Born in London, England on July 23rd, 1878, Stephen Hugh Willyams Haweis was the youngest of three children. His parents, Mary Eliza and Hugh Reginald Haweis, were an artist and a pastor, respectively. His mother’s most famous work was an adaptation of Chaucer, Chaucer for Children, as a modern text with Pre-Raphaelite illustrations. Haweis’ parents died while he was still young: his mother in 1898 and father in 1901, neither living to see him attend the Académie Colarossi art school in Paris. Haweis had a connection to Auguste Rodin and photographed much of the sculptors’ work in an Art Nouveau style, adding shadows to make them appear more realistic.

During his lifetime, Haweis was commissioned to paint for Catholic churches, most notably the windows of St. Anselm’s church in the Bronx. As a lifelong traveler, he spent most of his life away from England, first in Paris, then Italy, Australia, San Francisco, and Bermuda, and finally settling in Dominica in 1929 for the last forty years of his life.

Stephen Haweis met Mina Loy in art school at the Académie Colarossi in 1902, and the two were married on December 31st, 1903. Loy said of Stephen that she married him as a means of escape, so she “wouldn’t have to stay with [her] terrible parents” (Pozorski). This characterizes the unhappy union of two artists: one that produced two children, but was predominantly characterized by time spent apart from each other and in other lovers’ beds. The relationship between the two centered on their work as painters, Haweis helping Loy bring some of her watercolors to attention at the 1904’s Salon d’Automne. Loy also became a subject of Haweis’ photography. The couple’s first child, Oda, was born in 1904 but died before her first birthday. Oda’s death marked a shift and ultimately the separation of a marriage that was already failing.

The couple separated briefly in 1906, but when Loy discovered she was pregnant with her doctor’s child, the couple compromised and resumed living together. This was followed by a move to Florence, Italy in 1907 and the birth of Loy’s daughter Joella in that same year. Loy and Haweis had a second child together, Giles, in 1909. After three years in Florence, the couple’s relationship seemed to stabilize until Haweis began an affair with an English model in 1912. Haweis left for Australia in February 1913, later going to San Francisco and NYC. Loy begged him for a divorce in 1914, but her financial support was a motivation for his refusal. Finally, on June 17th, 1917, Loy was able to procure a divorce from Haweis. In 1921, Stephen took their twelve-year-old son Giles to Bermuda without the knowledge or permission of Loy. Loy refused to forgive Haweis, a feeling that only increased with Giles’ death four years later in Bermuda. Never seeing her son again due to Haweis, this loss sunk Loy into deep grief.