Home » The real “Pygmalion”? – Jane Burden Morris

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The real “Pygmalion”? – Jane Burden Morris — 14 Comments

  1. I didn’t get “The Starry Night,” but the Magritte ad was there. This was interesting! My sister does needlework, and I have a few pieces she did based on William Morris designs — or maybe Jane’s.

  2. Now do Euphemia (“Effie”) Gray Millais (1828-1897), another painter’s model who was one corner of a love triangle involving the Pre-Raphaelites. “Effie” married the art critic John Ruskin in 1848, but the marriage was never consummated. Ruskin apparently found some aspects of the normal female body repulsive. He said, “It may be thought strange that I could abstain from a woman who to most people was so attractive. But though her face was beautiful, her person was not formed to excite passion. On the contrary, there were certain circumstances in her person which completely checked it.”

    Effie met John Everett Millais in 1853, 5 years after she married Ruskin. Effie modeled for some of Millais’ paintings; the two fell in love; and Effie filed for an annulment of her marriage in 1854 on the grounds that it had never been consummated. The court granted the annulment of in the grounds of Ruskin’s “incurable impotency.”

    Effie married Millais in 1855 and they had eight children together. Effie served as her husband’s model for a number of years. The triangular relationship between Effie and the two Johns has the subject of a number of novels, short stories, radio dramas, and a six-part BBC series about the Pre-Raphaelites.

  3. The story of May Morris and GB Shaw is also an interesting vignette. Shaw was convinced they were destined to be married, and then she married another man. Later in life she spoke of the young gentlemen of that circle who talked and talked, but never did anything.

  4. For a photograph from 1865 that might be the most dramatic one I ever seen, they all seem very formal sitting in that period

  5. Her facial expression seems, to me at least, similar to those of current runway models.

    ————

    Great story Neo! Your material is always fascinating and fun to read. Even when I have no ‘interest’ in the particular subject.

  6. Morris was clearly a bit of a wee Simp in modern parlance.

    There was a whole bunch of rather shall we say diffident Soyboy Nu-males even back when. Carlyle (who I’m rather keen on) being a case in point, and Ruskin I guess the poster boy. And that’s well before things went all Wilde / Beardsley.

    While randomly clicking around came across this harbinger of Aubrey Beardsley on a slow day:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peacock_Room

    Which was news to me. Must go see one day if things keep on keeping on. Executive Summary: Whistler vandalized Catherine of Aragon’s wallpaper! And then had a fight with the Client — News at 10.

  7. Come to think of it, Beardsley’s Salome *and* John the Baptist have faint echoes of her visage about them:

    https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/01/25/aubrey-beardsley-oscar-wilde-salome/

    But there you go.. It’s a slippery slope, Gentle Bourgeois Folks… One minute you’re into Arts and Crafts, Brahms, My Last Duchess.. and the next moment you’re Bringing Out the Gimp.

    In other news, I’m sure they’ll finally be satisfied with Gay Marriage 🙂 It’s the End of History!

  8. When I saw Zaphod’s mention of her yesterday I went to wikipedia and read about her. My first thought was, “I wonder if she was the inspiration for Shaw’s ‘Pygmalion?'” I read on and encountered speculation she may have been, and now neo does a post suggesting the same.

  9. I clicked on the link in order to see examples of her embroidery, since that is a love of mine. Just one, everything else was about her love affairs. Clearly I’m in the minority.

  10. The photograph does not impress. I can see where the characteristics of the painting came from.
    I am reminded of a woman I worked with in a field project in college. When she was engaged and interested, she could light up a room without effort. When not, she was not exactly plain, but not at all remarkable.

    Either she sat for hundreds or artists or she set a style which may as well have been paint-by-number.

  11. Arts and Crafts, Brahms

    The big musical fight at the time was Wagner (future) vs Brahms (past). GBS was a big Wagnerian, he even claimed singing Wagner improved the health of the singers. His musical criticism from the 1890’s is a fun read and offers a view of the times.

  12. Ahhh… Wagner, Nietzsche, Treitschke… Simpler, Happier Times 😀

    If Whitey Normie hasn’t yet figured out what that execrable Hamilton Musical prefigures for him, he’s going to be constantly amazed by the need to embrace change.

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