The Masculine Role in the Yellow Nineties
Alexandra McLean
Ryerson University
The Masculine Role in the Yellow Nineties
Front Cover
Aubrey Beardsley
|
The Yellow Book is a quarterly magazine
published from 1894 to 1897. The magazine was originally created by Henry
Harland and Aubrey Beardsley as a publication that focused on current art and literature
from important or emerging artists and authors. The art
editor Aubrey Beardsley focused on utilizing wit and modern works to reach a
more modern minded audience. Due to Beardsley’s
influence The Yellow Book became
known for its unique style and decadence. Unfortunately, the author Oscar Wilde,
who was an associate of Beardsley’s, was condemned as a homosexual for sodomy.
Due to Beardsley’s association with him, Beardsley was fired as art editor from
The Yellow Book but his style for
modern art and literature, as well as exploration of current and new ideas, lived
on in the remaining publications of the magazine (Janzen). |
The Masculine Role in the Yellow Nineties
Alexandra McLean
Ryerson University
Written
Text from The Yellow Book
|
Hubert Crackanthorpe
Unknown
|
One such work that utilized the emerging modern style of
observing and depicting real, unrefined life with modern themes was the short
story Modern Melodrama by Hubert
Crackanthorpe from the first volume of The
Yellow Book (Crackanthorpe, 223-32). Crackanthorpe was a young and emerging writer who wrote about
real life no matter how immoral, unrefined, or scandalous (Fisher). In this work in particular he writes an interior scene about
a man and his mistress who has been diagnosed with a pauper’s condition, most
likely Tuberculosis, and they both have been informed that she is going to die
from it (Crackanthorpe, 223-32). This type of work was scandalous because writing about
mistresses would have not been talked about in polite society. Its themes of
death were not uncommon for the time but it takes a grim tone and depicts it in
an unromantic way. The mistress does not want to die and the man struggles
silently with the news. The story is not a great romance or a tragedy but an honest
observation of how real people, both men and women, handle news of that nature.
The work observes how men and women handle the news of death in a critical way.
The man tries to hide his feelings and seems to shut himself off, struggling quietly
with the news; while the woman internally struggles with it but acts out; even
pointing out that the man is acting absurdly. My research will later show that
this short story is a critique on the gender roles of the time. |
Image from
The Yellow Book
|
Portrait of Himself
P. Wilson Steer
|
Philip
Wilson Steer’s painting Portrait of
Himself, from The Yellow Book’s second volume, is similar to the themes of
depicting modern ideas of depicting real life (Steer, 173). Steer was a
painter who was known for his influence of bringing the French impressionist
style to England and creating the English Impressionist movement which focused
on painting representations of real life (Munro). In the
painting Portrait of Himself, a woman
is depicted in the foreground putting on her shoe while sitting in an
underdress. Behind her is a fully clothed man whose face is cut off by the
painting’s edge. Despite the paintings title the contents focus on the woman in
the foreground as she takes the focus being in the light colours and taking up
the most space (Steer, 173). Like
Crackanthorpe, Steer is depicting a real life situation that is not romanticized
but realistic. The artist focuses on the woman and the viewer is left to
understand the meaning of the painting. Further I will discuss how Steer’s play
on the title and the image is actually an observation and critique about gender
roles. |
The Content
After reading
Crackanthorpe’s Modern Melodrama, and
critically observing Steer’s Portrait of
Himself, there appeared to be similar themes between the two works. Both works
are female focused in their perspectives. In Modern Melodrama, the story is told from the mistress’ perspective
and in Portrait of Himself the focus
of the painting is of the woman in the foreground.
The Claim
|
Both
Crackanthorpe and Steer created their art in realistic styles to depict
realistic situations but they are also being symbolic in their depictions of
the gender roles of that time period. The characters they create are symbols
for typical male roles of the time and only in contrast to the representations
of the symbolic female gender roles do they stand out and are better able to be
critiqued for that time period. This is what occurred in the reviews of their
respective works after their releases. |
A Lady
P. Wilson Steer
|
Research
and Findings
Much of
Steer’s career at this time focused on producing realistic situations of
English life. He studied impressionism in France and brought it over to
England. He helped create the group the New
English Art Club which drew its inspiration from the French Impressionists
(Robins). These impressionists sought to portray representations of real
English life.
In his
painting Portrait of Himself, his
depiction of the man in the background is partially obscured by the woman in
the forefront but what is seen is that he is standing, wearing dark clothing,
possibly painting the portrait in question, and his head face is cut off by the
edge of the picture. Though the scene is a painted in an impressionistic style,
it depicts a representation of real life in a non-romanticized way.
The woman
is the focus so the viewer is left to ask, “Why is the painting called a Portrait of Himself, when the man is
obscured?” Steer intentionally chose this title so image should represent it.
Steer is making a commentary on gender roles in this image; the woman becomes
the main focus, her appearance is unkept yet beautiful and obscured, while the
man is even more obscured but he is upright and tall, his stance is strong but
who he actually is and what he is doing is unknown. Steer’s intention may have
been to start a dialect about what makes a man and what makes a woman. He wants
the viewer to have to take a closer look at these two figures and interpret
them.
A critique
on this subject is what occurs in a review from The Critic on the volume two of The
Yellow Book. Here the review states that the work, “[…] is a bit of a joke
on [Steer’s] part, as there is no portrait of man at all” (The Critic). While
the review is short it does state the irony of Steer’s work’s title compared to
its content. This is what Steer was trying to achieve, the image is ironically
juxtaposed to the title of the work so viewer has look closer and ask, “What makes
this a portrait of him?” The viewer has to wonder how does picture represent a
man?
In
Crackanthorpe’s Modern Melodrama, he
juxtaposes the roles of the men and women in the short story. The women, who
are the mistress and the house maid, are both emotional creatures who express their
feelings. The men, who are the man and the doctor, are stoic and hide their
feelings (Crackanthorpe). Crackanthorpe is purposefully juxtaposing these roles
to clearly depict each genders roles and actions. These characters are symbolic
of the gender roles at the time in a similar way that Steer has done. The women
are expressive and in the forefront while the men are closed off and obscured.
This is a critique on how gender roles are expected to be expressed.
In a review
of the first volume of The Yellow Book
by The Spectator, Crackanthorpe’s Modern Melodrama, the reviewer says
that, “its bold presentment of the death-stricken woman are only equaled by the
coarse brutality of the man who has no comfort to offer her except caresses or
champagne” (The Spectator). The
reviewer, who condemns the story, is summing up the exact critique that
Crackanthorpe is trying to portray. Crackanthorpe is trying to get the reader
to observe and critique these gender roles by portraying them in a dramatic but
realistic way.
Both of
these men are trying to demonstrate gender roles that they want to challenge
and do this by portraying these roles in juxtaposition to the opposing gender’s
roles. The reader is made to question what the subject matter is trying to do
by either being ironic in Steer’s work, or dramatic and shocking in
Crackanthorpe’s work. The viewer or reader is made to question what males role
is and if it is appropriate in contrast to the females roles and actions.
The Yellow Book facilitates Crackanthorpe’s and
Steer’s works to begin this critique on gender roles because it gives them a
platform to show it to the books subscribers. This follows with what Aubrey
Beardsley was trying to accomplish as an editor. Even though his association
with Oscar Wilde cost him his positon as art editor at The Yellow Book, his intention in the books creation was to
disseminate new styles and ideas to the magazine’s readership, and to challenge
the older ways of thinking so that art and literature could progress (Janzen).
The Masculine Role in the Yellow Nineties
Alexandra McLean
Ryerson University
Images in this online collection are either in the public domain or being
used under fair dealing for the purpose of research and are provided solely for
the purposes of research, private study, or education.
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