Monday 8th December - Curiosity

Can you believe we are already a week into Blogvent?! Blimey, I always find the time flies after my daughter's birthday so I better get on with it...

Curiosity (1864) William Fettes Douglas

I'm back in Scotland again. Sir William Fettes Douglas (1822-1891) was the President of the Royal Scottish Academy in the 1880s until his death in 1891. As a young man, he trained to be a banker like his father but decided to pursue art instead, beginning with exhibiting mainly portraits at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1844.  The painting that got him attention was Dante Arranging His Friends in the Inferno (1862) which also might be responsible for why I've seen our old friend 'Pre-Raphaelite' attached to his name.  The foliage in this isn't bad...

The Recusant's Concealment Discovered (1859)

And this one is a bit spooky...

The Spell (1864)

However, spookiness and nicely drawn ivy alone does not a Pre-Raphaelite make. Back to the library...

In the 1882 Artist magazine article on Douglas, it said he was a voracious reader, so in a way I wonder if he sympathised with the children's curiosity about the hidden books that they are sneaking to read. However, it is the tiny boy who is pouring over the books - the girl (his sister? his mother? who can tell) is busy reading letters and looking at the miniature enclosed.

Lurking in the shadows is a figure with something in his hand - it looks like a big potato peeler, but I can't imagine that's right. The clenched hands don't give me the confidence that it is something nice. Behind him, we can see steps leading down to the curtain he has pulled aside, so is this a secret room? The girl and boy don't seem particularly nervous to be there, but I do not like that figure in the shadows...

The tapestry seems to have three classical women on it - the three muses perhaps? the three fates? - and I am trying to see what is carved onto the bench.  Above the boy seems to be a scene where a figure is on the ground while others gather round.  Further along, behind the girl, is a cherub who also seems to be looking at the letter she is holding. So, what can we deduce from this? I'm going to spin a story and suggest that the girl is the young wife of the shadowy figure. She and her young son have come to live in this big house where she and the child found the secret room with all these books and letters in it.  Maybe these are the property of the unfortunate first Mrs Shadowy Figure who died in tragic and mysterious circumstances. Maybe she is still alive and locked in another secret room. Little do they know that Mr Shadowy Figure has discovered them and is none too pleased. Lawks.

My final word on William Fettes Douglas is that he gave a speech in 1885 as President of the Royal Scottish Academy where he declared women's art to be 'like a man's, only weaker and poorer,' so he can get stuffed.

See you tomorrow.