{"id":1332,"date":"2018-02-05T14:44:28","date_gmt":"2018-02-05T14:44:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lynnsteinson.com:\/home\/?p=1332"},"modified":"2018-03-08T11:45:35","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T11:45:35","slug":"a-deluded-conversation-manchester-city-art-gallery-and-the-nymphs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lynnsteinson.com:\/home\/review\/a-deluded-conversation-manchester-city-art-gallery-and-the-nymphs","title":{"rendered":"A Deluded Conversation: Manchester Art Gallery and the Nymphs"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>

It\u2019s Tuesday night at The Sun pub quiz.<\/p>\n

\u2018Alfred, Lord Tennyson,\u2019 Judith said, without hesitation. \u2018I have a painting by John Waterhouse which is inspired by that poem, the Victorians loved all things Arthurian.\u2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She might have added Greek and Roman as well. The Victorians were steeped in mythology.\u00a0In my psychological thriller, Deluded,<\/em> Waterhouse\u2019s The Lady of Shalott is displayed in a heavy gold Victorian frame at the bottom of the stairwell in Judith\u2019s house. When Lisa sees it she is not impressed.<\/p>\n

A red-haired woman dressed in cream medieval-style robes, her face a deathly pallor, was staring out of the painting as if in a trance. She was sitting in what looked like a grand canoe, drifting down a river.<\/p>\n

\u2018Exquisite,\u2019 said Lisa, dryly, \u2018but very contrived, staged.\u2019<\/p>\n

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The Lady of Shalott — John Waterhouse<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n

Waterhouse was not to Lisa\u2019s taste. It appears that this aversion is also shared by Manchester Art Gallery\u2019s curator of the exhibition themed In Pursuit of Beauty<\/em>. She has described the collection as a cause for \u2018embarrassment\u2019. The curator decided to withdraw Waterhouse\u2019s celebrated Hylas and the Nymphs<\/em>\u00a0from the display.<\/p>\n

I have a special interest as a print of this painting has adorned my bathroom wall for many years, and I often visit the Gallery to ponder the Pre-Raphaelite \u00a0collection \u2013 I use the term loosely \u2013 \u00a0primarily to look at this picture. A Facebook posting revealed that the painting is well-loved by my female friends \u2013 one also has a print, displayed in her dining room. She loves it because the nymphs have \u2018mystery and power\u2019. I share this feeling. These mysterious young women have the upper hand, after all the temptresses are about to abduct Hylas \u2013 a rare case of the depiction of assertive women.<\/p>\n

In the furore that followed the removal of Hylas and the Nymphs<\/em> the Gallery\u2019s action was justified as a means to prompt a \u2018conversation\u2019. I was in the museum on the Thursday following the picture\u2019s withdrawal. The only suggestion of a \u2018conversation\u2019 evident was the curator\u2019s tentative scanning of the public\u2019s comments which were stuck to\u00a0the now empty wall. The staff in the hall were not prompting actual conversations with any passing visitors.<\/p>\n

<\/a>By Saturday the painting had been returned. Although longer, typed arguments have been added to the m\u00e9lange of post-it notes, it was still difficult to decipher many of the penciled comments. Let\u2019s face it, a post-it note does not give too much scope to express an opinion, never mind a conversation. The curator had promised the painting would be probably displayed again but \u2018hopefully contextualized\u2019. That new context seems to be a sea of yellow post-it notes. Opposite Hylas and the Nymphs<\/em> there is a portrait of a stern bare-breasted woman. A post-it is stuck to the wall next to it. \u2018Don\u2019t let them take me!\u2019<\/p>\n

<\/a>

Hylas And The Water Nymphs. Henrietta Rae (1859-1928). .<\/p><\/div>\n

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Whatever the Gallery\u2019s motivation, removing a celebrated painting was misguided, smacking of censorship \u2013 and of all the paintings to choose it seems odd to select one of empowered women, if their rationale was based on the Victorian\u2019s objectification of women. This Greek myth was a subject which appealed to both male and female painters. There is another portrayal of Hylas and the Water Nymphs painted fourteen years later by Henrietta Rae. However, it is only Waterhouse\u2019s nymphs which, when Googled now, are associated with the headline \u2018soft-porn painting\u2019 and \u2018offensive nymphs\u2019.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

We can all read into the painting what we will, based on what we see, and informed by our knowledge of Greek mythology. I don\u2019t think about the imminent demise of Hylas when I see it, just the women entrancing him. Other commentators have described it as the Naiads\u2019 abduction or murder of a gay man \u2013 Hylas being the lover of Heracles. However, the mystery of the disappearance of Hylas was never solved. In my imagination he lived happily among the water lilies with the nymphs. In the end we can all see the same thing and see it differently, and that is partly the point of my novel, Deluded.<\/em><\/p>\n

DELUDED, the gripping psychological thriller, is now available on Amazon.co.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

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Buy Deluded now!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My take on Mancheste Art Gallery and the Nymphs Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[163,160,161,159],"class_list":["post-1332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-deluded","tag-hylas-and-the-nymphs","tag-john-waterhouse","tag-manchester-city-art-gallery"],"yoast_head":"\nA Deluded Conversation: Manchester Art Gallery and the Nymphs - Lynn Steinson's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lynnsteinson.com\/home\/review\/a-deluded-conversation-manchester-city-art-gallery-and-the-nymphs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Deluded Conversation: Manchester Art Gallery and the Nymphs - 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