Jennifer William's Blog Post 1

Labor versus Content: Conflicting Moralities in The Awakening Conscience

Jennifer Williams

Art History 407

      This semester, I have begun my first ventures into oil paintings. I had painted before in high school art classes, crafting with acrylic paint, and using experimental media in a painting-like process. I thought that these experiences would prepare me for working with oils; I was wrong. Oil paints, specifically the individual pigments, have unique characters that require hours of study simply to learn how to handle. Yellow pigments are translucent and require multiple layers, with days of drying in between, in order to build opacity.  Burnt Sienna has a heavy, viscous body that requires painstaking effort to create a smooth, even layer of color.  The majority of the labor of oil painting is not translating an image onto the canvas, but rather, the mechanics of the transformation of an unpredictable chemical paste, (also known as paint), into something that can be used to create a desired result.  One must consider the ratio of colors that are mixed to create a new hue, the color of the ground onto which the paint is placed, the viscosity and opacity of the paint, the texture of the canvas, and the size of the brush, as well as other factors which I'm sure that I am currently unaware of, given my limited experience in this medium.  All I can say is that right now, I definitely empathize with Williams Holman Hunt's description of Rossetti's frustration with painting still lifes, in that he found this “discipline... so abhorrent that it had tormented his soul beyond power of endurance”[1]

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Bottles

My still life painting 2014

       Despite many challenges, I would still recommend this experience to other students interested in Art History— not necessarily because it is enjoyable, but because it has significantly increased my understanding of the modes of production for these works of art. In examining the intense, hyper-detailed approach of the Pre-Raphaelite artists, I find that I am able to apply my new understanding of the physical effort of painting to not only appreciate such minute details for their aesthetic value, but also for the skill of the painter to be able to manipulate paint so precisely and for the artists’ patience in waiting for each layer of paint to dry in order to achieve such detail.

       In Victorian society, such intense and painstaking labor was equated to moral value, and the hours spent on a painting made the work valuable[2].  However, the taboo representation of a fallen woman within William Holman Hunt's The Awakening Conscience creates a conflict with the moral value of the labor present in the work.

      One can see in this work the extreme amount of details put into every aspect of this work, such as the interior of the room, the embroidery of the garments, and the reflections in the mirror. (Based on my current speed of painting, I would estimate that this would take me several years to even attempt). While one would expect that such laborious process would be celebrated, this painting was, rather, criticized as vulgar due to its content[3].  The image of the fallen woman in Victorian society was seen as an urban problem, and it was inappropriate to represent such a woman  in fine art.  The lavishly decorated interior would have immediately signaled to a 19^th century viewer that this was not the dwelling place of a proper Victorian lady, but rather a gaudy apartment paid for by the man with whom this woman was engaging in an improper relationship[4].

William Holman Hunt, The Awakening Conscience, 1853-4

     I find this contradiction interesting in that the labor put into a painting or work of art was equated to moral value, but the image  which this labor produced in  The Awakening Conscience was criticized for its immoral content. This contradiction of Victorian values can be seen in many other Pre-Raphaelite works, such as John Everett Millais' The Hireling Shepherd or Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Found.  This tension between the value of the arduous process of creating the work and the controversial content that is represented contributes an interesting perspective into the interpretation of Pre-Raphaelite art in Victorian society.  

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1.    William Holman Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Vol. 1 (New York: Macmillan, 1905), 108.

2.   Lecture notes, 16 September 2014

3.   Elizabeth Prettejohn, The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites (Millbank, London: Tate Publishing, 2000), 94.

4. Ibid.

Image links:

http://nonahyytinen.com/part-2-enter-dante-gabriel-rossetti-and-the-other-preraphaelites

http://uploads1.wikiart.org/images/william-holman-hunt/the-awakening-conscience-1853.jpg