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Art for Art's Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting by Elizabeth Prettejohn

Article  in  The Burlington magazine · January 2008

DOI: 10.2307/20073048

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Review
Reviewed Work(s): Art for Art's Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting by Elizabeth
Prettejohn
Review by: J. B. Bullen
Source: The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 150, No. 1261, British Art and Architecture (Apr.,
2008), pp. 265-266
Published by: Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20073048
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 BOOK REVIEWS

vision of home and hearth and God'. A By and the painting of the period i860 to 1875.
biography such as this is, unfortunately,
October the Exhibition was over and Pugin's
not the place for many illustrations, and The book opens and closes with the work
most
of been
difficulties continued. His last child had them are obvious choices. It is thereforeof two writers and theorists, Swinburne and
born and Jane's health was bad. The final
particularly disappointing, given the Pater.
lack ofIn Prettejohn's account, Swinburne
information on the decorative arts emerges
chapters of the book describe Pugin's decline in the as a subtle facilitator of 'correspon
into madness and Jane's efforts to get book,
him that the only page devoted to dences',
that moving with intellectual agility
home in the few days before his death subject
on 14this so inadequate and full of mistakes.between ideas supplied by his reading of
September 1852. The stained-glass window is not by Blake, Pugin. Poe, Gautier, Baudelaire, Solomon
Hill describes Pugin's characterThe well:
encaustic tiles are wrongly orientated,and Rossetti, and identifying within Anglo
'intense, passionate and unconventional'.
and the wallpaper, a heraldic one, is upside French theories the presence of a nascent,
Whatever he did, he did wholeheartedly. down.His How cross Pugin and his clientKantian,would 'free' beauty. It was left to Pater to
household and those connected with have himbeen! Hill is not good at heraldry and
consolidate the effort in his development of
worked on his terms. On the other hand, as
consistently refers to the black martlet the subtle dialectic between Hegel and Kant
from
Hill correctly points out, he was nothis shield as his 'crest'. These criticisms
oppor are
that underpins The Renaissance (1873). In this
tunistic. He never tried to organise his career
minor and do not detract from the importance
key text, art for art's sake achieved a rationale
to his advantage; he did not think thatofway.
a book that gives an excellent and accurate
and a history. It transcended the boundaries of
He would antagonise people who were in
introduction to this fascinating man. the various media in a synaesthetic aspiration
positions to help him, but was always prepared to the condition of music, and its label
to do things for friends and much of his 1 M.
workBelcher, ed.: The Collected Letters ofwas
A.W.N.
fixed by Pater's repeated use of the term
Pugin. Volume
was for minor buildings in out-of-the-way 'aesthetic'.
1, 1830?1842, Oxford 2001; Volume 2, Between these two theorists
1843-1845, Oxford 2003.
places. In this respect Hill hardly explains why Prettejohn dedicates chapters to Simeon
he continued to work so hard in an unac Solomon, Albert Moore, Leighton, Whistler,
knowledged and subordinate position to Barry Rossetti and Burne-Jones, each rich with new
at the Palace of Westminster. It was surely for Art's Sake: Aestheticism and
Artthe subtle readings. She links Solomon with
in Vic
prestige of 'the great work', plus a grudging Rossetti in their exploration of the links
torian Painting. By Elizabeth Prettejohn.
between the aesthetic and the erotic, suggest
admiration for Barry that kept him going.
343 pp. incl. 75 col. + 64 b. & w. ills. (Paul
Later, perhaps, he needed work and so too did ing that they made 'a kind of work that
Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art,
does not leave the erotic behind as it rises
Hardman. Living away from the capital, he
London, and Yale University Press, New
had nothing to do with London society or to beauty' (p.77). Both artists employ the
Haven and London, 2007), ?35. ISBN 978
institutions. His real inability to work on any repeated androgynous face; both tread a fine
0-300-13549-7.
terms other than his own ? and John Hardman line between the libidinous and the licensed,
Powell, his only pupil, suffered, as Hill shows and both create intertextual links between
Reviewed by J.B. BULLEN
- precluded the office and clerks normal to their work and that of others, and most espe
Reading University
other architects. It limited the type of work cially with the art of the past.
he could do, but increased his professional The creation of 'museum art' is a feature
burdens and his isolation. He was therefore
it is easier to say what 'Aestheticism'that isAesthetic painters and poets shared. Pret
surprised to find himself treated withnot than what it is. This may be because
defer tejohnin suggests that the persistent return to
ence after his success at the Great Exhibition.
Britain its roots He in a reaction to earlyor Rome, to Ingres or Manet, is not so
Venice
He was, of course, very fortunate in having
nineteenth-century academicism. In the much a matter of influence but of the desire to
first
Myers, Hardman, Crace and Minton surveyon of the movement in 1882, the establish
journal the fact that pictures are primarily
whom he could rely, so it would have ist been artefacts
Walter Hamilton attributed its origins to that draw much of their life from their
good to have had more about them.Ruskin. critical relation to other artefacts. Her account
Hill is In the 1840s Ruskin had enhanced
the status
unjust in her estimation of Barry and his skill as of art in British culture byof
endow
Whisder's nocturnes, and in particular her
a designer, as his many drawings show.ing Unforit with moral seriousness, and by turning
detailed reading of his Nocturne: Blue and Silver
visual
tunately his correspondence with Pugin doesperception into an ethical imperative.
? Chelsea of 1871, works particularly well in
Encouraged by Ruskin's theories, the
not survive to illuminate their relationship. thisPre
context. She compares Whisder's studies
For such a long book it is gratifying that
Raphaelites introduced this sense of gravitas
of the Thames to contemporary Impressionist
there are only a few muddled or missing work,
into practice, and in their different ways beganpointing out how Whistler renounces
references. Hill is determined to see Pugin's the deep pictorial space of receding banks in
to develop art that was less and less dependent
upon narrative teleologies. Rossetti,
life with fresh eyes. Her tone is frequently inof a series of parallel brushstrokes to
favour
particular,
quite tart; she says of his Easter celebrations in created a visual world that was foreground, middle-ground and far
indicate
1845: 'The solemn procession from thedependent
chapel neither on mimesis nor distance.
didacti This structure she likens to seascapes
cism.
round the hall and back again would haveInstead, his art took the form of depend
that an upon a similar parallel configura
struck an unsympathetic eye as absurd'.exploration,
She is even a critique or commentary,
tion invoking Courbet's L'Eternit?, painted in
always uncompromising in her conclusions. Whisder's company in 1865. She then points
on aspects of subjective human experience,
She has decided that Pugin did not
which out how Whisder further abbreviates the
build he expressed sometimes in visual,
sometimes in verbal terms.
the clock tower at Scarisbrick, which became Impressionist mode by avoiding the brilliant
the model for that at Westminster, against In her splendidly argued book Art for of the French in favour of a reduction
lights
the overwhelming evidence of the working of contrasts to 'calm the scene to create a sense
Art's Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting,
drawings that he did. Hill feels that it is Prettejohn takes as her starting
Elizabeth ofpoint
mute serenity' (p. 174). This is characteristic
Pugin's haphazard education which two made works from around 1856 not usuallyof Prettejohn's method. The act of creation
him omit discussion of the Renaissance in
associated with Aestheticism, Rossetti's The
is re-enacted as she combines carefully plotted
Contrasts. But the word seems to haveblue beencloset and Millais's Autumn leaves. She
historical material with intuitive interpretative
first used in English only in about convincingly
1840, argues that both represent a these strengths come into their own
detail. All
coming from the French, and it was not turning
until away from contemporary 'subject'
in an outstanding chapter on Rossetti and the
i860 that Jacob Burckhardt wrote his pio which, although they provided
pictures an School'.
'Fleshly
neering book on the subject. In fact he'abundance
had a of precise detail', withhold 'the
In her work on Rossetti, Prettejohn builds
clues we need to decode' them (p.23).
great interest in history and was a considerable The put forward by Jerome McGann in
on ideas
scholar. More could have been saidchaptersabout that take up this and other his themes
monograph Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the
Pugin's draughtsmanship and his work are as a
dense with suggestive intertextual Game
crossthat Must be Lost (2000), in which he
topographical artist. references between the criticism, the demonstrates
poetry just how complex, allusive and

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 BOOK REVIEWS

Edward Burra. Twentieth-Centuryfriend

serious an artist Rossetti was. In 1864 Rossetti Eye. William Chappell (1985). But there is a
By Jane Stevenson. 496 pp. incl. 39 b. sense
visited Paris, where he saw Manet's Olympia, & w. in which the milieu, the satire on man
and on returning to Chelsea he painted ills.
Lady(Jonathan Cape, London, 2007), ners?30.and the engaging jokiness of the letters
ISBN 978-0-224-07875-7.
Lilith. Both McGann and Prettejohn suggest seem almost to stand in the way of Burra's
that these two pictures represent 'a radical reputation as a painter. Stevenson, recognis
assault on contemporary notions ofReviewedsexual by ANDREW CAUSEY ing the problem of a committed artist who
propriety' (p.211). Historically, Manet's ironic is sceptical of the environment in which he
approach has overshadowed Rossetti's,Edward
yet as burra belonged to the generation works, apdy quotes Burra saying: Tm serious
of British
Prettejohn convincingly argues, Rossetti's, if modernists that includedaboutHenry my work, but I don't spread seriousness,
less obviously shocking, is as radical Moore,
and pos Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson it's such a bore'. Christopher Isherwood, also
sibly more complex than Manet's. To and Paul Nash - the last of whom was quoted
do this Burra's here, spoke for Burra when he said
ally and champion. Although Nash helped
Prettejohn shows how the group of eroticised 'you can't camp about something you don't
female studies, beginning with Bocea baciata
ensureinBurra was represented in some take of theseriously'. Burra was in fact profoundly
major modernist groups and exhibitions
i860, make up the elements of a fundamental interested
of in human nature and dedicated to
examination of libidinal experience. Likethe the
1930s such as Unit One, the Museum of
its study.
sonnets that constitute 'The House of Life', Art's Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism
Modern Stevenson identifies Burra's social milieu
each canvas takes up a new view of the and the International Surrealist exhibition
issue in His circle was quite separate from
in detail.
London, Burra has always been an that
from what Rossetti called 'the inner standing uneasy
of the so-called Hampstead avant-garde
point'. Both Prettejohn and McGann righdy and had
fit, regarded as a force to be reckoned with but little connection with Bloomsbury.
clear it
give central importance to this idea since of the mainstream. He had no truck with were dancers, photographers and
His friends
provides a key not only to his painting, abstraction,
but and the sardonic humourdesigners.
with Stevenson raises the question of
also to his poetry and translations. Rossetti's
which he eyed modern life was reflected whether,
in hisas late as the 1940s, Burra should
project was a 'fleshly' one; his supporters and
characteristic oversized watercolours through
not be thought of as a designer (for ballet and
caricature and lurid colour. The constrained
his enemies both recognised that his experience opera) as much as an artist (Fig.73). Purity, so
of life was coloured by gender differences
forms much of
and? as he saw it ? and pastel colours an aim and a standard of advanced art
by sexuality in such a way that the erotic
modernist between
colleagues interested him not at all.the wars, did not interest him. He
became for him an existential mode.Burra, Con as Jane Stevenson demonstrates does seem
in relevant, however, to some recent
sequendy, myth, symbol and allegory
her are
carefully researched and entertaining
art ranging from Pichard Hamilton to the
refracted through this lens so that his biography,
whole was neither neglected norpresent
unsucday. 'High' and 'low' both interested
notion of beauty is one, as he put it, cessful.
'Whose He had regular commercial him, he was attentive to old-master exhibi
exhi
speech Truth knows not from her thought, tions in
bitions/ in London, gained critical respect as well as popular culture, while his
Nor Love her body from her soul'. Butsome whatquarters and was a favourite ofappropriative
John art, reworking photographs and
Rothenstein when he was directormagazine
Prettejohn points out with such intelligence of the imagery, seems in order today.
is that since all experience in Rossetti's
T?teuvre
Gallery. Burra was a dedicated painter,
This is stricdy a biography and threads its
a true professional who lived for hisway
is recorded from 'the inner standing point', neady through the lives of London's
work.
the readers of his poetry and the viewers
His wry of humour and telling expression fashion-conscious
made bright young things:
his paintings are implicated in the veryhimact aof homosexual,
brilliant writer of letters, edited for bisexual, often alcoholic and
apprehension. As an example she offers publication
the sometimes drug addicted. They were too
as Well, Dearie! by his lifelong
pertinent contrast between the voyeuristic young to have fought in the First World War,
act of viewing Holman Hunt's Awakening suspicious ofthat War's masculine values and
conscience and the participatory act of viewing unsympathetic to, or at least uninterested in,
Bocea baciata or The blue bower. When Rossetti's business values, living for the moment and
pictures disturbed some of their first viewers revelling in the shiny surfaces of modern
they did so because they created a sense of urban life as reflected in fashionable lifestyle,
enforced intimacy with the subject. With no clothes and the movies. These were creative
'perspective recession to contain the abundant people with their own professionalism but
and malleable volumes of the figures,' Prette detached from the kind of work ethic that had
john writes, 'we encounter another human brought industrial success to Britain in the
being but we seem to stand closer to her than previous century. Living for the present, their
propriety should allow' (p.213). The 'inner life was more surface than depth.
standing point' creates experiential complic None of Burra's paintings is reproduced in
ity between text and audience as Rossetti this book, although a number are described.
obliterates the 'I?thou relationship' that has This is a pity because, although an academic
characterised Western painting since the Ren historian, not specifically an art historian,
aissance. This moral foreshortening creates Stevenson has a perceptive take on Burra's art,
a strange unease in the works. The real and and references to his contacts with the painting
the unreal meet in an aesthetic realm which, and criticism of others - William Roberts and
as Prettejohn points out, persistendy obliter Wyndham Lewis are mentioned - could
ates 'any sense that the world he presents is be assembled into a kind of alternative history
one that could ever exist outside art' (p.230). of British modernism around the idea of
It is hardly possible to do justice to this the painter of modern life. The experimental
brilliant book in such a small compass. Every British artists of the 1930s were an entirely
chapter, indeed every page, is full of imagina separate group from the Vorticist circle of
tive insights into the notoriously elusive issue 1914, and although they were less than two
of 'art for art's sake', but the command of decades apart, there is little connection
detail, the new research, the carefully unfold between them in either their aesthetic objec
ing argument in a beautifully fluent critical tives or social groupings. The dynamic of
language, together with numerous73.fresh
Costume Burra's art, his satirical oudook on the world
design for the ballet A Day in a Southern
interpretations of well-known and much Port less
(Rio Grande), by Edward Burra. 1931. Water (at least up to the Second World War) and
well-known works, place this monograph delight in caricature share something with
colour and pencil on paper, 55 by 27 cm. (Courtesy
in the forefront of studies in the field. James Hyman Fine Arts, London). Lewis's tyros and Roberts's denizens of the

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