Victorian Portraiture
Victorian portraiture spans an age of rapid development, not just within art, but society as a whole. Evolving from the traditional aristocratic portraits of the 18th century, Victorian portraiture moved through the birth of early photography, a growing interest in exploring identity and moral duty and the eventual influence of the French Impressionists during Queen Victoria’s reign.
Victorian portraiture grew from the large oil paintings of the Georgian and Rococo eras, which aimed to capture the wealth and status of their subjects. Frank Holl’s portraits of the Tonks family, of which Portrait of Miss Tonks is part of the gallery’s collection, stem from this tradition. Commissioning individual portraits of family members in and of itself was an expression of wealth- commissioning one portrait alone was an expensive undertaking, let alone a family’s worth! Following the French Revolution in the late 18th century, the grandeur of the Baroque and Rococo were no longer fashionable and aristocratic styles became more understated. Holl’s Portrait of Miss Tonks, with her plain black dress reflects how this trend in fashion continued into the Victorian era. However, her pearl necklace and subtle embellishments on her dress and headdress affirm her status in the higher echelons of society.
The 19th century saw the invention of photography. The daguerreotype, which was first introduced in 1839, and later paper prints made it much more common to capture a likeness. It might be assumed that artists opposed to this new way of accurately depicting reality, however, long exposure times meant that subjects had to remain still for a long time, resulting in stiff and formal poses. Painting, on the other hand, did not suffer the same constraints. Sitters could be captured in relaxed poses or even movement, as an artist could make a number of quick preparatory sketches and then work on the finished product in the studio without the sitter having to remain still throughout the process. William Blake Richmond’s Portrait of a Man reflects this shift in painting towards less formal posing. The man is shown as relaxed, leaning back in his chair, his eyes bright and focused on someone unseen beyond the canvas. It is as if he is mid-intellectual debate, listening intently to the opinion of a respected peer. The overall effect creates a sense of intellectualism, education and presence without stiffly posed formality and props which portrait artists had used in the past.
This leads on to one of the other developments in Victorian portraiture- an increased interest in expressing the inner life and morality of a sitter. The Pre-Raphaelite’s were particularly interested in these qualities and this can be seen in the Self-Portrait of a Pre-Raphaelite artist from the British School in Darnley’s collection. As with William Blake Richmond, the pose is relaxed but the artist’s eyes are wide, with dark circles beneath and his hair slightly unkept. This reflects the Pre-Raphaelite ‘Sufferer’ or ‘Prophet’ archetype, a deliberate identity constructed to position the artists as truth-tellers and cultural martyrs, rather than simply commercial decorators flattering wealthy patrons. They believed that the Industrial Revolution had destroyed morality in society and that the Royal Academy had stripped art of its soul. The exhaustion and ruffled appearance of the artist was intended to reflect the immense weight of artistic creation and moral duty.
As the Victorian era drew to a close, portraiture underwent yet more changes and developments. Ambrose McEvoy’s Portrait of a Lady in a Black Bonnet from Darley’s collection reflects how loose, more painterly energy and visible brushstrokes became more fashionable, with the influence of artists such as John Singer Sargent and James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Whistler was a friend of McEvoy’s father and it is easy to see how the older artist inspired the younger, with the face of the sitter rendered in delicate detail, whilst the application of paint in the lower half becomes increasingly abstract.
From the stiff, heavily staged portraiture of the Georgian and Rocco eras, to a simplified focus on private psychology of an individual, Victorian portraiture is truly a reflection of its time.