Tales from the Island of Serendip 4 4

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Henrietta Rae

Rae was a supporter of feminism and women's suffrage. In 1897 Rae organised an exhibition of the work of female artists for the Jubilee of Queen Victoria. Rae and Normand lived in Holland Park, the residence of many other artists of the day. Frequent visitors included Leighton, Millais, Prinsep, and Watts. However, the attention was not always welcomed. In her memoirs, Rae described the overbearing attitudes and conduct of some of the more senior artists. In one such case, Prinsep dipped his thumb in cobalt blue paint and marked up one of Rae's pictures. In retaliation, Rae "accidentally" burnt his hat on her stove.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Flex Mentallo

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Her best-known painting is The Lady with the Lamp(1891); depicting Florence Nightingale at Scutari.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Flex Mentallo

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Psyche before the throne of Venus was sold by Heritage Auctions in 2017 for $324,500

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, Hylas and the Nymphs

Edited September 14, 2021 by Flex Mentallo

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John William Waterhouse painted the same subject. This hangs in Manchester Art Gallery, was purchased by the gallery in 1896 the same year Waterhouse painted it. [I live in Manchester]. The work depicts a scene from Greek mythology in which Hylas, the young handsome companion of Heracles (Roman Hercules), is surrounded by enchanting nude nymphs looking up from tranquil water. In the myth, Hylas, who came to the spring looking for water, is dragged in by the nymphs and never seen again. In 2018 the work was removed from the gallery.

Edited September 14, 2021 by Flex Mentallo

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MAG officials took down the painting on the pretext that its removal was part of an ongoing project with contemporary artist Sonia Boyce, leading up to her one-woman show in March. The gallery website asserted the event was conceived as a “take-over” of “some of the gallery’s public spaces” by Boyce, “to bring different meanings and interpretations of paintings from the gallery’s collection into focus, and into life.” This included a “series of performances, all filmed by Boyce’s team, addressing issues of race, gender, and sexuality, culminating in the careful, temporary removal of the Waterhouse painting.” Postcards of the Waterhouse painting were also removed from the gift shop—all in the name supposedly of bringing the “male gaze” into question. In the painting’s place a blank space was left, with those responsible saying its aim was “to prompt conversations about how we display and interpret artworks.” This was never a “conversation,” but an act of censorship, and was recognised as such by hundreds of concerned visitors who left responses on Post-it notes. The gallery’s website received nearly 1,000 comments.

Philip Dantes, a writer and poet, sent a tweet to MAG and Boyce, with Rae’s painting attached, that read, “The same scene, painted in the same period, by a woman, Henrietta R. Rae, who, according to Christie’s, ‘saw herself primarily as a painter of classical themes with a strong emphasis on the female nude.’” He added, “Perhaps artists find inspiration in beauty, sensuality and the human form irrespective of their gender.”
 

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Sonia Boyce

 

https://www.creativetourist.com/event/sonia-boyce/

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John William Waterhouse

Like Waterhouse, I once was asked to remove a painting of a nude from display in an arts centre where I was in residence. Unlike Waterhouse, I had the misfortune and bad taste to still be living at the time. The arts centre at least took my side, and the picture remained on display.

John William Waterhouse RA (6 April 1849 – 10 February 1917) was an English painter known for working first in the Academic style and for then embracing the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's style and subject matter. His artworks were known for their depictions of women from both ancient Greek mythology and Arthurian legend.

He is perhaps my favorite British artist, and I have several books on him.

 

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