The governess (Redgrave)

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The Governess (Richard Redgrave)
The governess
Richard Redgrave , 1844
Oil on canvas
Victoria and Albert Museum , London

The oil painting The Governess (originally The Governess ) belongs together with the painting The Seamstress ( The Sempstress ) to the most famous paintings by the British painter Richard Redgrave . Redgrave saw it as an artist's duty to deal with the social problems of his respective time. Illustrating a governess he attacked the onset of around 1840 public debate about the limited employment opportunities capable loose women of the educated middle class on. The painting has become the most frequently used pictorial representation of the so-called governess misery. Accordingly, it was for Title Pictures of issues of the genre of Gouvernantenromans counting novel Agnes Gray by Anne Brontë used.

Image content

The painting shows a young woman in the foreground. Her simple clothes, her strict hairstyle and her positioning between the piano and the desk indicate that she is a governess . Several details of the painting underline his depressed, almost sad mood. The governess looks down. Her black clothes can be mourning clothes, but the white collar indicates that she is in half mourning at best. Had she recently lost a close family member, she would be dressed entirely in black. It is therefore possible that the black clothing primarily expresses their subordinate social status within the household of their employer. In her right hand, however, she holds a letter framed in black that begins with the words " My dear Child ". The notes on the piano are labeled “ Home, Sweet Home ”. The mood of painful loss that the painting expresses can therefore also refer to the fact that the young woman had to separate from her family in order to now pursue a paid job.

In the background of the painting three young women or girls can be seen wearing light, elegant clothes. Two are playing outside of the room on a terrace. The third is sitting at the open patio door, holding an open book on her lap and watching the other two girls. It is not certain that Richard Redgrave, with the seriousness with which he portrayed this girl, wanted to express that one day she would also have to resort to the marginalized profession of governess. In fact, it is known that the girl who was probably the model for the person depicted later worked in this profession.

History of origin

Richard Redgrave had exhibited a painting entitled " The Poor Teacher " in 1843 , which was widely praised for its realistic depiction of governess misery. The original has been lost, but contemporary depictions show a dark-clad woman sitting alone at a table. The remains of a meager meal are on the table, and next to the plate is a pile of papers that could be homework that needs to be corrected. In 1844, Redgrave was commissioned by his patron John Sheepshanks to paint another version of this painting. This second version is the one discussed here.

Social background

For women of the educated middle class, the activity of governess for two centuries was one of the few opportunities to pursue an appropriate profession. It was almost exclusively seized by women who at some point in their biography did not have a father, husband or brother who could or could support themselves and who therefore had to or wanted to fend for themselves. In Great Britain around the middle of the 19th century, so many women were forced to earn their living in this way that they were referred to as “governess misery”. This was understood to mean material hardship, an offense of self-esteem due to the low reputation of this profession, disregard of their individual needs and the struggle for a professional job in a job market that offered women only very limited opportunities compared to men. The governess occupies a correspondingly broad space in the English literature of the time. In other European countries, different social conditions and different forms of child-rearing meant that the governess profession did not develop into a comparatively strong symbol of specific female disadvantage.

The economic problems of wealthy women belonging to the upper middle class were particularly pronounced in Great Britain. After 1830, the number of women who wanted or had to work as governess far exceeded the available positions. On the one hand, this oversupply was the result of a series of economic crises in which the wealth of many families dwindled. On the other hand, it was also due to an imbalance between men and women who were capable and willing to marry.

In an 1851 census, 25,000 British women identified themselves as governesses, while 750,000 women worked as servants. The number of governesses corresponded to two percent of all unmarried women between the ages of 20 and 40. Since unmarried working-class women worked either in factories or as servants , the figure is as high as two percent and suggests that almost every middle-class woman with no other income had to enter the profession. However, while the employment situation of lower-class women was not a public discussion point at the time, the problems of this comparatively small group aroused the special interest and sympathy of the middle-class public. Sir George Stephen wrote in a handbook for governesses in 1844:

We have to admit that when [...] describing the office of governess, our hearts tighten a little as we have never experienced in any other active lifestyle. In every other occupation one finds the encouragement of hope […]. The servant can become the employer, the worker can become employer […]. The governess and the governess alone, although they are members of the liberal professions, have no hope or expectations.

Richard Redgrave himself had two sisters who worked as governesses. As a result, he was personally familiar with the situation of women who pursued this profession.

Comparable representations of the governess profession

The particular problem faced by young middle-class women who suddenly saw themselves forced to take up employment as governesses has repeatedly been depicted in paintings.

literature

  • Cecilia Wadsö Lecaros: The Victorian Governess Novel . Lund University Press, Lund 2001, ISBN 91-7966-577-2 .

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Lecaros: The Victorian Governess Novel . 2001, p. 44.
  2. ↑ Lecaros: The Victorian Governess Novel . 2001, p. 45.
  3. ↑ Lecaros: The Victorian Governess Novel . 2001, p. 44.
  4. ↑ Irene Hardach-Pinke: The governess: history of a women's profession. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1993, p. 15.
  5. ↑ Lecaros: The Victorian Governess Novel. 2001, p. 20.
  6. ^ A b Ruth Brandon: Other People's Daughters - The Life and Times of the Governess. Phoenix, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-7538-2576-1 , p. 1.
  7. ↑ Irene Hardach-Pinke: The governess: history of a women's profession. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1993, p. 16.
  8. ↑ Quoted from Ruth Brandon: Other People's Daughters - The Life and Times of the Governess. S. 5. The original quote is We must acknowledge that in […] describing the office of governess we have had a sickening feeling at heart, such as we have not experienced in tracing any other department of active life. In every other human pursuit there may be found the encouragement of expectation ... The servant may become master, the laborer may rise into an employer ... but the governess, and the governess alone, though strictly a member of a liberal profession, has neither hope nor prospect open in this world.
  9. ↑ Lecaros: The Victorian Governess Novel . 2001, p. 44.