Thesis June 2019
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UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM The Medium is the Messenger: An Exploration into Ethel Le Rossignol’s Visionary Art with Studies of Anna Howitt’s and Hilma af Klint’s works Kathryn Branch-Channer Department of History, European Studies and Religious Studies History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents M.A. Thesis in Religious Studies Supervisor: Dr. Marco Pasi Second Reader: Dr. Peter Forshaw Universiteit van Amsterdam Submitted August 2019 !1 UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM Table of Contents Introduction 3 1. Spiritualism, Mediumship and Art 4 1.1. The Origins of Spiritualism 4 1.2. Women and Spiritualism in Post-World War I 6 1.3. Female Mediumship 6 1.4. Theosophy 8 1.5. Modernism 9 2. Ethel Le Rossignol in Historical Context 11 2.1. Spiritualism in England During and After World War I 11 2.2. Correspondences 11 2.3. Context 12 3. Ethel Le Rossignol: The Holy Sphere 14 3.1. A Goodly Company 14 3.2. Healing 17 3.3. Gender and Sexuality 18 3.4. Exhibition and Audience 18 4. Anna Mary Howitt: A Glorious Fruition 20 4.1. Spirit Drawing Methods 21 4.2. Symbolism 22 4.3. Anna Mary Howitt and Ethel Le Rossignol 23 5. Hilma af Klint: Freedom and Opposition 26 5.1. Theosophy and Feminist Politics 27 5.2. Hilma af Klint: Background 27 5.3. Evolution and Gender 29 5.4. Automatism 29 5.5. Exhibitions and Intentions 29 5.6. Hilma af Klint and Ethel Le Rossignol 30 Final Conclusion 32 Image Appendix 34 Bibliography 53 !2 UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM Introduction Intuition is a practice, but can it make you a master of art? The interest in this thesis comes from the number of female artists active in mediumship at the turn of the century and what motivated them to create their radical spirit art. This thesis aims to illuminate the artistic oeuvre of Ethel Le Rossignol with comparison to two more visionary female artists, Anna Mary Howitt, and Hilma af Klint. Their context, influences and recurring common themes will be analysed in the attempt to discover how their work and lives interact, and whether there lies a common space where these women share their creativity and goals. In the last decade, the study of western esotericism has become an established field in religious studies. From the beginning, it has engaged in self-critical reflection over how scholarly research can be correctly determined. The question of how to study it is still discussed. This problem is highlighted by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, professor and chair of History of Hermetic Philosophy and related currents at the University of Amsterdam, in the article ‘Empirical method in the study of esotericism’ where he discusses the debate over reductionism and religionism and proposes that the empirical method is the most useful for academic research of esoteric studies. He states that “empirical researchers do not limit themselves to the empirical because they wish to claim it is the only reality (privately they may believe the opposite), but simply because it is the only one accessible to them for investigation”1. I have chosen to discuss these women and their work with this empirical method. Women artists and esotericism throughout the modern lineage of art history have been consistently excluded. This is certainly changing in the past few decades, with recent exhibitions such as Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future at the Guggenheim in New York (October 28th, 2018 - April 23rd 2019), and World Receivers: Georgiana Houghton, Hilma af Klint and Emma Kunz at the Lenbauchhaus in Munich (November 6, 2018 - March 10, 2019). By studying their work from a historical point of view, the analysis of their work is exhibited in the most inclusive format, remaining factual and open to further discussions. The neglect of western esotericism as a part of the historical inquiry has left gaps in our knowledge, and the same goes for female artists in the art history canon. The vast amount of context given is the framework for these artists' lives, influences and for understanding their work to the fullest degree because their work may have not been treated seriously for so long. Academic articulation is important because it takes their work seriously. There is no rigid tradition of synthesis in place, therefore, I have used a comparative method to gain a productive ‘bigger picture’ view of female mediumistic artists during the turn of the century across Europe. This is a way to bring visibility to artists that heavily engaged in intensive personal research and artistic methods, consuming a lot of their lives with the purpose of their messages. The main publications relied on for this thesis are The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern (1989) and The Darkened Room: Women, Power and Spiritualism in the late Victorian England (2004) by Alex Owen, two works which highlight topics surrounding consciousness and Spiritualism in the late 19th and early 20th century, women, power and mediumship. The Divine Feminine by Joy Dixon has provided background reading for the relationship between women and the Theosophical Society. Ethel Le Rossignol, Anna Mary Howitt, and Hilma af Klint used their intuition, a knowledge they believed to be of something higher than this earth, and developed work against societal norms. I hope this thesis will highlight these women artists' works, context, influences, themes and their missions. 1 Hanegraaff, Empirical method in the study of esotericism, page 102. !3 UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM 1. Spiritualism, Mediumism and Art This chapter lays the groundwork for investigating developments in Spiritualism and mediumship in relation to women, alongside the assumptions of secularisation and the decline of traditional religion in the early 20th century. Spiritualism, argued by Anne Braude in Radical Spirits: Spiritualism and Women’s Right in Nineteenth Century America (1989), became an important movement for feminism and vice versa. Therefore , it could be argued that it helped to shape certain aspects of female artistic and cultural life. In discussing the idea of the self inside the rational framework of modern life, we can observe the rigid boundaries that could have led creative culture to look further for spiritual or more abstract inspirations. Anne Braude suggests that by recounting the connection between women’s history and religion, we can write a more accurate account of the past. By studying its importance in artistic currents we can write a more inclusive account of art in the late 19th and early 20th century in relation to esotericism, religion and women. While Braude’s work may be outdated now, and new findings have found the link between the emergence of feminism and the suffrage movement strenuous, Radical Spirits opened a new perspective into women’s history and religion that deserves to be analysed. It is, however, worth bearing in mind that many outspoken Spiritualists were feminists but not all feminists were Spiritualists. 1.1. The Origins of Spiritualism Spiritualism is most often defined by the central belief that individuals are capable of communication with spirits and the deceased. Spiritualism as a philosophy encompasses the idea that the spirit exists separate from matter. Most histories mark the beginning of Spiritualism as 1848 when Margaret and Kate Fox communicated with a spirit who had been murdered at their house in New York. After this, mediums began to pop up all over America. While some Spiritualists performed séances and enacted messages from beyond, from sailors to long lost Egyptian masters, others focused on the artistic side of spiritual communication through spirit photography, drawings, and automatic writing. British professor of history and gender studies, Alex Owen published her first historical study into the role of women in the Spiritualist movement, The Darkened Room: Women Power and Spiritualism in Late Victorian England in 1989. In her later work, The Place of Enchantment (2004), she suggests transcendentalism as a forerunner of late-Victorian ‘mysticism’2. Transcendentalism emerged from German Romanticism and was a reaction against Enlightenment rationalism. The movement honoured intuitive spiritual experience over empirical affirmation and accepted mystical oneness with God and the natural world. Spiritualism can also be linked to Swedenborgianism.3 Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772), earned an international reputation as a scientist and for his theological works which influenced those seeking alternatives to mainstream religion. He was an inspiration for the likes of William Blake (1757-1827), Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930), who was a well-known Spiritualist. Many transcendentalists embraced Swedenborg’s worldview, including Margaret Fuller who was a journalist and early leader in the women’s rights movement.4 Swedenborg spoke to the dead and to angels, whom he believed were spirits that had reached a high stage of spiritual evolution.5 This granted him mediumship in the eyes of many Spiritualists who used him as inspiration. Camila Crosland (1812-1895) was an English writer of fiction, poetry, essays, and sketches. In her published work, Light in the Valley: My Experiences of Spiritualism (1857), she writes, “Spiritualists may differ about the degree of pure and Divine inspiration which was the privilege of Emanuel Swedenborg, but none are likely to deny that he was one of 2 Owen, The Place of Enchantment, page 118. 3 Dole, Emanuel Swedenborg: Essays for the new century edition on his life, work and impact. 4 Blanchard, Margaret Fuller: From Transcendentalism to Revolution. 5 Carroll, Spiritualism in Antebellum America. (Religion in North America), page 248. !4 UNIVERSITEIT VAN AMSTERDAM the most extraordinary mediums of who the world has any record”6. Swedenborg also became a great influence on the modern Theosophical movement which will be discussed later in this chapter. Mesmerism was another movement that began in the late 18th century and influenced Spiritualism.7 Mesmerism was a method of psychological and physical healing that was developed by Franz Anton Mesmer.8 Mesmer was an Austrian physician who believed that there was an invisible and natural forced that pervaded all living things.