Victorian Paintings

William Arthur Breakspeare - Blue Eyes

 

It would be easy, when looking at Victorian paintings, to imagine middle class women and artists models doing little but sitting around at odd angles.  The number of women slowly falling of divans, beds and ancient marble impressions of Greece is astounding.  Maybe a lack of exercise was responsible?

William Arthur Breakspeare - The Alluring Student

 

There again, when they are standing it is clear they are up to no good.  Poor Victorian women, how they suffered!  At least this one, unlike so many has not just thrown her dress on and almost missed, like all the rest.  Though I suppose it would be crude to imply many Victorian art works were just porn in oils of course.

Henry Herbert La Thangue - A Sussex Orchard

It is also amazing how many country pictures appear.  So many are like this, colourful, sun shining, horse happy, just two young people working away.  The 12 year old boy, working 18 hours a day like his sister in this painting from the 1890s are headed for 50 or so years of such toil.  The house the family of 10 share is only theirs as long as the farmer keeps them on.  If dad is the farmer then they move to a better place as soon as possible.  The mud floor of the small cottage, with outside toilet and well for water, has only two rooms and space in the attic for the kids.  At this time agriculture had settled down but it had gone through many bad years.  Who knows how they had survived during that period

Hubert von Herkomer - On Strike 1891

Sir Hubert has offered a different, less romantic impression of country life here.  The 'Nicky Tams,' those strings tied around his trousers just under the knee to stop rats running up, indicate an agricultural worker, and not a happy one at that.  Earning possibly 6 shillings a week, with tied cottage, was not much for long hours in the fields.  While country folk know how to eat 'off the land' it is still hard going at times.  Many strikes up to the Great War in 1914 and some by that time were still on 7/6d or up to 15 shillings for ploughmen in some places, but only after much strife.  

John Henry Henshall - Behind the Bar 1882

  

The place to gather to eat, get warm, and meet friends was the public house.  In towns and cities these places were light, gas lit, warm, and far from the rotten homes many lived in.  Food and drink was available and out off the odd song and dance act grew the variety theatres, one of the best places to find entertainment in Victorian days.  'Beer shops' were also allowed to flourish for 40 years or so, but the increase in trouble following the drinking got them closed down, much to the brewers annoyance. Such caring people!

Samuel Bough - Dysart on the Coast, Sunrise

Victorian Fishing Scene

What a good picture this is.  'The Mornings Catch,' by James Clark Hook, 1877.

This tells us much about the rough lives out forefathers lived.  Not just the danger of all night fishing in rough seas, often quite far out to sea, but also the hard work left for the women in the morning.  The fish has to be sorted, taken by creel to where customers lay in wait, and hopefully a good deal done, possibly door to door.  This on top of whatever house they possessed, possibly rented, stone or hard dirt floor, outside toilet, no running water, several children at that time being sent to school, and normal daily routine had to be followed.  

There was of course no pension, no welfare state, and people worked until they dropped, unless they, or a relative got lucky and made a fortune.  Fortunes in the 19th century could of course be made and lost within a generation.  Limited medicine, no painkillers bar chloroform, smoking, poor diet, though the fisherfolk and farmers could manage reasonably well, and most dead by their 50s.   

James Clark Hook 1819 - 1907, became quite famous for his sea pictures.  He painted so many they were known as 'Hookscapes.'  

I must admit I like sea pictures and this one, the view, the colours and the reflection of life in late Victorian Cornwall (at least many were painted there) appears true to life.  Painting however, does not indicate the smell of the fish!  In this way we are lucky.  

Victorian Art

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