British Aestheticism and the Urban Working Classes, 1870–1900: Beauty for the People

301 Pages·2006·6.995 MB·English

by  Diana Maltz (auth.)

British Aestheticism and
the Urban Working
Classes, 1870-1900
Beauty for the People
Diana Maltz
Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture
General Editor: Joseph Bristow, Professor of English, UCLA
Editorial Advisory Board: Hilary Fraser, Birkbeck College, University of
London;Josephine McDonagh, Linacre College, University of Oxford; Yopie
Prins, University of Michigan; Lindsay Smith, University of Sussex; Margaret
D. Stetz, University of Delaware; Jenny Bourne Taylor, University of Sussex
Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Cultureis a new monograph
series that aims to represent the most innovative research on literary works
that were produced in the English-speaking world from the time of the
Napoleonic Wars to the fin de siècle. Attentive to the historical continuities
between ‘Romantic’ and ‘Victorian’, the series will feature studies that help
scholarship to reassess the meaning of these terms during a century marked by
diverse cultural, literary, and political movements. The main aim of the series
is to look at the increasing influence of types of historicism on our understand-
ing of literary forms and genres. It reflects the shift from critical theory to cul-
tural history that has affected not only the period 1800–1900 but also every
field within the discipline of English literature. All titles in the series seek to
offer fresh critical perspectives and challenging readings of both canonical and
non-canonical writings of this era.
Titles include:
Laurel Brake and Julie F. Codell (editors)
ENCOUNTERS IN THE VICTORIAN PRESS
Editors, Authors, Readers
Dennis Denisoff
SEXUAL VISUALITY FROM LITERATURE TO FILM, 1850–1950
Laura E. Franey
VICTORIAN TRAVEL WRITING AND IMPERIAL VIOLENCE
Lawrence Frank
VICTORIAN DETECTIVE FICTION AND THE NATURE OF EVIDENCE
The Scientific Investigations of Poe, Dickens and Doyle
Jarlath Killeen
THE FAITHS OF OSCAR WILDE
Catholicism, Folklore and Ireland
Stephanie Kuduk Weiner
REPUBLICAN POLITICS AND ENGLISH POETRY, 1789–1874
Diana Maltz
BRITISH AESTHETICISM AND THE URBAN WORKING CLASSES, 1870–1900
David Payne
THE REENCHANTMENT OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY FICTION
Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot and Serialization
Ana Parejo Vadillo
WOMEN POETS AND URBAN AESTHETICISM
Passengers of Modernity
Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth CenturyWriting and Culture
Series Standing Order ISBN 978-0-333-97700- 2 (hardback)
(outside North America only)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing
order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address
below with your name and address, the title of the series and the ISBN quoted above.
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
British Aestheticism and
the Urban Working
Classes, 1870-1900
Beauty for the People
Diana Maltz
© Diana Maltz 2006
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-4569-3
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the
Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court Road, London W1T 4LP.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2006 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. 10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave
Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd.
Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom
and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European
Union and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-52314-6 ISBN 978-0-230-50405-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230504059
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Maltz, Diana, 1965–
British aestheticism and the urban working classes, 1870–1900 : beauty
for the people / Diana Maltz.
p. cm. – (Palgrave studies in nineteenth-century writing and culture)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. English literature–19th century–History and criticism. 2. Aestheticism
(Literature) 3. Art and literature–Great Britain–History–19th century. 4. City
and town life–Great Britain–History–19th century. 5. Social problems–Great
Britain–History–19th century. 6. Working class–Great Britain–History–
19th century. 7. Urban poor–Great Britain–History–19th century. 8. Working
class–Great Britain–Intellectual life. 9. Asthetic movement (Art)–Great Britain.
10. Aesthetics, British–19th century. I. Title. II. Series.
PR468.A33.M35 2005
820.9′357–dc22 2005047466
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06
To my mother, Millie Maltz,
and my nieces, Susannah, Julia, and Olivia Maltz
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
List of Figures viii
Acknowledgments ix
What is Missionary Aestheticism? An Introduction 1
1 The Social Strands of Aestheticism 19
2 Octavia Hill and the Aesthetics of Victorian Tenement
Reform 41
3 ‘In ample halls adorned with mysterious things aesthetic’:
Toynbee Hall as Aesthetic Haven 67
4 The Museum Opening Debate and the Combative Discourses
of Sabbatarianism and Missionary Aestheticism 98
5 ‘Art is the Handmaid of Religion’: Slum Ritualism as
Missionary Aestheticism 132
6 George Gissing’s Hopes and Fears for a Popular British
Aestheticism 174
Conclusion: Missionary Aestheticism as Emancipatory
Aesthetics? 206
Notes 218
Works Cited 263
Index 279
vii
List of Figures
Figure 1.1 G. F. Watts, Janey Nassau Senior. 26
Figure 1.2 Luke Fildes, ‘Houseless and Hungry,’ The Graphic1
(1869): 9. 29
Figure 1.3 Charles Keene, ‘Mrs. M: “Oh you must see my cabinet
of cur’osities. I’m awful partial to Bric-Bats,”’
Punch84 (17 March 1883): 131. 35
Figure 1.4 W. P. Frith, Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881. 36
Figure 1.5 (unsigned cartoon), ‘Our Academy Guide, No. 163 –
Private Frith’s View. Members of the Salvation
Army, led by General Oscar Wilde, joining in a
hymn,’Punch84 (12 May 1883): 220. 37
Figure 1.6 George Du Maurier, ‘What It Has Come To,’ Punch
80 (16 April 1881): 177. 38
Figure 1.7 George Du Maurier, ‘Refinements of Modern Speech,’
Punch76 (14 June 1879): 270. 39
Figure 3.1 Michelangelo, Tomb of Lorenzo de Medici. 83
Figure 3.2 Frontispiece from the Toynbee Travellers’ Club,
Log Book of the Expedition to Florence. 85
Figure 3.3 Page of painting and text from the Toynbee
Travellers’ Club, Log Book of the Expedition to
Siena, Perugia and Assisi. 86
Figure 3.4 Sketch of Italian peasants from the Toynbee
Travellers’ Club, Log Book of the Expedition to
Siena, Perugia and Assisi. 87
Figure 3.5 George Du Maurier, ‘The Very Latest Craze; Or,
Overdoing It,’ Punch85 (22 December 1883): 294. 90
Figure 3.6 George Du Maurier, ‘In Slummibus,’ Punch86
(3 May 1884): 210. 90
Figure 3.7 W. Q. Orchardson, Her First Dance(1884). 91
Figure 3.8 Napoleon Sarony, photograph of Oscar Wilde
(1882). 92
Figure 4.1 Charles Keene, ‘Shocking!’ Punch82 (6 May 1882):
207. 122
viii
Acknowledgments
In its earliest incarnation as a Stanford doctoral thesis, this study
benefited from the insights of a congenial and thoughtful committee,
Regenia Gagnier, Robert Polhemus, and Jocelyn Marsh. Over time,
Dr Gagnier has reread various sections in evolution, and has continued
to offer her ideas, kind encouragement and wise mentorship. At
Stanford, I was also fortunate to join an extraordinarily friendly and
supportive Victorianist graduate reading group. Kenneth Brewer, Jason
Camlot, Lisa Jenkins, Stephanie Kuduk, Richard Menke, Paul Saint-
Amour, Ardel Thomas, and Kate Washington read and critiqued sec-
tions of this work with characteristic good humor and intellectual
rigor. Beyond the Stanford circle, two scholars have kindly exchanged
drafts-in-progress with me for many years. The social historian Seth
Koven was instrumental in pointing me to the Toynbee Travellers’
journals, and his work on slumming and cultural philanthropy is
imprinted on many of my chapters. Talia Schaffer’s delight in fin-
de-siècleaesthetic culture and mastery of it were as inspiring to me as
her perceptive ideas for revision. I am also grateful for the kindness and
friendliness of Mark Samuels Lasner, Margaret Stetz, and Kathy
Psomiades.
Warren Hedges and Jim Rible helped prepare this book’s images, and
in the last days, Pierre Coustillas, Ann Gelder, Anna Grzeszkiewicz,
Millie Maltz, and Mitsuharu Matsuoka each assisted me in locating
bibliographic cites. Any errors, however, are solely my own.
My research developed with the aid of generous postdoctoral
fellowships through UCLA’s William Andrews Clark Memorial
Library and the Ahmanson-Getty Foundation in 1999 and the Yale
Center for British Art and Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British
Art in 2000. These research fellowships and later participation in a
teacher’s exchange in England in 2002 granted me access to new
materials and new scholarly company: Anne Anderson, Meaghan
Clark, Janice Helland, Ruth Livesey, Joseph McBrinn, Morna O’Neill,
Elaine Cheasley Paterson, and Shelagh Wilson have generously
shared their research with me.
I wish to thank the staffs of the Lenn and Dixie Hannon Library at
Southern Oregon University, Stanford University Libraries, the
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library at UCLA, the New York
ix