Art & Women Spring '15

19th Century Victorian England

Self-sustaining women

Education Reform

Self-sustaining women

• Seamstress, house servant and governess become popular occupations for middle-class women (25,000 governesses alone by 1851)
• Paintings of women, whether wives or hired workers, stress their nurturance

Feeding the Swans (1889) Edith Hayllar

The Governess (1854) Rebecca Solomon

• Women now had the opportunities available to earn wages independently, but job conditions were poor
• For some women, working was not a choice, but a necessity if they were widows
• Anna Blunden is most popular for her paintings depicting the actual conditions of the overworked and underpaid female laborer

• Woman's Art School of Cooper Union, Lowell School of Design at MIT, Cincinnati School Design, Royal Female School of Art marked the beginnings of professional art training for women
• Men used the founding of art schools for women as an excuse not to allow women into male-dominated art academies

• Some argue that the stability of the Victorian household rested in part on the existence of prostitutes
• During the second half of the 19th century, there was an increase in the depictions of prostitutes in paintings
• “Prostitution is as inseparable from our present marriage customs as the shadow from the substance. They are two sides of the same shield.” - Mona Caird

The Seamstress (1854) Anna Blunden

Lady Students at the National Gallery (1885)

Advancements under the Reign of Victoria

Women & Animals

Noteworthy Woman: Emily Mary Osborn

• Victorian society held a special place in their hearts for domesticated animals, therefore paintings of animals drew a large audience
• Rosa Bonheur was the most famous female artist of the 19th century and one of the most admired animal painters in history

• Most popular for her depictions of women in distress; appreciated for her realistic, rather than idealized, illustrations of women
• One in a group of women who petitioned for equal access into the Royal Academy School

Noteworthy Women

The Horse Fair (1855) Rosa Bonheur

• Her fame in Britain coincided with a period of strong public debates about animal rights and animal abuse

*Osborn never married, thus creating her own living with her art

• 1857: Divorce is now legalized for women
• 1869: Tax-paying women allowed to vote in local elections
• 1870: Women could retain their own earnings and inherit property
• These advancements were not themes in paintings by either men or women; many paintings depicted the banality of housework

Nameless and Friendless (1857) Emily Mary Osborn

• Furthering the animal imagery was the transporting of Africans through the recent slave trade

Women & Animals

The Victorian Lady

• Edmonia Lewis fled to Rome after continuous criminal accusations were brought against her
• She was made a spectacle because of her race but this attention drew acclaim for her carvings with African American themes

Adam and Eve Naming the Animals Harriet Powers

Forever Free (1867) Edmonia Lewis

Sweet Doing Nothing (1877) Auguste Toulmouche

• Paintings of animals often symbolized the importance of women and animals' lives and the control over their own bodies
• Hogarth's engravings were made popular again because of the connection they made between the torture of animals and the torture of women
• The public began to realize that the animal rights issue was really a human rights issue

• Harriet Powers was a former slave who was kept illiterate by her owners
• Because of this, Powers stitched stories into quilts that are now considered historical masterpieces

The Four Stages of Cruelty (1751) William Hogarth