social-realist canvases to the active, powerful and even omnipotent women in his later paintings of the mid-to-late 1880s. This traceable movement from his early portrayals of disempowered or powerless female figures to his later portrayals of empowered or powerful female figures elevating dead, dying or destitute woman to mysterious, omniscient, – powerful personifications of death can be seen to reflect the socio-political progression of – women towards female empowerment and emancipation over the second half of the nineteenth century. While Victorian culture was pervaded by images of women made more beautiful and more by death, the focuses on the power, Death Triptych ‘perfectly feminine’ rather than the passivity, of women in conjunction with death. Thus the Wattses worked within the Victorian tradition of associating femininity and death to create strikingly unconventional images of women that can be seen (in hindsight, from a historicist-feminist perspective) to dialogise with early feminist iconography. However, as both female symbol of transcendence and subversive female symbol, the women in the stand and over (but really simply outside of) the Death Triptych ‘both under sphere of the comprising images could be seen to reiterate the culture’s hegemony’; marginalisation of the gender Other on the plane of art by aligning her with an unknown world after life or beyond death. The female figure or Angel of Death in art ‘other’ George’s arguably becomes an embodiment of of mysterious and intransigent ‘those extremes Otherness which culture confronts with worship or fear, love or loathing [...] she mediates between the male artist and the The presentation of women as ethereal Unknown’. (non)entities and abstract concepts is somewhat problematic from a feminist perspective. Yet the female figures of the are not ineffectual, etherealised spirits or vaporous Death Triptych female presences, but rather strong, central, solid manifestations of death who interact with and influence the material world particularly in The historically oppressed The Messenger. – and marginalised gender Other is placed in a position of power as a personification of death,
social-realist canvases to the active, powerful and even omnipotent women in his later paintings of the mid-to-late 1880s. This traceable movement from his early portrayals of disempowered or powerless female figures to his later portrayals of empowered or powerful female figures – elevating dead, dying or destitute woman to mysterious, omniscient, powerful personifications of death – can be seen to reflect the socio-political progression of women towards female empowerment and emancipation over the second half of the nineteenth century. While Victorian culture was pervaded by images of women made more beautiful and more ‘perfectly feminine’ by death, the Death Triptych focuses on the power, rather than the passivity, of women in conjunction with death. Thus the Wattses worked within the Victorian tradition of associating femininity and death to create strikingly unconventional images of women that can be seen (in hindsight, from a historicist-feminist perspective) to dialogise with early feminist iconography. However, as both female symbol of transcendence and subversive female symbol, the women in the Death Triptych stand ‘both under and over (but really simply outside of) the sphere of culture’s hegemony’; the comprising images could be seen to reiterate the marginalisation of the gender Other on the plane of art by aligning her with an unknown ‘other’ world after life or beyond death. The female figure or Angel of Death in George’s art arguably becomes an embodiment of ‘those extremes of mysterious and intransigent Otherness which culture confronts with worship or fear, love or loathing [...] she mediates between the male artist and the Unknown’. The presentation of women as ethereal (non)entities and abstract concepts is somewhat problematic from a feminist perspective. Yet the female figures of the Death Triptych are not ineffectual, etherealised spirits or vaporous female presences, but rather strong, central, solid manifestations of death who interact with and influence the material world – particularly in The Messenger. The historically oppressed and marginalised gender Other is placed in a position of power as a personification of death,
AAWattses%2C%20Women%20and%20Death%20Journal%20Article.docx