The Cult of Beauty

On the May Day bank holiday, I took the chance to visit the V&A, and its fascinating exhibition: “The Cult of Beauty – The Aesthetic Movement 1860 – 1900”. Amidst some gorgeous items are numerous works by painters such as Rossetti, Whistler, Leighton and Watts who – as as the catalogue explains – began “choosing women whose looks – and lifestyles – were at odds with conventional Victorian ideas of demure femininity”.

An example is Watts’ “Study with peacock feathers”. I link to it here, rather than including the photo in the post, as even C19th paintings can class as NSFW. Suffice it to say, if you can’t click on the link, that most viewers (or should I say voyeurs) will focus rather more on the nude woman than on the peacock’s contribution to the piece. In a rather marvellous phrase, the accompanying notice in the exhibition describes it as an example of:

“Intimate works intended for the private delectation of connoisseurs”

That’d be Victorian for ‘porn’, then? I rather love the phrase: I think I shall adopt it for any photos I take during scenes in future.

But then – and the point of the post, really, comes a small selection of furniture – including Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s “Couch”, dating from 1893:

Couch? Right. Like everyone’s couch has two leather straps to tie girls down. But if they called it a “punishment bench”, presumably they wouldn’t be able to include it in the show. And oh, how I want a reproduction…