Pre-Raphaelites and Shakespeare’s Women

Shakespeare’s plays served as an inspirational subject to the artists. The plays does not only provide its readers with a storyline, but it also includes detailed description of the natural surroundings and human relationships. During the early eighteenth century,

“there were no paintings of scenes from Shakespeare, by the end of the century there were whole picture galleries dedicated to him.”⁷² Out of the many artworks subjecting Shakespeare’s plays, there were a number of paintings dedicated to Shakespeare’s women. Theatre performances made little influences to the Pre-Raphaelites, Shakespeare was merely a “literary inspiration.”⁷³ Popular heroines in the Pre-Raphaelite circle were Ophelia from Hamlet, Juliet from Romeo and Juliet, Isabella from Measure for Measure, and many more. The connection between the

Bibliothèque nationale de France.

72 Guy Cogeval and Beatrice Avanzi, eds. Drama and Desire: Art and Theatre from the French Revolution to the First World War. Milano: Skira, 2010, 75.

73 Ibid., 77.

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Raphaelites and Shakespeare can be easily seen from the most popular and commonly known painting by the group, Millais’s Ophelia.⁷⁴ The heroine fits in their interest of intense emotions reflecting on social issues and psychological suppression. Besides from that, in Gertrude's announcement of Ophelia's death, it includes sections of detailed descriptions of the flowers and nature. The artists illustrate scenes that focus on the tension and mood rather than the usual climax of the play (for example, Millais's Ophelia and Ferdinand lured by Ariel (1849-50)).

In this section, Pre-Raphaelites’ women of Shakespeare will be divided into three types. For the discussion, they are classified into three categories: the desirable woman in love, the innocent virgins who face men's sexual treat, and the women facing death.

Though the representations of the following heroines may fit into these groups, the study of Ophelia, Miranda, and Mariana will be later explored individually in Chapter four. In this section on the representations in the visual arts, the discussion will focus only on the paintings by the Pre-Raphaelites and their associates.

In the discussion of the desirable woman in love, we will talk about two different interpretations of Juliet from the play Romeo and Juliet. Ford Madox Brown, an associate and friend with the Pre-Raphaelites, exhibited his Romeo and Juliet⁷⁵ in 1870 (Figure 7). The painting showed the iconic and artists' favorite scene of the two lovers in their sensual moment at the balcony. Romeo has conquered the balcony with Juliet embracing him with her arms. The body language was largely praised and it represent the scene where the two are involved in a passionate moment. Henry James showed comments to the painting at the exhibition in 1897,

74Figure 12: John Everett Millais, Ophelia (1851-1852) , 70.

75 Ford Madox Brown, 1870, Romeo and Juliet, Oil on canvas, 133.5 by 92.5, Wilmington, Delaware Art Museum.

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…the motion as of a rope-dancer balancing, the outstretched, level, stiff-fingered hand of the young man who, calling time, tearing himself away in the dovelike summer dawn, buries his face in his mistress’s neck and throws his ill-shaped leg over her balcony – this little gesture of reason and passion is the very making of the picture.⁷⁶

However, the face of Juliet was criticized for its maturity and was given the image of the ‘lustful Juliet’⁷⁷ due to her exposure of breast and gestures. The model for his Juliet was his wife, Emma Madox Brown. In the original text of Romeo and Juliet, Juliet was described to be ‘almost fourteen years old,’ while Emma was already a mother of three children.

Figure 7: Ford Madox Brown, Romeo and Juliet (1870)

76 Quoted from Poole, Shakespeare and the Victorians, 67.

77 Marshall, Shakespeare and Victorian Women, 42.

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Different from the passionate and sexual Juliet, Ford Madox Brown’s daughter, Lucy Madox Brown, painted her image of Romeo and Juliet in the same year. Lucy was a talented individual who presented her gifted abilities in the art circle with the encouragements from her husband, William Michael Rossetti. The couple shared a similar background from the artistic families during the Victorian era. Both lived with family members that overshadowed their artistic abilities. William was more commonly remembered as the sibling of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Christina Georgina Rossetti.

Lucy’s identity, on the other hand, remained as the daughter, wife, and the sister-in-law.

However, the couple’s contribution to the Victorian visual art were remarkable.

According to Angela Thirlwell’s study, without William Michael Rossetti, “there would have been no Brotherhood, no Germ, no PRB journal, and no movement to leave its mark on the history of English art.”⁷⁸ Similar to her father, Lucy’s paintings mostly included literary subjects and brought to an achievement as a painter. Out of her paintings, two were dedicated and inspired by the Shakespearean themes. In this section, one of her paintings will be discussed and the other will appear in a later chapter.

Her first painting inspired by Shakespeare was titled Romeo and Juliet in the Tomb (1870)⁷⁹, it captured the later scene in the play where to two lovers faced the allegory of love and death (Figure 8). Instead of showing Juliet as the woman expressing her love and passion, she painted Juliet lying in her tomb. By that time, Lucy was a young artist in her twenties, the image of Juliet she chose to portray on the canvas was passive and motionless. Acknowledging the play, we understand that in this scene she was simply asleep and unconscious. The focus of this painting was then moved to Romeo’s expression. Marshall writes in her study, as a reader of the painting we

78 Quoted from Florence Saunders Boos, "The Pre-Raphaelites." Victorian Poetry 44.3 (2006): 369.

79 Lucy Madox Brown, 1870, Romeo and Juliet in the Tomb, Panel, 61 by 81.5 cm, Wightwick Manor, Wolverhampton.

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participate in a ‘necrophilia fantasy’ and the feeling of anticipation of what Romeo was planning to do to Juliet.⁸⁰ While Brown presented Juliet as a sexual, flirtatious, and passionate woman, Lucy’s Juliet is passive, innocent and, young. In result, we see two different interpretations of the desirable Juliet in love.

Figure 8: Lucy Madox Brown, Romeo and Juliet in the Tomb (1870)

William Holman Hunt’s Claudio and Isabella (1850-1853)⁸¹ illustrated the scene from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure in a moralistic and sexual tone (Figure 9).

The part of the play showed the dilemma between the two when they know that Isabella’s chastity can spare the life of her brother Claudio. Isabella, as Ruskin calls her

“Shakespeare’s only saint,”⁸² was known as the pious and virtuous young woman who hopes on becoming a nun. She was devastated by the order made by deputy Angelo,

80 Marshall, Shakespeare and Victorian Women, 42.

81 William Holman Hunt, 1850, Claudio and Isabella, Oil on wood, 75.8 by 52.5, London, Tate Gallery.

82 Poole, Shakespeare and the Victorians, 61.

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who sentenced Claudio to death due to his unlawful act of love. She begged the deputy for mercy but in return, he asked her to offer her virginity to him as an exchange for her brother's life. In relation to the theme of this painting, it showed a contrast between light and dark.⁸³ Claudio's awkward position and Isabella placing her hands on his chest bring the attention to the central issues. The moral question in this painting was whether to let one face death or to let another live a shameful life. Claudio's gesture and the chains on his feet represent his desire for freedom and the hopes of being saved. The iron bars behind him show the world that he may never be able to live within. In contrast, Isabella is dressed in her white nun’s garb to represent her purity and stands in the light with a church in between the two.

The actual moment of the scene was interpreted differently. Christopher Wood assumes the painting described the scene after Claudio pleads Isabella to sacrifice herself for him.⁸⁴ According to the lines in the play, Isabella reacts with disgust, “O you beast! O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!” (3.1.153-154)⁸⁵ The look of Hunt’s Isabella shows worry and concern towards her brother. She places her palms on Claudio’s chest to comfort him. This may not be the exact image that a reader may imagine while reading the lines. Other than this assumption, the painting can be identified as Hunt capturing the moment right before Claudio’s persuasion. This assumption brought a definition to the awkwardness of Claudio and his half-opened mouth as if he knew what he was going to say was terrible.

83 Robert Hewison, Ian Warrell, and Stephen Wildman, Ruskin, Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites. London:

Tate Gallery, 2000, 33.

84 Christopher Wood and Paul Delifer, The Pre-Raphaelites. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1981, 19.

85 All quotes from the plays are from: William Shakespeare, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. New York: Race Point Publishing, 2014.

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Figure 9: William Holman Hunt, Claudio and Isabella (1850-1853)

Another painting by Hunt, Valentine rescuing Sylvia from Proteus (1851)⁸⁶ includes the lesser known heroine of Shakespeare, Sylvia (Figure 10). The painting represents the scene from The Two Gentlemen of Verona. During this scene, the two friends Proteus and Valentine were in love with Sylvia. After saving Sylvia from the outlaws, Proteus threatens to rape her in the forest as a reward. Valentine shows up in time and stops Proteus from his ungentle act. At the same time, Julia, the original lover of Proteus, disguised herself as page Sebastian, stood at the scene and held the ring Proteus had given to her as a sign of love. Hunt provided the painting with a rich

86 William Holman Hunt, 1851, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (also known as Valentine rescuing Sylvia from Proteus), Oil on canvas, arched top, 98.5 by 133.3, Birmingham, City Museums and Art Gallery.

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background of Autumn. Resembling most works by the Pre-Raphaelites, the realism of nature was also as important as the theme in the foreground of the canvas. They would spend months painting the background before going deep to the figures of the art.

Embracing their principle to the truth of nature, Hunt spent weeks at the Knole Park in Kent to paint the autumn colors and the woodlands before he found his model for Sylvia (Elizabeth Siddal).

Figure 10: William Holman Hunt, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Valentine rescuing Sylvia from Proteus) (1851)

Hunt’s Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus freezes the scene at the moment where the later event cannot be guessed. The painting portrayed the second when Valentine showed up and rescued his lady. Poole analyzes the painting by writing that

“there is no knowing for sure who will end up with whom, whether received or

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rescued.”⁸⁷ It included the complexity of gender and an emotional situation. It is hard to examine Sylvia’s facial expression clearly. It was commented by critics like The Examiner that Sylvia was ‘a hard-featured faded specimen of stale virginity.”⁸⁸ On the other hand, Julia’s expression and the ring she is holding, represents her doubt and hope for her future. Ruskin writes in his letter to The Times about Julia, “the contending of doubt and distress with awakening hope in the half-shadowed, half-sunlit countenance of Julia.”⁸⁹ Though both praised and criticized, Hunt’s painting succeeded by inscribing the complexity of the scene and staging the women facing sexual threats.

Surprisingly, Macbeth was one of the tragedies that were lesser painted by the Pre-Raphaelites. As one of the four great tragedies and a character who shares intense emotions, Lady Macbeth barely existed on the canvases of the Pre-Raphaelites. Rossetti has drawn his study of Lady Macbeth in 1875, titled The Death of Lady Macbeth⁹⁰ (Figure 11). It was one of the lesser known Pre-Raphaelite Shakespearean illustrations.

It was a preliminary study made by Rossetti that had never gone on the canvas.

Although it was not an exhibited painting, it still included the whole picture of the Rossetti's imagination of Lady Macbeth’s death. Following the storyline and similar to Ophelia, her death scene occurred offstage. Her death was notified to the characters and audiences by Seyton, Macbeth’s chief servant, by simply the line of “The queen, my lord, is dead.” There was no explanation of how she died or whether or not she committed suicide. Rossetti captured the moment with his study of the previous scenes.

He included the details of Lady Macbeth’s mental illness. In his interpretation of the character, her eyes are seemly closed and it represented her problem with sleepwalking.

Besides from sleepwalking, Rossetti added the reference of Lady Macbeth rubbing her

87 Poole, Shakespeare and the Victorians, 61.

88 Ibid., 61.

89 Quoted from Ibid., 61.

90 Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1875, The Death of Lady Macbeth, Pen and brown ink, 46.5 by 61.5, Carlisle, Museum and Art Gallery.

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hands and as if she can smell and sight the blood on her hands. Through this sketch we see another offstage scene reimagined by the Pre-Raphaelites.

Figure 11: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Death of Lady Macbeth (1875)

The Pre-Raphaelite arts have focused on the emotional situation and psychological complexity of Shakespeare’s heroines. As mentioned before, the heroines represented in the Pre-Raphaelite arts showed their love, innocence and, despair. Most of their themes lied within sexual tensions between the characters or tension between the setting of the scene. Through the paintings discussed, we can explore how the Victorians see these heroines as a representation to the women of their generation. Juliet represents the woman in love, Isabella and Sylvia are the pious and innocent, and Lady Macbeth the woman facing death and suffering under psychological stress.

48 greatly influenced and gave an introduction to both adult and young readers on the ideas of morality and psychological complexity.⁹¹ Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of the most influential and earliest English critics of Shakespeare, wrote “Shakespeare was the most universal genius that ever lived” and that the “criticism of Shakespeare will alone be genial which is reverential.”⁹² Coleridge’s criticism on Shakespeare had influenced the Shakespearean critics in the nineteenth century. R.A. Foakes states the importance of Coleridge to the literary world especially in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, “he changed fundamentally the ways in which we perceive and understand Shakespeare’s works, and his influence has been pervasive.”⁹³ In the study of Coleridge’s Criticism of Shakespeare’s Characters, the author analyzes that “Coleridge tends to consider Shakespeare’s characters as living beings, thus interested in their motives and actions in terms we normally ascribe to non-fictional beings.”⁹⁴ Through the beginning of Coleridge’s essays, Victorian critics became to focus more deeply on the character analyses of Shakespeare’s women.

Due to the popularity of Victorian Shakespeare, critics began to work on the different adaptations and criticisms of their Victorian Shakespeare. Victorian critics’

favoritism in Shakespearean studies had become a cultural phenomenon, their topic of interests was mainly focused on the ideology and morality based approach to the

91 Poole, Shakespeare and the Victorians, 90.

92 Quoted from Charles Laporte, “The Bard, the Bible, and the Victorian Shakespeare Question.” ELH 74.3 (2007): 619.

93 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Coleridge's criticism of Shakespeare: a selection. Ed. R. A. Foakes, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 1989, 1.

94 Colerdige’s Criticisms of Shakespeare’s Characters, 203.