Reframing the Victorians: Aesthetics and Homosexuality in the Victorian era.

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.  

Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."

During the Victorian era, there was a strange hypocrisy about sexuality and activities.  Many heterosexual relationships were looked upon as not only normal, but often also a public front for the more superior members of society.  And, somewhat unsurprisingly, this was how things actually were.  However, it was mainly the men who were romanticised for this; you don't often read about female homosexual relationships during this era.  Perhaps this is because, for much of the time, women were presumed to gain no gratification from sex whatsoever.  Obviously this was quite untrue, but few people seemed to be in the position to stand up and argue this point.  However, this is not what I want to discuss.
Historically, Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet, and one-time novelist.  Going slightly deeper, he was a flamboyant dandy, a rebel in society - particularly involved in the movement of Aestheticism, and a well-known wit.  I have chosen to base my blog topics around Wilde, because he was the first Victorian writer I came across who was openly gay.

The movement of Aestheticism began mainly as an opposition to the middle class socialites, who appeared to have good taste in art, music and culture when, in comparison to those genuinely interested in the area, they were ignorant and unrefined.  These philistines only wanted to look good in front of their peers, which obviously provoked many people.  Wilde associated himself with the movement with more flamboyance than most, and went on to popularise the phrase "art for art's sake."  He was determined to lead a life of materialistic beauty, and desired nothing more than to make his life an ideal work of art.  This, in turn, led to the writing and publishing of his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray.

On my first reading of the book, I saw no homosexual hints or elements; instead, I read it as a horror story.  The plot follows Dorian Gray as he sells his soul to the devil, in exchange for eternal youth, and goes on to live a life on decadence and debauchery.  The novel ends, despite the fast-paced life of luxury, with the debatable death or suicide of Dorian, in which his own peers finally see him for the fraud he is.  It took a modern day retelling of the novel - Dorian: an imitation - by author Will Self, for me to actually notice what I thought was natural behaviour of the times.

Many Victorian novels hint towards homosexual relationships; indeed, the men seem very affectionate towards one another, and are not ostracised for it.  On the contrary, it seems very commonplace to the narrators.  However, it goes deeper than that.  We all know that the Victorians could sometimes be very shallow, looking to base not only their architecture on that of previous eras, but also their appearances and attitudes.  In ancient Greece, relationships were mostly homosexual, with Plato and various other philosophers writing about same sex relationships.  In fact, the word 'homosexual' originated in Greece.  The Greeks defined sexuality not by gender, but by the roles each person played in sex.  For the Victorians, sex and sexuality was defined by passions and desires, the freedom to want rather than to do what was legally proper.  The concept of romantic friendship was the name given to homosexual relationships; insinuating the 'couple' did nothing more than act as normal, close friends in public - and whatever they did in their own homes was between them.  They would indeed often have wives and children of their own, yet there seemed no doubt towards their gender preference.  However, many people still saw homosexuality as a sin, and a crime.  It wasn't until the 1880's that people - specifically, people who had studied homosexuality enough to call themselves 'sexologists' - began to understand it as an illness rather than a criminal offence.  Same sex education was encouraged as a time for adolescent boys to experiment with their sexuality, in the hopes that they would have grown out of it by the time they reached adulthood.  Nonetheless, this didn't deter men who wanted to form relationships with other men.

Fashion has always been a big part of the gay lifestyle; this dates back to the Victorian era - and also quite possibly before.  Fashion in these times incorporated beautiful accessories and trinkets into outfits, and home decor.  Peacock feathers were a very big thing for Victorians, as well as strong colour contrasts and combinations.  Classical and Japanese influences were also quite common.  However, aestheticism wasn't only appreciated in materialism.  A love of music, or philosophy was often seen.  Victorians would proudly display philosophical books on their shelves at home; later these would give way to more scientific works.  There was a great deal of ersatz decor around in this era; again, it was all about wanting to impress peers.  In the earlier years, the rich would pose in front of beautiful buildings - houses; churches, etc.  Then, the scenes would be photographed, or painted, to give the impression of a perfect life.  This wasn't an accurate representation of life in the Victorian era, particularly the early years, but it was how society wanted to see things.

Another author whose work contained homosexual themes was Alfred, Lord Tennyson.  Tennyson's poem, 'In Memoriam,' is - amongst other themes - a love poem, written both to and about his friend Arthur Hallam.  The poem is not as explicit as Wilde's Dorian Gray, and did not have the same effect upon publication.  In fact, it was - and still is - regarded as one of the great poems of the 1800's.  The Picture of Dorian Gray, on the other hand, was first partially censored, and then edited many times to remove the most controversial parts.

Tennyson was not as flamboyant about his sexuality as Wilde, and there has been some speculation on whether or not he was even bisexual.  He certainly had many female lovers, although it was never made clear if he ever acted on his feelings for Hallam.  Tennyson wrote a fair amount about homosexuality, and homoerotic scenes, but the material was so widespread that, again, there is not enough consistency to argue his sexuality.  There is no possibility that Tennyson's wife was just kept around for a cover-up; the two were married for over forty years, which, all things considered, was quite impressive for the times.
Victorian homosexuality and aesthetics almost go hand in hand.  Nevertheless, sexuality was a far bigger part, because of the implications.  Although the last hangings for sodomy in Britain were in 1945, and the death sentence for sodomy continued until 1961, there was still the fact that the authorities had a law to obey, and homosexuality remained a punishable offence for many years afterwards.



Works cited:

Wilde, Oscar.  The Picture of Dorian Gray, Penguin Classics: 2003.

http://archive.org/stream/inmemoriambyalfr00tennuoft/inmemoriambyalfr00tennuoft_djvu.txt

 http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/s/style-guide-aestheticism/

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/wilde/dawson14.html

http://www.cmgww.com/historic/wilde/bio1.htm

Reframing the Victorians : Women's fashion during the Victorian Era

"Never before or since had western women's costume expressed respectability, acquiescence and dependency to such a degree as in the 1840's, the most static decade in 19th century fashion." 

In this blog post I will be documenting my discoveries about fashion during the Victorian era. I will be commenting on how fashion changed throughout this period as well as the influences that motivated these changes. I will pay particular attention to women’s fashion throughout this age. As my main focus is the change in pattern, cloth and influences, I will be writing about what women of a higher social status wore as they were the ones who had access to the latest and most extravagant and luxurious fashions. 

During my research I discovered that women who were from wealthier families had different clothes for various times of the day. They were also expected to wear particular things to occasions and events. In France, women even had previously chosen outfits which were only worn on days where someone would attempt to take the king's life. "Immediately after such attacks, society women would call at the Tuileries to offer the King their congratulations, wearing clothes which they kept at hand for these alarming occasions. They were known as "costumes for days on which the King's life is attempted." These costumes were usually dark in colour and simple in form to reflect the tragedy of the situation. 

For my research, I read several books which were solely based on Victorian fashion, textiles and patterns. I discovered the changed which not only occurred in the garments worn by women of this period but also the change in hairstyles and accessories. I learnt that during the early 1840’s, ringlets were considered to be very fashionable for young girls. Grown women wore side curls a la Sevigne. I also discovered that head wear along with hairstyles was another extravagant part of women's fashion "bonnets had wreaths of grapes, cherries, and currents. These were summer bonnets of Leghorn or rice straw, or silk. For winter, velvet or satin was the correct material, and ostrich feather tips replaced flowers or fruit for trimming." However, as time went by, the fashion progressed and a lace cap, from Paris which was called the "bonnet assassin" was introduced. This cap apparently "lived up to it's name" as it made a "pretty woman look very killing." Lace had started to become a very popular part of fashion and Queen Elizabeth was said to appreciate it greatly as her wedding gown was said to be worth £1000 in lace alone. Some historians also claimed that by the end of her reign she possessed £76,000 worth of lace. 

Form was a very important factor of Victorian women's fashion and "When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, the trend which was later to culminate in that characteristic Victorian feminine fashion, the crinoline, had already been under way some 15 years...The romantic fashion of the 1830 period with balloon sleeves, comparatively short "ballet dancer's" skirts, upstanding "giraffe" hair style and flamboyant hats went a complete change of spirit by the time of young Queen's accession, as though welcoming the new bourgeois ideal." By 1850, the corset had become a dominating necessity for women as it helped them achieve the desirably small waist. This desirably small waist was also achieved by how large and heavy the bottom half of their dresses were.

“Dress was, as always, an expression of woman’s place in society.” 

I learnt that throughout the period, there was a change in which patterns and colours were deemed popular and fashionable. "Some colours were more ladylike than others, some were unsuitable for certain regions of the dress; some were unfit for the widow or the maiden; or for the particular seasons of the year." 

The main influence for British fashion for women a well as the main manufacturer of fashionable clothing for the Victorians during the first half of the era, was France. However, this differed for men as Britain played a large part in the manufacturing and designing for their clothing. This had changed by the 1870's as Vienna had become a center of importance for fashion. 

“Fashion was created in Paris – but it was the Paris of Louis Philippe”. Philippe, a dominating character in the fashion during this time, was a man who, in his earlier career, was mocked for carrying an umbrella, as it was deemed common during the time. Victorians of a higher social status believed it showed lack of wealth as it was a display that you could not afford a carriage to transport you. 

“There is a world of difference between dress of 1830 and 1860, not only in all these factors but in the underlying causes which were primarily those of the social structure." 

The change that came with fashion during Victoria’s reign could arguably be partially due to the fact that women were becoming more recognised as tailors, much to the dismay men, who previously were the leading characters of fashion production. The recognition women began to receive in regards to their work, reflected the general change in attitudes towards women during this period. This could have been due to the fact that the main figure of authority during the time, was a woman.“Women began to be appreciated as tailoresse in larger numbers and already by the mid-century their increased participation in trade was being attributed to the loss of control of their craft by the men.” 

By the 1840’s, previous fashions which were particularly figure hugging had vanished. It became a popular trend for women to be very covered up and was not uncommon for only a woman’s face to be showing. Neck lines became higher and dresses became longer and heavier. 

This era saw a large transformation, not only in style and influence but also material. During the 1840's, material which had not previously been used became increasingly more popular. Cashmere, alpaca, tulle, muslin and cotton became more common.The colours of this also decade became much darker and stronger than ever before. Despite this, the fashion and the women still remained very dainty and feminine and stripes, check, plaids and spring patterns were very governing. 

Works Cited - 

Gernsheim. A, Victorian and Edwardian Fashion, a Photographic survey

Wilson. E, Adorned in dreams, fashion and modernity

Reframing the Victorians : Culinary Culture of the Victorian Era

To begin with, the labouring class being the most unfortunate members of society not only had to deal with problems of overpopulation, corruption and deaths, but also the severe lack of food. Especially in Literature, the theme of food reveals a lot about the class, nature and strength of a character. Generally, the proletarians were those who were often seen as a burden to society, the fact that they couldn't afford to provide sustenance for their families, as though they had caused their own downfall, perhaps through unwillingness, disability and/or illness. I aim to research domestic culture within the Victorian era and how different classes lived during this movement.

In most Victorian homes there was a scullery, a scullery was a small room at the back of a home used for carrying out dirty household duties such as washing up, preparing vegetables and doing laundry. Typically a female maid, sometimes even a young girl would be in charge of these tasks around the home. The scullery was said to be kept away from the main kitchen area so that food was not infected by the soiled water and also for the reason that the smells of food being prepared would not drift into the main house. During the Victorian era, kitchens would be considered as the main source of comfort in the home, so typically of a Victorian novel, “Much of the plot, especially at Wuthering Heights takes place in the kitchen.”

In the main kitchens , the head cooks of the household would use a cooking/oven range to prepare meals for the upper class , and the working class would also use cooking range (if they could afford one) to mimic the complicated dishes that were eaten by the bourgeoisie, for example , huge roast meats and piled high plates of sweetmeats. The cooks would use copper pans and pots to prepare both vegetable and meat dishes , copper was a good material used to make kitchen appliances as it would heat quickly and also cool down easily. The oven-range would have a built tank for water on the opposite side used to boil water, for everyday usage, both domestic and personal use, as seen below.

 

Of course there were no pre-packaged, ready-made meals available for the working class, therefore daily meals would greatly depend on factors such as personal income (if they were employed) and the cost of food. Empathising with the working class, was a chef of the Queen named Francatelli who noted in his recipe book (for the working class) “My object in writing this little book is to show you how you may prepare and cook your daily food, so as to obtain from it the greatest amount of nourishment at the least possible expense.” The majority of working class would endure any employment available, strenuous jobs such as cleaners and labourers as a means of surviving and being able to provide for their ever expanding families. Working extensively long hours would obviously result in excruciating hunger to which the food they had access to, would not nourish them properly. This could be seen in an article where critics agreed that “going on the Oliver Twist diet would guarantee radical weight loss and rapid descent into illness.” Obviously the diets of working class were not sufficient for their bodies, particularly an undeveloped child’s body, and therefore did not provide them with enough energy for the labour they performed.

The labouring class would ravish many basic foods such as vegetables (often spoiled), leftover pieces of meat including pork, bread, milk, gruel, flour and sugar. Although their portions of meat were limited, the working class would attempt to produce substantial meals that could satisfy their starvation, including meat pies, a dish that merely incorporated the residue of previous foods such as scraps of vegetables, strangely enough a refreshment that could be considered a delicacy today. Meat pies would also be considered a suitable dish for the working class as they wouldn't be able to stop working to have the luxury of feasting at a lavish dining table laden with masses of food. We could agree that a meat pie sounds somewhat nutritious as it includes a variety of foods however, a less wholesome meal was a flour soup which was stomached by the masses. Flour soup was produced from a simplistic recipe consisting of salt, hot water, flour and butter, an extremely basic dish that simply filled the void of hunger and was not in any way beneficial to the human body.

A brief topic that appealed to me was the supermarket Sainsbury’s, being an employee of Sainsbury’s I was unaware that it was one of the major chains of rapidly growing shops during the Victorian era. The founding of Sainsbury’s was around 1869 where John J Sainsbury’s and his wife opened their first store in London where they began to sell food essentials such as fresh provisions, tea and sugar. John J Sainsbury went on to define his stores as “Quality perfect, Prices lower” therefore convenient for the working class at this time.

As we all know, food is a basic right for any human of any era and some of the dishes cultivated by the Victorians have become some of the most popular dishes today, including Christmas cake and Bubble and Squeak. Many novels lack the real importance of food in terms of human development, for example when nourishment becomes limited, we begin to see how the mixture of personal misery and lack of food cause both physical problems like weight loss. This is seen when, “Catherine is challenged by her husband to choose between him and Heathcliff, and she refuses, and ceases eating for days.” Apart from her love life, Catherine’s stubborn nature and disregard to everything, leads her to question the normality in her life, food being no exception.

In another way, the upper class enjoyed a more luxurious life through access to the best of everything including savouring their delicious feasts of exquisite meats, fresh vegetables, jams and a selection of mouth-watering desserts. This could be seen in Madame Bovary, “Emma, as she entered the room, felt herself immersed in warmth, a mixture of the scent of flowers and fine linen, the smell of roast meat and the odour of truffles,” simply the epitome of the upper class world, Emma feels comfort from everything familiar and luxurious surrounding her, reinforcing class consciousness and the blatant materialism of the bourgeoisie. For the upper class the extravagance of food and dining was a great way to showcase their wealth, and quite often they would allow food to waste, leaving no sympathy for those who were desperate for just a mere portion of their meal.

Works Cited

Brandon, Ruth. The People's Chef: Alexis Soyer, A Life in Seven Courses. Chichester, West Sussex, John Wiley & Sons, 2004.

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights. New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.

Dickens, Charles. Oliver Twist. Penguin Classics; New Ed edition (25 Jan 2007).

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Penguin Classics; Revised edition (December 31, 2002).

http://www.victorianweb.org/science/health/hunger.html

http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/bronte/cbronte/bg5.html

http://www.shutitdown.net/text/powerhunger.html

http://www.meatinfo.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/15959/Meat_consumption_through_the_ages.html

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/nov/12/featuresreviews.guardianreview5

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/22114/22114-h/22114-h.htm

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/the-peoples-chef-by-ruth-brandon-6167873.html

A Look at Victorian Popular Music

When we think of Victorian society, ‘prudish’ is probably one of the first descriptions that springs to mind. However, the popular music at the time suggests that the Victorians may not have been as prudish as we tend to think of them as. 

Research for this task involved searching through the V&A online collections on music halls and performers, as well as an online gallery from the British Library containing 188 popular Victorian songs. Some books were also consulted, such as The Singing Bourgeois: Songs of the Victorian Drawing Room and Parlor by Derek B. Scott and Popular Music in England 1840-1914: A Social History by Dave Russell.  

A Victorian music hall.

 Music in the Victorian era is home to the music of the Romantic era. This style of music was enjoyed by the middle and upper classes especially. Key composers of this genre include some of music’s most recognisable names including Chopin, Mozart, Verdi, Beethoven and Shubert. Romantic music made use of folklore as inspiration to both lyrics and compositions. A much wider variety of instruments were used compared to other eras, specifically brass instruments. This is due to their recent improvements and inventions. Pianos were extremely important, and the instrument became a central feature of upper class households as it brought families together to play and listen to music together due to the lack of recorded music and other forms of modern entertainment, such as television.

  

A typical bandstand.

Bandstands were also a common occurrence. They were built in parks across the country to house brass bands, who played live music, and are similar in appearance to a gazebo. As there were not many other forms of entertainment available, bandstands were seen as vitally important to recreational parks. 

Cover for the sheet music for Lottie Collins' signature song.

Also popular was the sale of sheet music for pianos. They were especially popular because recorded music was unavailable at this time, so the only way to hear the songs at home was to play them from the sheet music. Music sheet copies sold very well, and a popular song could sell over 80,000 copies. Almost one hundred music shops existed in London by 1888 according to the V&A, signifying just how culturally important music was to the Victorians. The popularity in the sale of sheet music for pianos indicates some parallels to the music industry of today. By the 1890s, music sheet covers typically portrayed the singer of the song on the cover, the start of album art as we know it today. It also encouraged the application of copyright laws to musical compositions, giving birth to the business and legal aspect of music. Music was becoming a lucrative business and an interesting cover art for sheet music helped to maximise sales, an idea that is still functioning in today’s music industry.   

Marie Lloyd.

Some of the period’s most popular singers were female. Marie Lloyd is remembered as the “Queen of the Music Hall” and referenced as the Madonna of her time for her boundary pushing stage acts. She was a national and international superstar, performing sold out shows across Britain and globally from America to South Africa. Audiences loved her songs and performances, and she toured globally to much success. Her songs were famously full of sexual innuendos, and her performances popularised by the sexually suggestive nature in which Lloyd performed them in. Some of her popular songs include “If You Want to Get on in Revue”, about advancing in theatre work by performing sexual favours, and the sexually suggestive “She’d Never Had Her Ticket Punched

Before”. Perceived as a threat to society for her risqué image, she was banned from performing at the Royal Variety Performance for being too obscene. Lloyd retaliated to this by holding a sold out headlining show at the London Pavilion “by order of the British public” according to advertisements printed for it. She was so popular that towards the end of her career, she was earning a staggering amount of £470 a week (around £27,000 in today’s currency) for performing in music halls due to her star power. Her extreme popularity can be used to redefine modern preconceptions about the Victorians; how could they be a truly prudish society when somebody like Lloyd enjoyed colossal success?

Marie Lloyd wasn’t alone in enjoying success for ‘obscene’ performing. Lottie Collins, a fellow music hall performer, become a national star after an infamous performance at the London Tivoli of her song “Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay!” Performing the song five times a night at the height of her popularity, Collins would enthusiastically launch into a hypersexual version of the popular ‘skirt dance’ which purposefully exposed her stockings, held up by sparkling garters, and bare thighs. The performance drove audiences wild with excitement yet unsurprisingly drew complaints from Puritans. The fact that audiences responded so unreservedly to her performance clearly shows an appreciation among many Victorians for this kind of performing. Sexually infused performances from pop stars today are still met with disdain from audiences (Miley Cyrus caused outrage and became infamously synonymous with ‘twerking’ this summer) so we can only imagine how a performance as shocking as Collins’ would have been received.  

Madonna impersonated Tilley for a performance in 1993.

Vesta Tilley is perhaps the embodiment of an eccentric Victorian performer. She was a male  

impersonator, who took her act across the country and the globe. Her act was an audio-visual experience, as detailed in a report from W.R Titterton. Her performance art featured her taking on the role of a male character, and performing songs in these male character roles. Tilley was dedicated to her art, and spent many hours studying and preparing for her performances.

There is something all of these women have in common - money and power. They have power in the sense that they were financially independent, and were able to independently succeed in a patriarchal society. They were free to perform in ways that challenged what was socially acceptable. Perhaps this is what drives Margaret in Mary Barton towards pursuing a career in singing. It is not clear where exactly Margaret sings, but based on her class we can assume she may have sang in a music hall, as these were predominantly working class institutions. Mary explains how Margaret might “become as famous, maybe, as that grand lady fra' London as we see'd one night driving up to th' concert-room door in her carriage" (90) indicating the luxurious lifestyle that a successful career in music could give, the kind of lifestyle enjoyed by Victorian singers such as Marie Lloyd. Margaret is clearly very talented and her future in music seems fruitful, as indicated by how “th' managers said as how there never was a new singer so applauded” (89). Margaret ends up touring through “Bolton and Bury, and Owdham, and Halifax” (132), and apparently makes a lot of money as she always has money to give to Mary when she sees her.

The popularity of Victorian music stars such as Marie Lloyd is tremendously telling of their society. The fact that acts such as hers could be so popular and respected indicate that their society was not as straitlaced as we tend to remember it. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy a raunchy performance just as much as we do today, so in that sense, were the Victorians really so different to us now?     

William Holman Hunt and The Victorian Hypocrisy

There is an irony in Victorian culture in that they are famous for both debauchery and a ‘buttoned up’ attitude. Consider the Victorian fascination with scandal in newspapers, including gory details of murders that aren’t necessarily needed. The treatment of women also, that there were strict rules about marriage, divorce and the way they dressed; yet prostitution was a large business.

Dickens' characterization in his writing shows this Victorian hypocrisy. Look at the last frame: does the woman there not resemble a child more than a lady?



It seems to me that the religious, polite Victorian attitude could have been a polar opposite existing to counter this debauchery, or as I’m more inclined to think, it existed to hide it. Of course, there lived some religious characters not corrupted by debauchery in the period, but they aren’t famous, for the simple reason that they would probably be quite boring. Therefore I will not focus on them. Instead, I want to look at the figure of William Holman Hunt.
Hunt was a painter in the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood. As a bit of a Pre Raphaelite fan girl, I can admit to having several postcards of another of the member’s paintings: Rossetti. But the reason why Hunt is so interesting is because he is sort of the bass player of the band, while Rossetti is the charismatic, attractive lead singer- it was one of his paintings that adorned the official poster of the recent Pre Raphaelite exhibition at the Tate Britain.



I went to this exhibition myself and found the detail of the paintings incredible

Hunt was a devout Protestant who was meticulous and stringent in his paintings, using them to recreate scenes from the Bible and comment on current social issues. I think he is a brilliant example of this coexistence of debauchery and piety in Victorian society because of his temptation into debauchery but attempts to resist and reform himself and society. I will be looking at his painting ‘The Hireling Shepherd’ to show this.

 
‘The Hireling Shepherd’ depicts a shepherd being distracted by a shepherdess and neglecting his flock. Judith Bronkurst talks about how ‘Shortly after his arrival at Kingston Hunt read [John] Ruskin’s recently published pamphlet, Notes on the Construction of Sheepfolds. This castigated the divisions between Tractarians and Evangelicals [rival Anglican groups] for deflecting the clergy from their real task of combating Romanism [Catholicism]’ and that is what Hunt is representing in this painting with the two characters in the foreground. The woman quite vividly representing the more catholic of the two denominations, through Hunt’s painting her in a red reminiscent of a Cardinal’s robes.

Hunt himself describes the narrative of the painting thus: ‘[h]e [the shepherd] was a type thus of other muddle headed pastors who instead of performing their services to their flock…discuss vain questions… My fool has found a death’s head moth, and this fills his mind with forebodings of evil and he takes it to an equally sage counselor for her opinion. She scorns his anxiety from ignorance rather than profundity, but only the more distracts his faithfulness: while she feeds her lamb with sour apples his sheep have burst bounds and got into the corn.’ So from Hunt’s description the painting has a very serious context; Hunt sounds very angry at the Anglican situation of the time and yet, when one looks at the picture I think they are most drawn to the woman’s face, which is placed almost in its centre. Though her face is supposed to reflect this sinful behaviour of the Tractarians, contemporary viewers and I think, you today, noted before learning the context, the seductive nature of her expression and pose. Then you may understand the bad reception ‘The Hireling Shepherd’ received for being a painting depicting drunken farmers getting a little excited in the fields. Victorian prudishness was prevalent also in the art world and the ‘wildness’ depicted was deemed untasteful. I think it would be ignorant to defend the painting as not sexual at all because I think Hunt may have subconsciously painted it that way after planning it, because of his sitter: Annie Miller. She was a prostitute and Hunt fell in love with her, no doubt tainting his religious convictions along the way, so he decided to educate her into a lady in order for them to be able to have a respectable marriage. This expression is an accurate portrayal of a woman who knows sexual deviancy very well; it’s no wonder the Victorian audience picked up on that, because it’s very realistic. Although, ‘deviancy’ is a deliberately ironic word choice, since prostitution was a wide spread business of the era: the painting’s reception only emphasizes the hypocrisy of Victorian culture. It actually being about something serious, but the attention is turned towards its ‘untasteful’ features which viewers apparently didn’t want to see, when they themselves probably witnessed its existence in the everyday.

Hunt being the religious man he was and a keen realistic painter, went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to create more biblical pieces with accurate backgrounds whilst he was engaged to Annie Miller. This appears to me to be similar to the Victorian tendency to try and deny the ‘underworld’ that existed with religious zeal. The engagement however, never reached a marriage and that may have been due to Annie not being used to monogamy or that Hunt was not attracted to upper class women-something which may have been a common problem for Victorian men as the author of ‘My Secret Life’ expresses having a similar predicament. His work from Jerusalem marked a new style for him and was well recieved by Victorian critics, only affirming what I mentioned previously: that the Victorian art world wanted art that reflected the culture they were fabricating of prudishness and religious dedication. This kind of depiction is what the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood were reversing, they considered the pattern sewn by Raphael and popular with the Victorians to be superficial art. Viewers would not be able to relate to a painting of cherubs, but a painting of a kept woman will certainly stir something more in a viewer, because it reflected the underworld of Victorian culture. If such a painting gets a negative reception I believe it only suggests further those critics to be in denial, a part of this Victorian fabrication.   

http://www.19thcenturyart-facos.com/artwork/hireling-shepherd

J.D. Macmillan, “Holman Hunt’s Hireling Shepherd: Some Reflections on a Victorian Pastoral,” The Art Bulletin, vol. 54, no. 2 (June 1972): 188.

Judith Bronkhurst, William Holman Hunt. A Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 1 (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press, 2006), p. 148.

http://www.victorianweb.org/religion/herb7.html

http://www.artchive.com/artchive/H/hunt.html

http://harkavagrant.com/archivecat.php