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Victorian Painting: Uncovering Forgotten Narratives

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Victorian Painting: Uncovering Forgotten Narratives Art Appreciation Lecture Series 2018 The hidden language of art: symbol and allusion Victorian painting: uncovering forgotten narratives Dr Alison Inglis 25/26 July 2018 Lecture summary: The vast majority of artists in the Victorian period – including Cope, Frith, Egg, Lauder, Paton, Landseer, Strutt, Dyce, Hunt, Millais, Leighton and Yeames - aligned themselves with the great narrative tradition that had defined British art since Hogarth. Indeed, one avant-garde figure of the 1860s, James McNeill Whistler, declared mockingly: “It was the era of the subject … The British subject”, in which the meaning of the work resided more in the convincing portrayal of a story than the aesthetic harmony of the composition. A painting was seen to be a type of visual literature, with the audience asking: “what does the picture represent”? This question was not always easily answered, however, and artists often inserted motifs or symbols to enrich the work’s meaning. To modern audiences, who lack the contemporary context, these images can appear ambiguous or even indecipherable. This lecture will trace the fortunes of the Victorian subject painting, revealing the sometimes forgotten narratives and unexpected transformations towards the end of the century. Slide list: 1. Augustus Leopold Egg, The Travelling Companions, 1862, oil on canvas, Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 2. William Hogarth, The Heir from The Rake’s Progress, 1733, oil on canvas, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London William Hogarth, The Orgy from The Rake’s Progress, 1733, oil on canvas, Sir John Soane’s Museum, London 3. David Wilkie, The letter of introduction, 1813, oil on panel, Scottish National Gallery, David Wilkie, Chelsea Pensioners Reading the Waterloo Despatch, 1822, oil on panel, English Heritage, The Wellington Collection, Apsley House 4. Charles Cope, The Pilgrim Fathers: Departure of a Puritan family for New England, 1856, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Robert Scott Lauder, Dick Tinto Showing Peter Pattieson his Sketch of the Bride of Lammermoor, 1847, oil on canvas, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery 5. William Powell Frith, The Derby Day, 1856-8, oil on canvas, Tate 6. Abraham Solomon, First Class – the meeting (first version), 1854, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Canada Abraham Solomon, Second class – the parting: ‘Thus part we rich in sorrow parting poor’ 1854, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 7. Abraham Solomon, The Return: First Class, 1855, oil on canvas, National Railway Museum, York Abraham Solomon, Second class – the parting: ‘Thus part we rich in sorrow parting poor’ 1854, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 8. Joseph Noel Paton, in Memorium, 1858, oil on panel, private collection 9. Edwin Landseer, Man proposes, God disposes, 1864, oil on canvas, Royal Holloway College, London 10. William Strutt, An Irish obstructionist, 1892,oil on canvas, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne 11. William Dyce, Pegwell Bay, Kent – a Recollection of October 5th 1858, 1858-60, oil on canvas, Tate 12. John Everett Millais, Isabella, 1849, oil on canvas, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool George Manton, Isabella and the pot of basil, c. 1890s, oil on canvas, Wycombe Museum Proudly sponsored by 13. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, 1848-9, oil on canvas, Tate William Holman Hunt, The Hireling Shepherd, 1851, oil on canvas, Manchester Art Gallery 14. John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of his Parents (The Carpenter’s Shop), 1849-50, oil on canvas, Tate John Rogers Herbert, Our Saviour Subject to his Parents at Nazareth, 1847, oil on canvas, private collection 15. William Holman Hunt, The shadow of death, 1870-73, oil on canvas, Manchester Art Gallery 16. William Holman Hunt, The awakening conscience, 1853, oil on canvas, Tate 17. Richard Redgrave, The Governess, 1844, oil on canvas, Victoria and Albert Museum, London Charles Cope, Yes or no?, oil on canvas, 1872, oil on panel, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 18. Augustus Leopold Egg, Past and Present, no 1, 2 and 3, 1858, oil on canvas, Tate 19. Augustus Leopold Egg, Past and Present, no 1., 1858, oil on canvas, Tate 20. Augustus Leopold Egg, Past and Present, no. 2., 1858, oil on canvas, Tate 21. Augustus Leopold Egg, Past and Present, part 3., 1858, oil on canvas, Tate 22. John Everett Millais, The Order of Release, 1852-3, oil on canvas, Tate John Everett Millais, Autumn Leaves, 1856, oil on canvas, Manchester Art Gallery 23. Frederick Leighton, Death of Brunelleschi, 1852, oil on canvas, Leighton House Museum, London Frederick Leighton, Winding the skein, c. 1878, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney 24. John Melhuish Strudwick, A story book, 1883-84, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of New South Wales Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Bocca Baciata (Lips that have been kissed), 1859, oil on panel, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 25. James McNeill Whistler, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, 1862, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington Albert Moore, Shells, 1874, oil on canvas, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 26. William Yeames, And when did you last see your father, 1878, oil on canvas, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool William Yeames, Defendant and Counsel, 1895, oil on canvas, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol 27. William Quiller Orchardson, The first cloud, 1887, oil canvas, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne John Collier, The Prodigal Daughter, 1903, oil on canvas, Usher Gallery, Lincoln 28. William Orpen, Sowing the new seed (for the Board of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland), c.1913, oil on canvas, Mildura Arts Centre 29. Charles Sims, Clio and the children, 1913 and 1915, oil on canvas, Royal Academy of Arts, London Reference: Altick, Richard, Paintings from books, Ohio State University, Colombus,1985. Arscott, Caroline, ‘Ramsgate Sands, Modern life and the Shoring-up of narrative’, in Towards a modern art world, edited Brian Allen, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, pp. 157-68. Bendiner, Kenneth, An introduction to Victorian painting, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1985. Casteras, Susan, The substance or the shadow: images of Victorian womanhood, Yale Centre for British Art, New Haven, 1982. Edelstein, TJ, ‘Augustus Egg’s triptych: A narrative of Victorian adultery’, Burlington Magazine, 125, 1983, pp. 202-10. Lister, Raymond, Victorian Narrative paintings, Museum Press, London, 1966. Nunn, PG, Problem picture: women and men in Victorian painting, Aldershot, England, 1996. Strong, Roy, Recreating the past: British history and the Victorian painter, Thames and Hudson, New York, 1978. Fletcher, Pamela, Narrating modernity: the British problem picture, 1895-1914, Ashgate, Aldershot, 2003. For access to all past lecture notes visit: https://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/members/current-members/member-events/hidden-language/ .
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