Maude with an 'E' - Chapter 4

A Victorian Girl's Art School

he Victorian artist stereotypically is male, and the model who sits for him, as stereotypically and invariably female. And it was common knowledge in Maude’s day, that to become a skilled artist, an art student must study from life.

Typically, a life class meant drawing after a live nude model. To expect to study art without a living model, was like hoping to learn to bake without access to an oven. This fact had been presenting problems for females wishing to pursue a career in art for many years. Although present codes of conduct somehow allowed for men of upstanding character to study form and figure in such a way, the same codes of conduct did not, unfortunately, allow for women of upstanding character to do so.

This being the case, here there was un-stereotypical Maude. Coming from an extremely conservative background with traditional Jewish values, her father naturally expected her to grow up, marry someone he approved of, and bear children that would be faithful Jews and carry on their beloved traditions for a further generation or two, at least.

To desire to become an artist was to deviate from the prescribed path her father had set out in his mind. It could only have been worse if Maude had desired to become the stereotypical model, the painted as opposed to the painter - posing either clothed or otherwise, for the purpose of artistic study.

Maude contemplated how to convey to Henriette, the complex situation that was the period that led to her finally being allowed to travel to London to study art there. It must involve raising the topic of her father again... so she proceeded to explain thoughtfully, “My father - one of the best and kindest of fathers – shared the prejudice many men of that day had, against their girls adopting art as a profession. I had great difficulty in obtaining his permission to get lessons in drawing. But when he saw me always pencil and brush in hand he realised how much in earnest I was, he relented so far as to allow me to study under a master. It is, however, to my stepmother that I owe a debt of gratitude I can never repay. She sympathised with me, she encouraged me in every way. It was she who at last persuaded my father to allow me to do what I longed to do, come up to London, enter the School of Art at South Kensington, and study seriously.”

Henriette was quickly concluding that Maude’s introduction to the serious study of art was a story of the struggle to express a talent that would not be denied. The determination thus evidenced by Maude, lovingly backed by her step-mother, was something that resonated deeply with Henriette. She longed for an encouraging feminine influence in her life, like that which Maude had described. She almost felt as though the tug of war she often waged with her elder sister, was not unlike the gentle but ongoing battle Maude had contended with her father.

Of course from some perspectives it could be argued as understandable that Mr. Goodman should dislike the idea of his daughter pursuing her independence. However this only made Maude’s victory more worth the winning, when she finally gained his permission to study art in London. Even more so, did she feel vindicated, when he perceived her rapid progress and was among the first to acknowledge his pride in her achievements and express his fatherly pride through that first letter.

But Henriette still didn’t know much about the letter's actual contents. She could still only venture a guess at the true extent of their relationship. But that the father had been protective of Maude, Henriette could be sure.

Maude was feeling contented that she had portrayed her father in a dignified and becoming light, while also remaining truthful to the fact of things. The current truth had been plain for many to see over the years, as his disgruntled stance on the matter was something her father felt beholden to mention any time the subject came up, even in polite society.

Maude thought back again to the congratulatory letter her step-mother had brought with her to London on that occasion. She had always wondered how heartfelt it had really been, or had her step-mother somehow required father to write it, knowing how much it would mean to her, to receive a word of encouragement from him? She glanced over at her lithographic copy of “A Welcome Letter", hung on the wall near the doorway. She’d exhibited the original oil version of it about 7 years prior, at the London Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. It had been just one of six paintings she exhibited that year, one of her most creative years, artistically speaking. Many said that married life was suiting her and helping to drive and inspire her creativity.

Henriette noticed her gaze was directed towards the image and remembered that it carried some similarities with the Pre-Raphaelite painter J. M. Strudwick's "Isabella". He had painted it originally in the late 1870's, but when Maude and her new husband moved next door to Mr. Strudwick and his wife, he had decided to re-create a smaller version in her honour. He gifted it to them in 1886. Henriette’s imagination was reeling at the thought of how these two artistic households may have exchanged creative ideas and expertise with each other as they both worked from their homes at Edith Villas. She also wondered if Maude and her family had been included within the set that frequented the Grange, attending the many parties that Sir Edward Burne-Jones held for artists there.

However she didn’t feel it appropriate at this point, to inquire further on those matters. She was already sufficiently aware of the fact that Maude often rubbed shoulders with painters of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Henriette was more interested in establishing the story of Maude’s success and promulgation of her art on the basis of its own merits, and not by association with said brotherhood.

“Miss Goodman, may I enquire further about your days at art school in London? It must have all seemed so exciting and new. Had you been afraid to leave your home in Manchester, at first?”

“You’re right it was very exciting. Perhaps the excitement surpassed any fright I felt… and my mother and brother accompanied me at first, helping me to settle in. That helped make London feel like home. We wrote to my father all about it, and I believe he was reassured that everything was as it should be.”

Though it may have been Maude's dream to study at the Royal Academy, she had been delighted for whichever figurative foot she could get, into whichever London door. So when she was accepted to the National Art School, off she was on her way to London, finally allowed to pursue her dream.

Maude became a student of Sir Edward Poynter, who was had been teaching in the South Kensington National Art School from 1871 onwards. One redeeming feature of this school had been that female students were allowed to study separately from the male students, and the female’s life studies were subject to requirements that dictated the subjects’ remaining fully clothed. This had been one of the points on which Maude’s father was unrelenting and therefore Maude had been overjoyed to find out that there was a school of such acclaim, catering to just such a requirement.

It was an honour for her to learn from Poynter, she had felt. And she spoke with gratitude regarding what she remembered as unfailing kindness and interest, which he had shown in his pupils. His own paintings were in the Pre-Raphaelite style, though slightly more in the way of classical subject choice - a trend that others like Alma-Tadema also aided in making popular. Poynter also happened to be brother-in-law to Burne-Jones’ wife’s sister. And so it was often the case that these famed artists could be seen as they travelled between the South Kensington National School of Art and the West Kensington neighbourhood.

It quickly became apparent that Maude's talent had not been overestimated. Though fresh from Manchester, carried off prizes and medals upon every chance she was given. All of these occasions were commented upon in all the important art magazines, referring to her by her given name, Matilda Goodman. Maude would collect all such literary mentions, and kept them together with her childhood paintbox.

She admitted however that it had been hard work to attend so many varied classes, and to prepare for the various consequent examinations. Though her constitution had always been somewhat delicate, her zeal never relaxed, and she therefore passed each test victoriously.

In a desire to further advance her course of studies, Maude revealed to Henriette that in addition to studying at school, she began at one point to study art privately.

“I learned that a Spanish painter, who had been a pupil of Fortuny’s was in London at the time, and was opening a studio for the purpose of taking on private pupils. You know, I’d always dreamed of going to Paris, to study for a time at a master’s atelier, like so many other art students had chance to, but again it was so difficult to get my father to agree to anything like that. So to have such an opportunity present itself to me there on my doorstep, I felt I couldn’t refuse, and I went about trying to save money so as to be able to afford the private lessons. You may know already, that Fortuny had been described as ‘a marvel of verve, of colour, of light and shade’ and it seemed to me, from this painter’s works, as though he too had perfected his master’s methods. Under his tutelage I felt I was making even greater progress, and learning more than I ever had during my days and years at school.”

Henriette couldn’t help but wonder if this unnamed Spanish painter/mentor may have been anything more to Maude at the time… she remembered Maude’s painting “Old Love Letters” – an image of a lady seen to be burning the remains of one love letter, with other letters still held in her hand, no doubt destined for a similar ashy end. Henriette couldn’t help but wonder, could it be that as Maude met and got to know her future husband-to-be, it perhaps became necessary to dispose of past letters that no longer had any hold on her heart? She couldn’t in the spur of the moment think of a feasible way of probing into that matter just now, and so allowed Maude to carry on in her own train of thought.

“I used to love my days at art school... not just for the art but for the feeling of purpose and determination that would well up in me, on my way to the school room each morning. Just being around others of like-mind and like-purpose.... people who seemed to know how to express their thirst for that... that, something more, in life, which sometimes lets us have a taste and yet at the same time seems to always evade us. As if it’s toying with us, it keeps us wanting more." She spoke such words as she simultaneously used a dried up paint brush to toy with the kitten on the sofa, bringing it close enough for the kitten to bat at only to draw it away again quickly before the kitten could grab a hold of it.

"I think I could have been a student all my life if only to forever feel that feeling. But as with all good things, courses of study do eventually come to their end. Formal courses of study, that is. The learning never ceases... I still always wake up with the “thirst” - but what has changed is that the commute seems... less defined, and I’m not surrounded by people who seem as intently interested in that same particular pursuit. It can be easy to begin to feel lost, when that happens. I was very happy and fortunate however to have been saved from much of those lost feelings, early on, when my first painting sold. That launched me forward in a clear enough direction, to make it unnecessary for me to dwell too much on what I was missing from former school days.” Maude picked up the kitten and set it down on the floor.

Maude was of an opinion, that often attributed to Velasquez, “Nature herself is the artist’s best teacher; industry the surest guide to perfection.” And so she felt it was thereafter time to dip her toes into the world of industry.

Maude, not unlike the kitten now toying with a ball of yarn on the floor, had been toying with the idea of presenting portions of her father’s congratulatory letter, to Miss Corkran. She still felt like she owed her father something more of a positive note, but was considering whether it would only serve to confuse the reporter further as regards the earlier hesitance she’d had, towards the subject.

Meanwhile, it was beginning to dawn on Henriette how wonderful and amazing that in spite of or along with Maude’s determination and strength of character - as this tenacious young girl must have had in order to get to such a point - she somehow had been able to maintain an essence of delicate femininity. And that she was able to translate that to the canvas... creating whisperingly pretty imagery, portraying ideals of family life so lightly expressed as if to carry us up on a cloud of wonderment.

Though sickeningly sweet at times, Henriette was finding the imagery more and more refreshing. She was inspired by the fact that Maude had maintained a dreamy softness to her painterly touch, though she so obviously had developed a strength and determination so as to succeed in a male dominated field and in the face of her father's well-intentioned opposition.

Of course, these qualities are not unfamiliar to woman nor uncomfortable - as Henriette began to expand on the idea in her mind… surely any surviving mother is proof of how running a household and taking command of one's children requires unique tenacity and resilience. The trick, indeed, is to develop and gain mastery over such qualities whilst still maintaining an elegant compassion. To behold such a grace as Henriette was now witnessing in the person of Miss Goodman, felt like what she imagined it must feel like to chance upon a rare exotic animal in the pure and undisturbed beauty of its natural habitat. She knew she must go on with the interview, but also enjoyed simply observing the scene before her, in silent awe.