Sveva Caetani was a Vernon-based painter whose work inspired a hardcover coffee table book published independently by Heidi Thompson. [See Heidi Thompson entry]

In Reading Sveva (Talonbooks 2016), Daphne Marlatt responds to the life and paintings of Sveva Caetani, born in Rome in 1917, who came to Canada as an Italian immigrant and grew up in Vernon. When Fascism was on its rise in 1921, she and her parents came to the Okanagan where she was raised as multilingual, with deeply indentured European traditions. When Sveva's father died in 1939, she and her mother entered a 25-year home-seclusion out of grief. It wasn't until her mother died that Sveva re-entered the community of Vernon where she flourished with her artistic skill as a painter and a high school teacher. Marlatt illuminates the life of a female artist and her search for belonging.

See bio below.

BOOKS:

Caetani, Sveva, 1917-1994. Recapitulation: A Journey [edited by Heidi Thompson, Angela Gibbs Pert, Dennis Butler; photography & book design, Heidi Thompson]. -- Vernon: Coldstream Books, 1995.

Caetani, Sveva, 1917-1994. Caetani di Sermoneta: An Italian family in Vernon, 1921-1994 / Catherine Harding, editor. -- Vernon: Greater Vernon Museum and Archives, 2003.

[BCBW 2003] "Art"