A week or two back Cornflower asked for pictures that summed up a book. It’s an idea that fascinated and stumped me in equal measure. Ask a question like that and my mind goes instantly blank which annoys me all the more because I have a degree in History of Art – theoretically my memory contains a vast picture library which I ought to be able to call on at a time like this to provide something dazzlingly appropriate.
In practice it doesn’t, or at least it does contain a vast picture library (even if many of the details are a little fuzzy now) many of which are so dazzlingly appropriate that they have already been used as cover art for the books I have in mind. Some are dazzlingly inappropriate and reflect books I expect no nice girl would admit reading but that’s what comes of a liberal arts education.
Still this is something I wanted to take part in because that degree contributed a lot towards my reading tastes and preferences. I have a love of British art only partly born out of a complete and humiliating lack of ability to learn another language; it’s a love that reaches its consummation with the Victorians (though isn’t by any means confined to them), specifically in problem paintings and conversation pieces. It’s a small step from sensational canvas to sensation novel and combining the two only heightens the appreciation of both for me.
So after due thought and consideration I’m presenting Robert Braithwaite Martineau’s ‘The Last Day In The Old Home’, it doesn’t in any way illustrate ‘The Law and The Lady’ which is the book that I was trying to match to a picture but does, I think, share a lot with the average Wilkie Collins novel in terms of subject and tone. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and that I don’t get done for infringing copyright rules... The original is in the Tate (British not Modern), it and its brethren are not very far from the Pre Raphaelite collection but they are somewhat less popular and therefore rather easier to get up close too and have a good look at.
Thanks for sharing this painting - I love it, being a great fan of British pictures that "tell a story." This looks like a sad story. These people seem to live exactly as I would have loved to live, in a wondrous old English house with the beautiful countryside right outside...and I take it they are about to be expelled from this Victorian Eden.
ReplyDeleteWonderful painting! It almost looks like the lady of the house is quite sad and removed from everything -- perhaps feeling a tad bit left out?
ReplyDeleteI like paintings in which there's so much richness of detail, like this one.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that the man of the house has wasted his fortune on horses and drink (the picture of a racehorse in the bottom left corner is a clue)his son is clearly following in his footsteps as both cheerfully drink in the face of ruin. He clearly married a foolish and over fashionable woman who didn't have the sense or moral fibre to stop him - even at the moment of didaster she's to weak to stop her sons drinking (shades of Wildfell Hall?) and it all seems to be left to the old lady to sort out. Or maybe it's not that at all... I never get tired of looking at pictures like this.
ReplyDeleteWonderful choice! There's a wealth of possible stories in that painting.
ReplyDeleteI thought the lady of the house looked a bit pale and consumptive - perhaps it's not lack of moral fibre but ill-health? I think you are probably right about it, but isn't it fun to weave alternate stories!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing this painting - isn't it wonderful!
ReplyDeleteGeranium Cat, maybe she's a hopeless opium addict! Maybe not... That's exactly why I love this picture.
ReplyDeleteCornflower - it's a really good challange and one I don't think I'm done with yet.
Bookish Space - kindred spirit:)