The nineteenth century was a period during which the family was defined in modern Western European terms. The growth of the middle class and the increase in industrial employment in towns led to the establishment of the two spheres of home and work. Men were expected to go out to work and women to stay at home to manage the household.
Slide 1: Arthur Hughes, ‘April Love’ 1856
Slide 2: Philip Calderon, ‘Broken Vows’ 1856
Slide 3: George Elgar Hicks, ‘Woman’s Mission: Guide to Childhood’ 1863 (now lost)
Slide 4: George Elgar Hicks, ‘Woman’s Mission: Companion of Manhood’ 1863, Tate
Slide 5: George Elgar Hicks, ‘Woman’s Mission: Comfort of Old Age’ 1863 (now lost)
Slide 6: C.W. Cope, ‘Life Well Spent’ 1862
Slide 7: Philip Calderon, ‘Lord! Thy Will be Done’ 1855
Slide 8: William Holman Hunt, ‘The Awakening Conscience’ 1853
Slide 9: William Holman Hunt, ‘The Light of the World’ 1851-3
Slide 10: Alfred Elmore, ‘On the Brink’ 1865
Slide 11: William Hogarth, ‘The Lady’s Last Stake’ 1758
Slide 12: A.L. Egg, ‘Past and Present: I’ 1858
Slide 13: A.L. Egg, ‘Past and Present: II’ 1858
Slide 14: .A.L. Egg, ‘Past and Present: III’ 1858
Augustus Leopold Egg. Past and Present (III) The wife abandoned by her lover with her bastard child, 1858, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 in. Tate Gallery, London.
Slide 15: R.B. Martineau, ‘The Last Day in the Old Home’ 1861
Slide 16: Richard Redgrave, ‘The Outcast’ 1851
(These are notes of a course given at Birkbeck College by Carol Jacobi in 2005/2006)