Book Review: Pre-Raphaelites - Art and Poetry

 It's been a while since a post, for which I offer apologies and excuses - I've been writing and giving talks, plus a lot of life also got in the way. In the meantime, two smashing Pre-Raphaelite exhibitions have arrived and it is lovely to see that my newsfeed is full of glorious art (and no doubt reassuringly negative reviews by Jonathan Jones, he is my touchstone).  Bad news for me however is that I am not able to go anywhere at the moment, so how am I meant to wallow in all this lovely art? Catalogue, immediately!

Let's be honest, even in better circumstances, it is unlikely I'd be able to get all the way to Newcastle as that is quite a jaunt for me. I was very excited about this exhibition as the subject of my Masters dissertation was Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites and so I knew I'd really enjoy seeing new paintings and ways of looking at the theme. I went to the Laing back in 1999 (I think) when we were living in Yorkshire and got to see the utterly glorious Isabella and the Pot of Basil - she's a big girl...

Isabella and the Pot of Basil (1866-8) William Holman Hunt

To frame the art within the framework of poetry is always going to make perfect sense; so much of the art is based on poetry and some artists were also poets. Shakespeare, Tennyson, Keats and a whole host of others are behind the subjects of some of the Pre-Raphaelite greatest hits, so what would be better than to see all these in the same place?

If One Could Have That Little Head of Hers (1900-09) Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale

The catalogue is a glossy, dark green affair in soft cover. There are some short, accessible essays and then pages of beautiful paintings. The extensiveness of poetic sources is eye opening; obviously Rossetti made his art and poetry a double bill, but artists reached not only to their contemporary, Tennyson, but also back to Ulysses and Dante, the Faerie Queene and Chaucer. I liked that there were not only paintings but also the much neglected 'decorative arts' - enamelling, furniture, tiles as well as book illustrations. It never fails to tickle me that Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale made full-scale painting versions of her illustrations as well as the actual illustration so she got to sell the same image twice.

Isabella and the Pot of Basil (1877) Joseph Severn

I think that the tale of poor Isabella and her herb cultivation often gets overlooked in favour of Ophelia as the poster girl of Pre-Raphaelitism, and it is great to see the exhibition go into the iconography of Isabella and her doomed love affair, from John Everett Millais dog-kicking piece, and the almost-two-metre-tall Holman Hunt masterpiece to Joseph Severn's lesser-known gloomy version from 1877. There is also La Belle Dame Sans Merci to add to your Keats extravaganza, and I'm delighted to see Fanny Bunn's enamel is featured. Fanny Bunn is everywhere right now, I'm so proud of her.

La Belle Dame Sans Merci (1901) Fanny Bunn

There is a fair amount of Fanny Cornforth featured too (I'm all about Fannys, as you well know) with Fazio's Mistress in all her glory as well Rossetti's illustrations for Goblin Market (where she is patently Lizzie) and Laus Veneris by Edward Burne-Jones (where she was the original model for Venus in red).

Laus Veneris (1873-8) Edward Burne-Jones

Looking through the catalogue I am struck by exactly how much of my favourite art is based on poetry. Obviously, I knew that poetry was a massive influence, but exactly how expansive that influence was is breathtaking. It is also interesting to see how this art/poetry defines femininity and how women should be. The Victorian ideal of women who are beautiful, loyal, patient and a bit doomed is on full display - is she Portia. Oriana, the lady receiving the keepsake from a doomed knight or the dying May Queen? Even if you want a bad girl you can see Lucrezia Borgia or the Merciless Lady on canvas being gorgeous and corrupting, although obviously we don't want lovely ladies to be following their example, thank you. Be less Laura and more Lizzie please.

Illustration from Goblin Market (1862) Dante Gabriel Rossetti

In conclusion, if you are sat on your sofa away from the delights of Newcastle, this book is a welcome salve. It has the perfect amount of essays to pictures, and the illustrations are great quality and the perfect mix of familiar and new. I really enjoyed reading the essays and feel this is the perfect model for exhibition catalogue, so huge congratulations to the Laing for bringing something so gorgeous to life.

Pre-Raphaelites - Art and Poetry exhibition details are here and you can buy the catalogue here.

Review: Captured in Art

 If you have read this blog for a while, you'll know I'm a sucker for an Art novel, for example this one, this one or this one, not to mention this one and this one which I wrote myself. I am always excited to hear of a new release and so I bring you Captured in Art by the splendid Vanessa Wiggins...

LOOK AT IT! Gorgeous cover, no notes.

Based in the mid- to late-Victorian periods we travel from London to Sicily, then to the aesthetic salons of Holland Park, uncovering secrets and art. Sophia travels to Sicily to improve her health, yet finds only further problems with her marriage. Twenty years later, Olivia lives with her parents and everyone's secrets in plush Holland Park, which are threatening to be revealed.

I really enjoyed the story, finding many echoes in the real lives of artists we know. Sophia's inner life and her search for hope and renewal in the sunshine of Sicily no doubt echoes many Victorian women's search for health, but only to find themselves held back by things, and people, beyond their control. The Holland Park salons remind me of the Prinseps, and they must have been pressure cookers of secrets as everyone attempts to paint themselves as respectable, knowing the truth is just waiting to be revealed. The pressure for respectability, security, marriage and stability was a particularly female struggle, yet another way that the Victorians kept everyone, especially women, in line and for both Sophia and Olivia, the struggle could not be more real. I liked the nod to the sensation novels of the period, secrets and lies just waiting to derail your best efforts and how stressful it must be to know something is under the rug, but will ultimately come to light.

Personally, I loved the first part but absolutely adored the second part as I am anyone's for a tableau vivant and I now also want a mischievous mongoose. I was left wondering about the real-life counterparts of some of Vanessa's characters and the situations they found themselves in - for example, Rossetti was notorious for not completing work on time (for many reasons) but how did that affect his peers? The interweaving of so many characters so well makes this a fascinating book to read and a must for all lovers of Victorian art fiction.

I was delighted to have a chat with the author, which is always a smashing thing...

1.  Your novel is set among the artists of the mid Victorian period, with a definite Pre-Raphaelite/Aesthetic overtone. How did you come to discover your love for this period?

Rather by chance, actually. I’d known and liked the Pre-Raphaelites all of my adult life, but only came across the later Aesthetic Movement a few years ago, through a chance reference. It set me off on a major quest of discovery, all over the country.

I explored historic houses, such as Wightwick, Cragside and Cardiff Castle, and the remarkable Leighton House artist’s studio-house. I was thrilled by their extraordinary architecture, the astonishing interiors and remarkable décor, and the beautiful objects within. I also went to galleries and museums, from the Watts Gallery to the Walker Art Gallery, and all places in between. And, needless to say, to the gorgeous Russell-Cotes. I found myself captivated by the art and design of that era.

2. I loved the travelling in your novel as I've always felt Pre-Raphaelite artists weren't afraid to go abroad - why was it important to you to send Edwin and Sophia to Sicily?

I love Sicily! There’s something visceral about it: the landscapes, the culture, art and food. Sicily lies at the crossing point of the Mediterranean so everyone’s been there, enriching it with influences from the Arabs, Greeks, Phoenicians, Normans and many others. It’s a place of discovery and revelation – and that’s its role in my story.

My artists travel to Italy and Sicily to paint and to learn – as so many Victorian artists did. At a time before mass media and communications, to experience the beauty and sheer foreignness of such places must have been astonishing and life-changing. And however did they move all their painting stuff?!

3. Sophia's vivid internal world is fascinating. Do you feel that Pre-Raphaelitism has a special relationship with women's emotional and mental health?

Oh yes, definitely. There are so many paintings that reveal the inner thoughts and feelings of women, which is notable in a generally male-focussed world. Often to a surprising degree too, given that the artists are mostly from middle-class backgrounds, and yet they did challenge the prevailing views. I’m thinking of Waterhouse’s ‘Mariana in the South’, Holman Hunt’s ‘The Awakening Conscience’ and G F Watts’ ‘Found Drowned’ where our sympathy is very much with the tragic victim.

4. Women's security and social safety and their life and love choices rings very true to me in your novel as I am reminded of the lives of some of the models I have studied. Were you influenced by any of the lives of women from the real Victorian art scene?

I’m a shameless cherry-picker when I write! I get ideas and inspiration from all aspects of my subject, and the lives of the muses and models – as with the artists themselves – most definitely influenced and inspired me. These young women inhabited a male-dominated world, where their lives were determined by men: their wealth, their desires and tastes, but many of the models found freedom and self-expression on their own terms. I wanted that also for my characters.

When we meet them, both Sophia and Olivia are constrained in one way or another by societal expectations, or the wants and needs of others, yet both find ways to follow their hearts and true selves. They find romantic love, but they also find self-expression and fulfilment.

5. Is there anywhere in the Victorian art scene, either in England or abroad, that you would like to have gone?

I’m particularly enthralled by the art and design of the mid 1870s, which is the setting for Olivia’s story in the novel. It’s the height of the Aesthetic era and the look of that period’s so gorgeous. Exploring it felt like stepping through a door from monochrome into an undiscovered world of the richest colours and ornamentation.

Actually, I’d love to have worn those dresses and stunning fabrics – although perhaps not the under garments! There’s also a radical anti-establishment feel to that time, (as with the Pre- Raphaelites) that seems to mirror the 1960s, something I can relate to.

6. What are you working on next?

I’m at the ideas stage for a story of a young woman seeking her missing sister. As with every story I write, there will be a garden (because I love gardens) – and probably one that’s overgrown and awaiting restoration. Also, a big house, and a parallel mystery from the past waiting to be discovered. I don’t think it will be Victorian-set, although I will be very sad to move away from that era. It won’t stop me visiting houses and galleries, though – that will definitely continue!

7. Lastly, what's your favourite painting from the period?

Gosh, so many! You could ask me that every day for a month and I’d always say something different.

I love Frank Cadogan Cowper’s ‘Vanity’ – so beautiful, yet unsettling.

‘Autumn Leaves’ by Millais, which so captures this season.

And three by Waterhouse come to mind: ‘Circe Invidiosa’, beautiful but sinister; ‘Boreas’ where her swirling cloak is like the wind itself; and ‘The Soul of The Rose’ – I think I probably imagine myself like that, in my garden, wearing a gorgeous gown and scenting a rose!

I can't recomment this novel enough and thank you to Vanessa for finding me. It will make a wonderful autumn read, and a smashing Christmas pressie for the art lover in your life (or yourself, obviously)

Captured in Art is released in October and is available to order from Amazon and all good bookshops.