The Belle of the Village

I actually started this post in an entirely different way, but ended up being hung up on one particular painting. I think I just want to talk about that picture, rather than the general subject. So, here we go...

If you know me, you know I obviously have a weakness for images of fallen women. It was the way I met Fanny Cornforth in Found. The Victorian's attitude towards what a woman could and couldn't do with their body still impacts how we live today and I am always delighted to see a painting that explores this.

The Belle of the Village (1883) Alice Havers

 In The Belle of the Village, Alice Havers shows us the consequences of having the baby out of wedlock. The woman is now an outcast, a figure of ridicule which everyone wants to look at but no-one wants to help. Let's start with her...

This is the so-called 'belle of the village' that we've heard so much about! Not so 'Belle' now, is she? That seems to be what the people behind her are saying, but this once beautiful toast of the village has obviously been through some stuff and now is walking with a stick, with a baby on her hip and a pack on her back. The baby has no shoes, which is a worry, and I am concerned about that thin shawl holding her up. The poor woman looks exhausted, and reminds me of a Thomas Hardy lass who has been hard done by a feckless weasel and has to go and die in the snow. With her dark skirt, I did wonder if she had been widowed but I don't believe so as she wouldn't be pointed at in the street.

The Outcast (1851) Richard Redgrave

I am reminded of this corker by Richard Redgrave of a woman being thrown out of the house with her baby. The father points to the snowy darkness while the family sob behind him. We can see the context of this poor lass, the nice, middle-class home and the Bible picture on the wall, all of which she has to leave because of a baby. I do wonder at the Biblical picture because surely the Christian thing would be to look after her, but Dad is going full Old Testament on her, so out she goes. We have no context for the Belle of the Village, other than she used to be the most blessed of all the women, which does hint at being well off or at least not poor. All that snow in the Redgrave painting reminds me of this...

Penance (1889) William John Hennessy 

This painting was part of Sobvent back in 2019, and depicts a young unwed lass and her baby performing penance out in the snow in nothing but her penitent robe. Here we don't know what class she is from, although the large house in the background hints at the father of her little bundle of joy. She must perform the penance alone rather than as a couple because his class gets him out of it. Where is the man in all this? There is a big grey castle of a house in the background of The Belle of the Village - is the culprit in there?

Take Your Son, Sir! (1851-6) Ford Madox Brown

There aren't many images of men accepting responsibility for their illegitimate offspring (I did a post here about the problem) and even the most famous image on the subject, Take Your Son, Sir! might not be about that at all. So what about the Belle? Who's the daddy? There are a few of options...

Behind the Belle are a group gossiping about her.  I'll come to the flat fish in a minute, and I doubt our old chap is the father of the baby, but what about the young man sitting on the fence? He is a rather handsome chap, who has drawn back from the gossiping pair - is it guilt? Even if he isn't to blame for her predicament, he doesn't look as judgemental - is he literally on the fence about how to treat her?

Over on the bridge is a Shepherd, his back to the Belle, concerning himself with his sheep.  I don't get the feeling that he was the father either, but possibly he was the sweetheart of the beautiful girl, who went astray with someone else, like in Found or especially Forgiven...

Forgiven (1898-99) George Harcourt

In Forgiven there is no accidental baby, so the shepherd welcomes back his beloved while his sheep gaze in the field beyond. There is something very Christian about sheep (for obvious reasons) rather than the trapped calf that appears in Found. I think the sheep are a reflection of the man (a good reflection) and the calf was a reflection of the woman (not such a good reflection). So, I think the shepherd on the bridge is the life she could have had, which is possibly reflected in the other figures on the bridge...

On the bridge is another woman watching the Belle - is she sneering? Is she thoughtful? Is she a former friend but now has to keep her distance? I find her face to be more thoughtful than judgemental, and I think her frilly white cap denotes that her life has just begun while the black hat of the Belle hints that hers will soon be over. But what are the children looking at?

Found Drowned (1850) George Frederick Watts

I'm sorry but the moment I see a fallen woman and a bridge, I immediately think of Found Drowned and The Bridge of Sighs. What is it about fallen women and bridges? The third painting in Augustus Egg's iconic Past and Present (1858) has the fallen woman under a bridge too. Is it a metaphor for moving from one place or state to another? Jumping from a bridge was the assumed fate of fallen women, again having many metaphoric implications - refusing to accept your transition from good to bad by jumping off, being washed clean of their sins in death and all that sort of nonsense. The children on the bridge might be pointing to the autumn leaves (which are dying, obviously) or they might be pointing to the river which will be the final destination for Belle. How jolly. So, how did we get here exactly? Sin!

Just to be a bit obscure for a moment, but I remembered learning in my eighteenth century art course that flat fish are to do with female genitalia. Charming. I remember being told in all those endless paintings of beautiful still lifes that you always looked out for a cracked pot or a flat fish. The lass in red has some fish hanging from her basket, which could hint that our Belle was a bit of a one in her day, but I think there is something more disturbing going on...

On the far right of the painting is a little girl with an apple, all very Biblical and probably to do with temptation and how we ended up with a baby in the first place.  The young boy is reaching for it. No, hang on, he's reaching for her. Hmmm...

The Woodman's Daughter (1850-1) John Everett Millais

Any excuse to include The Woodman's Daughter, but I saw fruit and children and went straight there. Again, a little boy, a temption, a little girl. Different set up, but same energy, as the little boy in The Belle of the Village is reaching to take the apple, he isn't being offered it. He also has hold of her wrist, which I'm not entirely comfortable with in the context of this painting. Everything has meaning. The little girl wears a black ruffled hat (which may be the hood of her cape), but she and the Belle are the only two wearing the black hats. Is she the 'before' to the Belle's 'after'?

Before

After

My favourite before and after has to be Robins of Modern Times and Thoughts of the Past by John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, painted between 1857 and 1859 and showing the pathway from rural dalliance to urban sex work. Alice Havers might be implying that the little boy who grabs your apple one day will grab a great deal more the next and you will be the one who has to suffer the consequences. There is no hint at who the Belle of the Village was before her downfall and the title is an ironic one as she is not the most beautiful and loved now, by the expression on her fellow villager's faces. She's a cautionary tale which can have only one satisfying outcome, which involves the bridge and the river below. 

I think the thing that annoys me the most is the mocking of the villagers, especially the smile on the central girl's face at the situation the Belle has found herself in. There is something ghoulish about women's enjoyment of other women's repression under the patriarchal boot. As my daughter would say, she's an utter 'pick me' with her smiling along with the ridiculing, or is she just scared that if she doesn't comply, the finger of ridicule might turn on her. If she goes around with her fish all dangling out there and no bonnet on, she's obviously no better than she ought to be, if you ask me.

Past and Present: Misfortune (1858) Augustus Egg

The fact that Alice Havers painted this makes me pause as who is being judged here? As you will remember from this post, Alice had a bit of a rum time of it with her husband and his many affairs. Her images often didn't involve men as I think the sort of divorce she had would colour your view somewhat. The Belle of the Village is not only sympathetic to the woman who has fallen, but also questions whether or not she was pushed. There are numerous images of fallen women where pity is invoked for the woman - the mistress in the The Awakening Conscience is being saved by Jesus knocking on the door; we feel sorry for the poor wretch in Found; we are sad that the poor lass drowned in Found Drowned, but we are not led to believe that they didn't choose the predicament they find themselves in. In The Woodman's Daughter, she takes the strawberries and gives into temptation. The situation is a little less clear in Robins of Modern Times but the way that boy takes the girl's wrist in The Belle of the Village is not about temptation, it's about consent. Or lack therein.

The Bridge of Sighs (c.1850s) William James Grant

The reason that The Belle of the Village is so fascinating is that the title is unexpected and the symbolism is so thickly layered. Is Alice Havers asking us to still consider this poor woman the Belle despite what has happened to her? Does her suffering make her more beautiful? Is the title ironic, and this fallen creature used to have it all and now look at her! What happened exactly? In the Victorian stories of fallen women, sexual assault is rarely overtly spoken about and she is more likely to have made a mistake or been weak in the face of temptation. There is ambiguity in Alex d'Urberville's attack of Tess. Hetty Sorrel in Adam Bede is judged for the death of her illegitimate child rather than for the act that led to the child. The image of the fish hanging from the girl in red's basket speaks of the temptation of women, and the little boy grabbing the girl hints that little boys take what tempts them. 

No-one in the village is helping the Belle, not seemingly stopping to ask how such a golden woman ended up so wretched. One vaguely positive hint is that the Belle has a walking stick, implying that she has learned to support herself because no-one else is going to do that.  

Hopefully she will leave the village and its judgemental inhabitants far behind her as she walks out of the left side of the canvas.