Horner and Frank Magro, Osbert Sitwell's partners, and friends like Lawrence Audrain, John Lehmann, Loelia Lindsay, René Massigli, Evelyn Waugh, and Mae West.

Sitwell died in October 1988 at the age of 90. He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his elder son Reresby.