The life of women in past centuries was not easy. In Great Britain, during the so-called "Victorian era", despite the fact that a woman ruled the country, the life of the women was especially hard. In Supercurioso we already talked about this question in the post: The misfortune of being a woman in the Victorian Era and this time we want to see how this unfortunate situation was reflected even in art. Join us to know 3 paintings that explain sad Victorian stories related to women.
3 paintings that explain Victorian stories related to women
1 . The Outcast (La paria)
The Victorian moral hypocrite did not allow women to fail. The figure of "pater familias" was deeply rooted in that society and was the moral head of the family. What he said or believed was law and the whole family group had to abide by it. "The Outcast" is an oil painting of 1851 by the artist Richard Redgrave and in him we see reflected this unjust situation.
In the painting we see a stern and uncompromising patriarch who expels the fallen daughter from his home. She throws the girl who carries her illegitimate child into her arms. The author presents behind the door a snowy landscape, cold and dark symbolizing what awaits the girl. Inside the house everything is desolation. One daughter begs for mercy by throwing herself on the floor, another impotently beats the wall, the younger looks bewildered at the scene, while the mother comforts the crying child. There is no leniency on the part of the parent.
It is not known if the intention of the author was to warn young women of what could happen to them if they left the right path or on the contrary to create a current of sympathy towards the poor daughter expelled from home.
2 . The Awakening Conscience (The Awakening of Consciousness)
This painting was shaped by the pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt in 1853 and is also a sample of the Victorian mentality about how the behavior of women should be: pure, chaste, virtuous and with the only goal of caring for her husband and having children . The painting, which at first might seem like an intimate wedding scene, is actually the critique of life that the girl we see painted on him has taken. The painting is intended as a warning and is another of the paintings that explain stories.
The hands of the girl, crossed in the foreground, show us that she does not wear a wedding ring, they are not a marriage, but lovers. Several indications tell us that the woman's life has been wasted: the clock with the glass bell, the half-finished tapestry, the score of the piano and the floor that are works that speak of lost opportunities, the loose threads, the glove without a partner ... or the cat under the table that plays with a bird, a metaphor for the woman who is trapped by her lover. The reflection in the window of the luminous life that exists outside, unlike the claustrophobic atmosphere of the room, reflects the existence that it could have had. The plants, which had a special meaning in the Victorian era, also speak to us: bells, which are a warning sign and marigolds that are the expression of grief. The painting is intended as a warning, before it is too late, for all those women tempted to leave "the good way". In the end, it may be too late to go back.
3 . Past and Present nº1
Past and Present nº1 is the first painting of a trilogy painted by Augustus Egg in 1858. The background of the painting (and of the whole Egg trilogy) is the same as in the others: a warning to Victorian women of their place , the right path to follow, the misfortunes that can happen to them and a warning that there is no turning back.
In "Past and Present No. 1" we see a strange scene of a middle class family. It is the moment when the husband discovers, through a letter, the infidelity of his wife. The woman fainted on the floor with bracelets that resemble handcuffs, the broken apple, half on the table and half on the worm-eaten floor, the girls playing with a crumbling house of cards and the painting of the expulsion from paradise on the wall . The misfortune has fallen on the family because of the mother.
In the other two pictures of the trilogy you see how the story ends. In one we observe the two daughters in a poor room after the death of the father and in the other the woman who is expelled from home and society is forced to live under a bridge.
In the Victorian era the foundations of great social advances were laid, however the prevailing moral and that only seemed to concern women, was a slab that took many decades to lift.
Thank You!
@v-arts
Thank you for sharing this. I really enjoyed your analysis and ability to recognize the meaning of symbols within the painting, something that would be completely lost on me. I have always been fascinated with the heavy meanings Victorians and later Edwardians places on flowers. I will be sure to check out your other posts!