Letteratura inglese - Appunti

Representations of women in Victorian Britain through some paintings by G.E. Hicks, C. Cope, A. Solomon

Nineteenth-century England is characterized by the growth of an urban industrial economy and a rise of a dominant and powerful middle-class. The representation of the female figure is linked to the concept of "respectability" that during the 19^th century was a complex combination of moral, religious, economic, and cultural systems. All these values belong to this public world of bourgeois culture. "Woman" has become a popular subject for historians of Victorian art and literature, and above all during the Victorian age, moral and cultural values were continually drawn together.

George Edgar Hicks' triptych

George Edgar Hicks’ triptych called "Woman’s Mission" was exhibited in 1863 at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. Hicks’ picture is divided into three separate compartments, each of which is devoted to one of the roles performed by the Feminine Ideal. The woman is always portrayed in the sphere of her domestic daily life. The three scenes represent woman as mother, woman as wife, and woman as daughter.

The role of women

The first picture of the series depicts motherhood and is called "Woman’s Mission: Guide to Childhood". In this image, the woman is shown tending and leading her child along a thickly wooded path. She is defined as both a physical and spiritual guide to childhood, her arms encircling him protectively.

The central picture is called "Woman’s Mission: Companion of Manhood" and represents woman as wife. This painting shows the same woman comforting her husband, who has just received bad news, holding a black-edged letter in his hand. They are located in a comfortable, well-furnished middle-class parlour. The woman's respectability is signified through her appearance; her hair is carefully arranged and she wears a neat modest brown dress. The woman's posture signifies a mixture of support and dependency. She offers her support but at the same time confirms her subordination to him.

In the final compartment, entitled "Woman’s Mission: Comfort of Old Age", the woman is shown attending her sick father. The old man is seated in a high-backed armchair, his head resting on a pillow, and he is covered with a blanket. The woman is shown in the process of giving her father a glass of water. Her left hand holds onto a book which she may have been reading aloud to the invalid father, and the old man looks up weakly at his daughter as she attends him. The three images show the same woman with three different men—her son, her husband, and her father.