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Victorian Girlhood Through the Lens of "The Yellow Book"

Brianna Stickney

Ryerson University

A Brief Introduction

Front Cover

Ethel Reed

The Yellow Book is an illustrated quarterly created in 1894 by Aubrey Beardsley, Henry Harland and John Lane, and lasted 13 volumes until its final publication in 1897. These volumes featured some of the most prominent literary and artistic figures of Victorian England, its draw being The Yellow Book’s lack of restriction, and allotment of a freer hand (Weintraub 139). Though the main goal of The Yellow Book looked to aestheticism—creating art for art’s sake—it became a revolutionary literary movement through its rejection of “traditional periodic literature” and unrestrained commentary on social norms of Victorian England (139). In many volumes, children and representations of childhood—more specifically, girls and girlhood— are prominent themes in the contributions of the quarterly, and reveal something about Victorian perceptions of girlhood in England.
The purpose of this exhibit, therefore, is to discover whether or not people during the Victorian era viewed girlhood as its own distinctive experience, and how these notions shaped the way girls were treated, raised and perceived by analyzing the portrayal of young girls through art and literature in The Yellow Book.

Front Cover

D.Y. Cameron

Young Girls of The Yellow Book

    “Natalie” is a short, fictional story written by Aline Harland under the pseudonym, Renée de Coutans in The Yellow Book’s 12th volume. The story is about a young girl, Natalie, who hears her mother playing a piece on the piano one night as she lays in bed trying to fall asleep. She is overcome by strong foreign emotions and soon finds herself sobbing as she listens to the music. When she hears it again during the day, in the presence of others, she has no reaction at all, and remains impassive throughout the piece. Upon her third time hearing her mother play, she is alone again in her room, and the strong, confusing emotions return to her until she runs out and begs her mother to never play the piece again in her anguish. It is only many years later, when Natalie is a young woman, that she vaguely reveals that she finally understands why the piece made her feel the way it did when she was a child, eluding to the intimacy and love the piece emoted, which she as a child could not understand or express.
    In The Yellow Book’s 8th volume, Scottish portrait painter and prominent figure of the renowned Glasgow Boys, James Guthrie, contributed "A Sketch" portraying a little girl, seated upon an ottoman with perfect posture, gazing out towards the viewer. Everything about the way in which the child is represented presents the image of a young, docile and demure girl-child that may have been the ideal in Victorian England.
    It can be argued that these excerpts from The Yellow Book offer insight into values surrounding children, especially young girls, during the 19th century; playing testament to evolving notions about childhood during this era that led to the heightened awareness and interest regarding girlhood as a distinctive sub-branch.

A Sketch

James Guthrie

Aline Harland: Renée de Coutans

Aline Harland was the wife of Henry Harland, one of the founders of The Yellow Book. An avid lover of music and the arts, she and her husband dedicated much of their lives to the arts, and surrounded themselves with novelists, art critics, and artists with a common interest in "the avant-garde" (Schmidt). Aline Harland contributed two works to The Yellow Book under the pseudonym "Renée de Coutans": "A Lady Loved a Rose" in volume 10, and "Natalie" in volume 12. Harland also played a large role in the career of her husband, publishing many of his works after his death in 1905, including his manuscript "The Royal End", which she actually completed for him in 1909 (Schmidt).

James Guthrie

A Hind's Daughter

James Guthrie

Sir James Guthrie was a Scottish painter and central figure of the internationally renowned Glasgow Boys (a group of Scottish artists). Mostly self-taught, Guthrie looked to other great artists during his studies; however, this caused his art to struggle for some time, as these influences were noticeable in his works and made him less distinguished (R.T.T 297). It was only in 1884 that Guthrie established himself as an independent artist, and only in the 1890s that he could truly define himself as a portrait painter after finally finding success in his portrait of "Miss Isabella H. Gardiner", as he tended to struggle with painting women and stuck to painting men (297). Guthrie also painted many children, both portraits and scenes, which were widely talked about, well received, and embodied something about the Victorian child. One of his most famous child paintings is called "A Hind's Daughter" .

The Victorian Child

In order to understand girlhood, recognizing the evolution and popularity surrounding notions of childhood is important. Childhood as a separate category from adulthood is a relatively new idea, having only really taken off in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It was during the 19^th century, states the International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family, that childhood became understood as a process of development towards becoming an adult. Studying Victorian children is a difficult undertaking due to confusion concerning the age duration and medical definitions surrounding childhood (Shuttleworth 108-109). Sally Shuttleworth argues that often times, medical theorists declared adolescence could range from 18-25 years of age, even though puberty was experienced between 12-13 (109). As such, obtaining research on children from the 19th century is often abstract given that the subjects in question can be aged up to 25, sometimes even 30 years although we typically think of childhood as ranging anywhere between 3 to approximately 14 years old.
Fascination with children reached a new height towards the end of the 19th century, however, and children became more prevalent themes in art and literature—such as The Yellow Book—allowing further insight into Victorian perceptions of girlhood. The 1890s in particular saw new children-based foundations, such as the Child Study Association, whose goal was to study aspects of the child mind, development, education, and the representations of children through art and literature (112). It was through these studies that romantic and evangelical ideologies surrounding children became increasingly emphasized through childhood innocence and original sin (110). For girls, Shuttleworth argues, these ideologies came in the form of “the virgin and the whore” (110), thereby distinguishing girls in their own category, and is evident in many selections from The Yellow Book, including “Natalie” and “A Sketch”.

The Romantic/Evangelical Child

In The Orchard

James Guthrie

Both Harland/de Coutan’s “Natalie” and Guthrie’s “A Sketch” embody this innocence surrounding children, as well as this notion of the evangelical, virgin girl. The virgin girl need not necessarily refer to sexuality, but can be a testament to her childlike innocence: her inexperience in life and naivety to the adult world around her. This is seen through Natalie’s confused and conflicted emotions to a song that sings of love, longing, heartache, and intimacy (as one might imagine the piece to be evoking based upon her description). It is also seen visually through the young girl in Guthrie’s portrait, wherein everything from the girl’s posture, clothes, and her gentle, uncorrupted facial expression is a clear reflection of Victorian romantic ideologies concerning girls; she embodies the seemingly perfect girl-child. This innocence, if indeed so highly thought of in 19^th century England, would have greatly appealed to consumers of The Yellow Book, and is perhaps why children were such a recurring theme throughout the 13 volumes.

The Victorian Girl

Though not as emphasized as childhood specifically as a whole, girlhood was still a distinctive sub-branch and experience in Victorian England. Often referred to as a “domestic apprenticeship”, girls would begin their education at the age of 6 in domestic activities and chores with their mothers and sisters as their primary teachers, and as a result, womanhood was a fast approaching stage (Devlin). Class largely affected societal expectations of young girls: lower class girls tended to work while middle-upper class girls engaged in social events in the presence of other adult woman, learning from them through observation and practice (Devlin). It was only towards the late 19^th century that modern girlhood started to form. Beginning in America and slowly making its way towards England, the modern girl was born from a rejection of Victorianism (Devlin 234) and the young woman who had nothing to offer but her domesticity; this would lend another step in the ladder of later feminist movements. Though by no means were domestic expectations abandoned completely, more freedoms and activities were allowed and encouraged for young girls, and obtaining a higher education became more emphasized (Devlin). This was important since girls had been deterred from education due to medical opposition that claimed the diverting of a girl’s energy to her brain rather than her reproductive system would decrease the chances of a successful conception in her future, and should therefore be avoided (Shuttleworth 109). This thinking grew less popular and widespread by the 1890s.
Literary fiction for girls, however, still strongly emphasized romance and domesticity, and were ingrained with lessons of the importance of keeping a young lady’s emotions in check at all times when out in society (Devlin).

The Emotional Girl

    The belief that emotions were a private and intimate experience for young girls was an idea strongly instilled in them from an early age. While Guthrie’s girl in “A Sketch” embodies this ideal with her gentle and demure facial expression that gives nothing away apart from her childish innocence, “Natalie”, in a way, provides a commentary on this social rule. Whenever she hears her mother’s music alone, she is incredibly overcome with emotion to the point where she cannot make sense of anything; however, when the same piece is played in the company of others, she doesn’t betray a thing, and remains impassive and merely content throughout the duration of her mother’s playing. It can be speculated then, that her reaction to the music in public is a result of instilled teachings of socially acceptable behaviour for a young girl in 19^th century England. Perhaps de Coutans/Harland provides the reader with an insight into the mind of the Victorian girl, and an example of the application of her lessons learned. Perhaps it is a commentary on the author’s own experiences as a girl growing up as a lover of the arts, yet having to conceal the emotions evoked by certain pieces as per societal expectations.
    Because Natalie expresses so many personal and intimate emotions, and goes against this painted picture of the ideal young girl, the piece invites curiosity into how Victorian audiences received it. On one hand, the character is a young child, prone to innocent outbursts and questions about the things she experiences. On the other, her revelation of such feelings about the music reject Victorian values imposed upon girlhood, and she portrays herself as “non-ideal”. Perhaps this reasoning attributes in part to the poor reception volume 12 of The Yellow Book faced by certain reviewers, who mentioned “Natalie” by name in one particular review. In From Crowded Shelves: Review of “The Yellow Book” 12, the critic sees no merit for pieces like “Natalie” and other texts like “Unka” or “A Little Holiday”, declaring them crude and pieces that cannot be taken seriously.
    The critic also debases the art of this volume, proclaiming it just as guilty as the texts. Interestingly though, much of the art in volume 12 either revolves around children (5 art works specifically), young women, or landscapes. In regarding the artworks depicting children, some, like Ethel Reed’s “Puck” and “Enfant Terrible” portray a child as mischievous or even frightening—qualities not deemed ideal in Victorian society. It can be argued that the recurrence of children who seemingly embody traits that go against societal values of the 19^th century largely contributes to the poor reception of volume 12, and reveals the unwillingness of some to let go of the traditional notions of childhood during an evolutionary stage.

Puck

Ethel Reed

Enfant Terrible

Ethel Reed

The Ideal Girl-Child

A contrast to volume 12's poor reception, The Yellow Book: Review of "The Yellow Book" 8 highly praises the artwork of volume 8, with emphasis on Guthrie's "A Sketch" and "Portrait of a Child" by his fellow Glasgow Boy, E.A Walton. In both portraits, Guthrie and Walton depict their young, female subjects as demure, docile, and innocent, creating an overall romantic or evangelical picture. These are the type of Children—the types of girls—that were loyal to traditional Victorian values. Even the literature depicting children in this volume seemed to fall in line with such values. Henry Harland's "P'tit Bleu," for instance, portrays an innocent, dancing little French girl, who embraces traits of obedience through her caring of a dependent, drug addicted artist.
Their praised reception, in contrast to the artwork and literature featuring children in volume 12, serves to highlight how important these notions surrounding the girl-child seemed to be to Victorian audiences, and could either make or break a piece.

Portrait of a Child

E.A. Walton

Conclusion

This exhibit first started out as an attempt to analyze The Yellow Book through the cultural context of children and notions of childhood. However, after becoming more specific in regarding particular pieces such as Renée de Coutans "Natalie" and James Guthrie's "A Sketch", it became about the exploration of the type of childhood experienced by young girls of the Victorian era, and how the notions and societal values surrounding terms like "childhood" and "girlhood" were portrayed through works of literature and art of the 19th century.

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