'To Use Our Talents and Improve Them' Women's Careers in the London Art World 1820—1860
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
1 “To use our talents and improve them” Women’s careers in the London art world, 1820-1860 2 Declaration of authorship I, Johanna Holmes, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. All illustrations are reproduced with the kind permission of copyright holders. Signed:………… ……………….. Date:…………25 July 2020.……………………………….. 3 Abstract This study investigates women’s access to work opportunities, and management of their subsequent working careers, in the London art world between 1820 and 1860. As markets became more buoyant, in the 1820s, giving way to a tide of consumerism and mass production from the 1830s onward, the workplace associated with art diversified and grew, yielding new opportunities for training and work in illustration and reproduction, design of commodities, art-teaching and art- historical study to both men and women who, in many cases, also pursued careers as practising artists. Nevertheless, when Emily Mary Osborn’s painting ‘Nameless and Friendless’ was exhibited in 1857, it followed a tradition established in the early 1840s of presenting a demure young woman, clearly vulnerable and insecure in the commercial world, attempting unsuccessfully to earn some much-needed income from her paintings. The narrative of her ‘plight’ in seeking an income from an inadequate education has persisted to the present day, but it is argued here that this did not literally reflect the experience, either of the painting’s female creator, or of other women working in this and associated occupations at the time. Research into women’s working lives in four aspects of the London art business in this period - water-colour painting, wood-engraving, art-teaching and art-writing – provides the opportunity to examine the construction of workplace institutions which stabilised and conferred status on practitioners. The role and impact of bodies which offered occupational status, qualifications and intellectual stimulus are considered through the examination of both cohorts of women and individual case studies. Conclusions are drawn concerning women’s exclusion, not from participation, but from the benefits of these bodies, and the continuation of their precarious tenure in the workplace. To Emily Mary Osborn’s generation of feminists, existing female professionals presented no acceptable model of career success. 4 Table of contents Page Declaration of authorship ......................................................................................... 2 Abstract ................................................................................................................... 3 Chapter 1 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 8 A context of change ........................................................................................................... 10 Shifting values and language ............................................................................................. 15 Constraints on women’s agency ........................................................................................ 24 Professional women at work in the first half of the nineteenth century: a review of literature ............................................................................................................................. 28 The construction of this study ............................................................................................ 36 Chapter 2 Professional inclusion: women painters in water-colour ............................. 41 Introduction......................................................................................................................... 41 The ‘Old’ Water-colour Society: cultivating the image of the professional man ................. 43 An exclusive profession ..................................................................................................... 45 A more masculine style of water-colour ............................................................................. 49 Eliza Sharpe: professional “Artist Painter in Water-Colour” ............................................... 53 Margaret Gillies: public, but not professional, recognition ................................................. 64 Elizabeth Rigby: the talented amateur ............................................................................... 72 “A true professional” ........................................................................................................... 83 Female ambition and industry: managing contradiction .................................................... 89 Chapter 3 “An honourable, elegant and lucrative employment”: wood-engraving and commerce ............................................................................................................................. 95 Introduction......................................................................................................................... 95 Evidence of women’s participation in the wood-engraving business ................................. 96 The wood-engraving trade ................................................................................................. 99 Promoters of women’s participation in commercial wood-engraving ............................... 106 Mary Byfield (1795-1871): a cultivator of her connections .............................................. 114 Ladies seeking a “lucrative” occupation ........................................................................... 122 ‘Graduates’ of the class in wood-engraving ..................................................................... 131 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 135 Chapter 4 “Doubt of a lady’s ability to teach”: women teachers of art ....................... 141 Introduction....................................................................................................................... 141 The “obscure individual” ................................................................................................... 143 Female artists and teaching ............................................................................................. 146 5 Government involvement and new opportunities ............................................................. 151 The ‘reform’ of the Female School of Design ................................................................... 152 Teaching ‘drawing’ to the children of working people ...................................................... 154 Structured advanced training of art teachers ................................................................... 156 Art mistresses in training .................................................................................................. 160 Promoting the Employment of Ladies as Teachers of Fine Art: Eliza Mills .................... 167 “Ruling well and wisely”: Louisa Gann’s school of art ..................................................... 172 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 182 Chapter 5 “More than ‘colleges’ can do”: art-writing and the working-day world ...... 192 Introduction....................................................................................................................... 192 The history of art takes academic substance ................................................................... 194 The boundaries of female attainment: Anna Jameson experiences a setback .............. 200 Louisa Twining finds a purpose for her talents ................................................................ 209 Jameson and Twining: a working partnership.................................................................. 222 Work, training and professional purpose for women ....................................................... 224 A logical response to a “cruel inconsistency” ................................................................... 225 Louisa Twining’s realisation of her ambitions .................................................................. 228 Conclusions ...................................................................................................................... 231 Chapter 6 “Every wise woman buildeth her house”: Conclusions.............................. 234 The changing nature of the workplace ............................................................................. 236 Professional women’s presence and status ..................................................................... 238 Public perception of the female professional ................................................................... 240 Potential further recoveries .............................................................................................. 245 Resilience and adaptability: treacherous virtues ............................................................ 246 Career objectives and the “adaptive woman” .................................................................. 248 Appendix A: Female wood-engravers active between 1820 and 1860 ................. 254 Appendix B: Women employed in various capacities around mid-century by the Department of Science and Art ........................................................... 257 Abbreviations .......................................................................................................