The J W Waterhouse exhibition at the Royal Academy was fantastic. Over the last century, Waterhouse (and the pre-raeplites in general), have gone from the heights of Victorian fashionably, to obscurity by the mid 20th century and now at the beginning of high fashion at the beginning of the 21st century.
The RA do a podcast which seems very good, the 1st episode I caught was Tim Rice talking about his private collection and in particular the five J W Waterhouse paintings which he has leant to this exhibition. He was fortunate, he started to collect in the early 70s when Waterhouse were "starting to come back into fashion".
The first things which strike you about these paintings are
- romantic beauty
- mythology
- exquisite colours and textures
- a languid quality to many of the poses
- intense sensuality
- erotic charge, focusing on youth and mostly wistful young maidens
On the Front Row for Waterhouse, Kirsty Lang teasingly used the term "almost soft porn"? I think this a little disparaging, but yes he does like to titillate the male viewer. But there are also a few painting where the male beauty outshines the female - which I was am very happy to see ;-)
The thing which strikes me now, is what these painting tell us about Victorian and English culture. Waterhouse was probably pushing at the boundaries of decency for the very straight laced Victorians, highly talented artists with wealthy and powerful patrons were probably given a little leeway. But beyond the obvious sensual pleasure and titillation in these intensely sensual paintings, there are other interesting themes which elude to other concerns for the Victorians.
Waterhouse was painting at the time that the suffragette movement was really active, this was an intensively difficult and drawn out campaign spanning over half a century. I think it is easy to forget how significant this gender divide would have been throughout Waterhouse' life.
We have "Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus" and the "glass ceiling for woman getting into senior management", but these gentile differences don't compare with the raging debate of the late 18th century / early 19th century. The suffragettes didn't just have to persuade the men to give them the vote, a large proportion of woman were in the anti-suffragette movement. The suffragettes were imprisoned, many went on hunger strike, this in turn lead to forcible feeding, which many historian now class as a screen for torture. In 1913, Emily Dickinson in a desperate act of defiance threw herself to her death at the Epsom Derby in front of King George.
Waterhouse died in 1917, the year before women won the vote, probably the most significant step toward gender equality. Several of the painting show as objects of deep and complex mystery, reflect a society which was uncomfortable with it's narrow gender stereotypes and prejudices.
sensual |ˈsen sh oōəl|
adjective: of or arousing gratification of the senses and physical, esp. sexual, pleasure : the production of the ballet is sensual and passionate. See note at sensuous .
ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense [sensory] ): from late Latin sensualis, from sensus (see sense ).
USAGE The words sensual and sensuous are frequently used interchangeably to mean ‘gratifying the senses,’ esp. in a sexual sense. Strictly speaking, this goes against a traditional distinction, by which sensuous is a more neutral term, meaning ‘relating to the senses rather than the intellect’ ( : swimming is a beautiful, sensuous experience), while sensual relates to gratification of the senses, esp. sexually ( : a sensual massage). In fact, the word sensuous is thought to have been invented by John Milton (1641) in a deliberate attempt to avoid the sexual overtones of sensual. In practice the connotations are such that it is difficult to use sensuous in Milton's sense. While traditionalists struggle to maintain a distinction, the evidence suggests that the neutral use of sensuous is rare in modern English. If a neutral use is intended, it is advisable to use alternative wording.
disparage |diˈsparij|
verb [ trans. ]
regard or represent as being of little worth : he never missed an opportunity to disparage his competitors | [as adj. ] ( disparaging) disparaging remarks.
ORIGIN late Middle English (in the sense [marry someone of unequal rank,] also [bring discredit on] ): from Old French desparagier ‘marry someone of unequal rank,’ based on Latin par ‘equal.’
disparaging
adjective
disparaging remarks derogatory, deprecatory, denigratory, belittling; critical, scathing, negative, unfavorable, uncomplimentary, uncharitable; contemptuous, scornful, snide, disdainful; informal bitchy, catty; archaic contumelious. antonym complimentary.
wistful |ˈwistfəl|
adjective: having or showing a feeling of vague or regretful longing : a wistful smile.
the old photos gave me a wistful feeling nostalgic, yearning, longing; plaintive, regretful, rueful, melancholy, mournful, elegiac; pensive, reflective, contemplative.
ORIGIN early 17th cent.: apparently from obsolete wistly ‘intently,’ influenced by wishful .
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