The Needle and the Brush: A Victorian Drama
When the mid-Victorian women’s movement launched the Society of Female Artists in 1857, a figure of reference for many responding publicly to this move was needlework – a reference deployed rather to scoff at this innovation than to praise it. This essay explores the comparison thus made between nee...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
2018-12-01
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| Series: | E-REA |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/erea/6661 |
| _version_ | 1818343376182837248 |
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| author | Pamela GERRISH NUNN |
| author_facet | Pamela GERRISH NUNN |
| author_sort | Pamela GERRISH NUNN |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | When the mid-Victorian women’s movement launched the Society of Female Artists in 1857, a figure of reference for many responding publicly to this move was needlework – a reference deployed rather to scoff at this innovation than to praise it. This essay explores the comparison thus made between needlework and fine artwork, analysing the tropes attached to both these fields in mid-Victorian discourse and their significance in the issues that made up the “woman question” of the period. It was made clear that needlework was, as Rozsika Parker’s pioneering feminist study proposed, assumed to absorb and ring-fence both women’s time and their creative aspirations while fine art was expected to display qualities foreign to femininity and thus seemed a potentially transgressive occupation for women. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-13T16:29:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-39ebafcd27f748cd9e708db0452ca558 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1638-1718 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-13T16:29:36Z |
| publishDate | 2018-12-01 |
| publisher | Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | E-REA |
| spelling | doaj.art-39ebafcd27f748cd9e708db0452ca5582022-12-21T23:38:31ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182018-12-011610.4000/erea.6661The Needle and the Brush: A Victorian DramaPamela GERRISH NUNNWhen the mid-Victorian women’s movement launched the Society of Female Artists in 1857, a figure of reference for many responding publicly to this move was needlework – a reference deployed rather to scoff at this innovation than to praise it. This essay explores the comparison thus made between needlework and fine artwork, analysing the tropes attached to both these fields in mid-Victorian discourse and their significance in the issues that made up the “woman question” of the period. It was made clear that needlework was, as Rozsika Parker’s pioneering feminist study proposed, assumed to absorb and ring-fence both women’s time and their creative aspirations while fine art was expected to display qualities foreign to femininity and thus seemed a potentially transgressive occupation for women.http://journals.openedition.org/erea/6661needleworkwoman questionwomen artistsfine artSociety of Female Artists |
| spellingShingle | Pamela GERRISH NUNN The Needle and the Brush: A Victorian Drama E-REA needlework woman question women artists fine art Society of Female Artists |
| title | The Needle and the Brush: A Victorian Drama |
| title_full | The Needle and the Brush: A Victorian Drama |
| title_fullStr | The Needle and the Brush: A Victorian Drama |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Needle and the Brush: A Victorian Drama |
| title_short | The Needle and the Brush: A Victorian Drama |
| title_sort | needle and the brush a victorian drama |
| topic | needlework woman question women artists fine art Society of Female Artists |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/erea/6661 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT pamelagerrishnunn theneedleandthebrushavictoriandrama AT pamelagerrishnunn needleandthebrushavictoriandrama |