Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Mary Wollstonecraft

(Left excerpt is from a panel from Wollstonecraft's Original stories painted by William Blake. Right image is a portrait of Wollstonecraft by John Opie.)


Alert attentive eyes and a sanguine expression. The eyes of an optimistic observer.

John Opie painted a very comely portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft, acknowledging her elevated social status by having her engaged in the act of reading, her right hand turning the page of some unknown book. A scene typically reserved for men of intellect since it was popularly assumed that intellect was a thing reserved for men.1

Perhaps more powerful though, is the gaze, which is not averted to the side but rather fixed towards the viewer, suggesting the power to counter-gaze. Hers were eyes that defied.

Wary eyes that have gazed into the dark night as she lay in front of her mother's door, ready for her father's alcohol soaked rage. Worried eyes that witnessed her sister Eliza driven mad by that cold Mr. Bishop.2  Drowned eyes that saw the tumultuous sea thrash on her voyage to Portugal while she was en route to take care of her terminally ill friend. Sad eyes that looked upon her daughter, Fanny, as the pair travelled across the country alone to find the man who abandoned them.3 Opie paints a very agreeable portrait of Mary, and one that conveys her beauty, but it is a description of her life that will convey the sublime, what life had carved into her mind and her observations. 

Perhaps Opie’s painting was a retrospective of a younger Mary. One spared of some of life’s deeper blows. When her expression would have been much more relaxed. A time when she would look forward to the places her wanderlust father would take them. Hoxton as it turned out this time, where she would meet Fanny Blood.4

Her future husband William Godwin described the event,
“The situation in which Mary was introduced to her, bore a resemblance to the first interview of Werter with Charlotte. She was conducted to the door of a small house, but furnished with peculiar neatness and propriety. The first object that caught her sight, was a young woman of a slender and elegant form, and eighteen years of age, busily employed in feeding and managing some children, born of the same parents, but considerably inferior to her in age. The impression Mary received from this spectacle was indelible; and, before the interview was concluded, she had taken, in her heart, the vows of an eternal friendship."5

Their friendship nourished Mary’s life and inspired her to learn and grow, recognizing the shortcomings of her own education. Godwin says,
“Mary found Fanny's letters better spelt and better indited than her own, and felt herself abashed. She had hitherto paid but a superficial attention to literature. She had read, to gratify the ardour of an inextinguishable thirst of knowledge; but she had not thought of writing as an art. Her ambition to excel was now awakened, and she applied herself with passion and earnestness. Fanny undertook to be her instructor; and, so far as related to accuracy and method, her lessons were given with considerable skill.”6

They were separated though for some time after Mary’s wanderlust father dragged them across England once again, seeing another home shrink into the distance, her eyes adjusting to the sight of new surroundings.


To earn a living, she would live with and attend to the needs of the thorny Mrs. Dawson from age nineteen to twenty, before having to come home to be close to her dying mother.7

Elizabeth Dixon Wollstonecraft took a tyrannical approach to her mothering in fear of what the world had in store. She thought educating her daughters using methods of fear would cow them into their roles as women. Mary got the worst of it, though after subsequent children, Elizabeth softened her approach.8

But it must be admitted that despite her style, she did raise many children from infancy into adulthood, in a time when many complications could arise in between pregnancy and those crucial infant years. Now though, she had served her role as mother and endured her role as victim so here was her time to pass. Before her final breath she spoke to her family, “A little Patience, and all will be Over.’ and these words are repeatedly referred to by Mary in the course of her writings."9

Shortly after her mother passed, her father would worsen until the whole household dissolved scattering the children to the wind, leaving Mary afloat and unbound till she drifted toward the door of dear Fanny Blood. There, Fanny would draw and Mary would sew, and together with their hard earnest work, they would provide for the people around them.10

The most sensitive of the Wollstonecraft sisters Eliza, who inherited her mother’s name, would like her mother marry a quick-tempered hypocrite, Mr. Bishop. After Eliza’s health started deteriorating Mary employed herself as her sister’s nurse only to learn of the extent of Mr. Bishop’s cruelty. She would cast him in her book The Wrongs of Woman addressing him in the preface to her book, “I should despise, or rather call her an ordinary woman, who could endure such a husband as I have sketched.” 11 

And almost as if fated, her third deprivation of a friend was of Fanny, when her husband found opportunity in Lisbon, Portugal. Fanny was ill at the time but was assured that the southern climate would help her condition, though she got worse and sent word to Mary of her dire straits. She had asked if Mary might visit her in her hour of need. A call Mary would always heed. And though it would mean dooming the school she had labored so long to establish, she spent coin to trek alone across the sea to see what her friend had become,
From Wollstonecraft's Original Stories. A panel painted by the
poet William Blake.
“Before I say more, let me tell you that, when I arrived here, Fanny was in labor, and that four hours after- delivered of a boy. The child is alive and well, and considering the very very low state to which Fanny was reduced she is better than could be expected. I am now watching her and the child. My active spirits have not been much at rest ever since I left England. I could not write to you on shipboard, the sea was so rough; and we had such hard gales of wind, the captain was afraid we should be dismasted. I cannot write to-night or collect my scattered thoughts, my mind is so unsettled. Fanny is so worn out, her recovery would be almost a resurrection, and my reason will scarce allow me to think it possible. I labor to be resigned, and by the time I am a little so, some faint hope sets my thoughts again afloat, and for a moment, I look forward to days that will, Alas! never come.”12                             

Ten years later she would reflect on the death of Fanny in her Letters from Sweden, Norway and Denmark,
“The grave has closed over a dear friend, the friend of my youth.  Still she is present with me, and I hear her soft voice warbling as I stray over the heath.   Fate has separated me from another, the fire of whose eyes, tempered by infantine tenderness, still warms my breast; even when gazing on these tremendous cliffs sublime emotions absorb my soul.”13

She came back to England from Portugal after Fanny's death to find the school financially unwieldy, so she dropped it to pick up a lighter pen. Equipped with experience, she sought to teach young women to Reason for themselves,. She wrote her Thoughts on the Education of Daughters (1787) and continued to write as much as she read: letters, memorandums, educational treatises, the news, novels and her seminal work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792.) 

Below are a couple excerpts selected and performed from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, and more may be posted. The song's descriptions have the script if you would like to read along. And I'll leave this link right here [o=o].


Throughout her life, Mary had been subject to impatient patriarchs and seen her mother, sister and closest friend all withered from maladies of the body and mind. As an outsider, she not only noticed how man oppressed woman, but also the ways in which that woman oppressed herself. She argued that women were given an inferior education and that because of this failed to strive for higher understanding, preferring more immediate distractions that tended to consist of luxuries or sentimental romance fictions written by men with superficial opinions of women. “I must be allowed to explain myself. The generality of people cannot see or feel poetically, they want fancy, and therefore fly from solitude in search of sensible objects; author lends them his eyes, they can see as he saw, and be amused by images they could not select, though lying before them.”14

So here’s where she stood, staring at a world full of foolish girls succumbing to the hubris of their husbands. And while she recognized the exceptional people to this rule; there was no unseeing the patriarch’s patterns. Mary’s opinions would evolve to contrast her parents, her peers, and by extension, society at whole. Her refuge would be among the literary circles where she would meet with Joseph Johnson who would publish so many of her works. And though she had already met William Godwin, it wasn’t until later in life a romance would bloom, one borne of intellect and respect.

Her writings gave her status and the new society she associated herself with, “nourished her understanding, and enlarged her mind. The French revolution, while it gave a fundamental shock to the human intellect through every region of the globe, did not fail to produce a conspicuous effect in the progress of Mary's reflections,” says Godwin.15

This is what tended to happen, her world around her would fall apart and Mary would watch how it broke apart. She was able to endure by having “a firmness of mind, an unconquerable greatness of soul, by which, after a short internal struggle, she was accustomed to rise above difficulties and suffering,” says Godwin.16 But her trials would never completely cease.

William Blake's Newton and John Opie's Portrait of Wollstone
craft. The hand holds the tools of reason. 
Yet she lives on in her voice that she encoded in writing. And you the reader can give life to those words as you imagine them in your growing mind. All of her published works now reside in the public domain and may be accessed for free through the Gutenberg database. In her writing, she lends you her eyes, so you can see as she saw, and be amused by images you could not select, though lying before you. Something that simply can't be portrayed in a portrait. Afterall, why would Mary be reading a book with no words.

Enjoy the rest of the exhibit and follow the citations if you want to go down the rabbit hole and learn more. Every quote is an excerpt from a larger piece that tells a story greater in scope. My selections leave out ambiguous sentiments that I was afraid would distract from her overall points. And I left out many crucial events in the latter part of her life.  

I left out details about her failed suicide attempts and both children born out of wedlock and a perilous incident involving her being on a sinking ship, and so I brought them up briefly now to spark your interest. And then there’s the things we’ll never know. What did Fanny Blood look like, and her namesake Fanny Imlay, first daughter of Mary. But be most wary of the things you think you know. Recognize that there is a frame to this portrait and that outside of it; there is more to see.
Letters to and from Mary with the people in her life
Below is an album that won the 1998 Grammy for Best Album of the Year. It explores many of the themes of motherhood, love and opportunity that Mary Wollstonecraft touched on in her works. Fun fact, they have the same birthday. Go figure. 
 




Footnotes


Chapter 1 in Pennell’s Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Kindle Location 262. Because many of the sources are typed transcriptions of printed text with no reference to page number or paragraph number, the footnotes referring to electronic sources will often use Kindle Location referring to the approximate location within the file that the quote may be found, assuming that file was downloaded from the same source, via Gutenberg Project. However, by using the search function to find key words, it should be easy enough to find the referred information within the electronic document, even when downloaded from a different source unless it is a physical scan of a printed text. 2

Chapter 2 in Pennell’s Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. About half way in the chapter.3

Chapter 1 in Pennell’s Life of Mary Wollstonecraft.4


Chapter 2 in Godwin’s Memoirs. Kindle Location 135.6

Chapter 2 in Pennell’s Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Kindle Location 400.7

Chapter 1 in Pennell’s Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Kindle Location 201.8

Chapter 2 in Godwin’s Memoirs. Kindle Location 165.9

Chapter 2 in Pennell’s Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Kindle Location 447.10


Chapter 2 in Pennell’s Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Kindle Location 739.12



Chapter 6 in Godwin’s Memoir. Kindle Location 396.15


Chapter 3 in Godwin’s Memoir. Kindle Location 218.16




Works Cited
Anonymous Admirer. Letter to Godwin from an Admirer. Ed. William Godwin. Liverpool:, Nov 1800. Print.
Blake, William. "Newton." (1804)Print.
Elizabeth Robins Pennell. The Life of Mary Wollstonecraft. Kindle Edition ed. https://archive.org/details/lifeofmarywollst00pennrich: Roberts Brothers, 1884. Print.
Godwin, William. Letter from William Godwin to Shelley. Ed. Percy Shelley. A letter urging Shelley to keep Fanny Imlay's suicide discreet. Vol. , 13 Oct 1816. Print.
---. Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Kindle ed. Johnson, Joseph, 1798. Print.
Imlay, Fanny. Letter to the Shelleys from Mary's Sister Fanny. Eds. Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley. Photographic Scan Vol. London:, May 29, 1816. Print.
---. Letter to the Shelleys from Mary's Sister Fanny. Eds. Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley. Written Text Vol. London:, May 29, 1816. Print.
Northcote, James. "Portrait of William Godwin." (1802)Print.
Opie, John. Portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft. 1790-1. , Wikimedia.org.
"Portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft (Mrs. William Godwin)." http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/opie-mary-wollstonecraft-mrs-william-godwin-n01167. 2004. Web.
Rothwell, Richard. Portrait of Mary Shelley. 1899. National Portrait Gallery, London.
Sharp, William after Haughton the Elder, Moses. Portrait of Joseph Johnson.
Wollstonecraft, Mary. Letters Written during a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Kindle ed., 1795. Print.
---. "Maria; Or the Wrongs of Woman." (1798)Print.
---. Mary Wollstonecraft's Last Three Notes to Godwin. Ed. William Godwin. "In her final note, Mary Wollstonecraft half-quotes her mother's last words: ‘Have a little patience, and all will be over'. Her own daughter, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (later Mary Shelley), was born a few hours afterwards. (TRUNCATED) Vol. London:, August 30, 1797. Print.
---. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman; with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects. Kindle Edition ed. Gutenberg.org: Project Gutenberg, 1792. Web.




Thursday, February 16, 2017

Rosalind Franklin


 ROSALIND FRANKLIN



At some point in our lives, someone will say something completely untrue, unforgivingly unsolicited. But what happens when they do it behind your back? To someone incapable of defending themselves? To someone who isn’t present? What if someone slandered your name in it’s entirety, belittling your greatest accomplishments just to, inevitably, take credit for themselves?

Rosalind Franklin was exceptionally bright, known for her unique intellect at the ripe, young age of six by her family.[1] She attended the most prestigious schools available to her, setting standards that baffled those around her. Though even her own family tended to the social order of gender inequality, (her own father only ever hired men),[2] Rosalind went to the same school as her eldest brother, until she later attended a boarding school, eventually returning to London to attend a girls’ school known for its academics. She excelled in academics, taking entrance exams to college a year before she was of age. She attended a women’s college focusing in science and mathematics, despite her parents’ wishes of her having a more maternal career. In a letter home, she referred to one professor as “very good, although female,” noting and persevering through a predominately male workforce.[3]

She graduated at the top of her class, earning herself a scholarship, leading to her PhD in 1945.[4] In her early career following school, she was offered a position as a chemist in Paris, making her one of only fifteen researchers in the Central National Laboratory. This facility treated the employed men and women equally, and it is said that her four years in Paris may have even been the happiest years in her life.[5] Though she was happy, she returned home to a new position- to work with DNA using x-ray diffraction at King’s College, a part of the lab normally run by Maurice Wilkins. Wilkins argued that she was only hired to be his assistant, when in fact she was not.[6] He didn’t handle the newcomer too well, eventually stealing her lab notes and ideas. Unlike the lab in Paris, Rosalind worked around the gender segregation, with even the lunchroom off limits to her.[7]

Ultimately, it was Wilkins, James Watson and Frances Crick that took undeserved credit for the entirety of the chemical structure of DNA, accepting a Nobel Prize, after Rosalind’s death at the age of 37.[8] Prior, Rosalind, with the help of her PhD student, had built a camera that had given the clearest x-ray images to date, which was later taken by the men, along with all of her lab notes, that created the DNA model.[9]

The biggest slap in the face, though, was Watson’s book, depicting Rosalind as an abrasive, brutish woman who knew not how to be feminine. He gave her the nickname “Rosy,” which she did not go by. He depicted her with every imaginable, unattractive trait even if they weren’t true, as to make her out to be some pushy smartass taking over his lab.[10] In fact, it is mentioned that others had the pleasure of working with her, and that she was extremely smart and precise with her work.[11] After Watson’s lies were published, a friend of Rosalind, Anne Sayre, wrote Rosalind Franklin and DNA, correcting all of the misleading ideas set forth by Watson, claiming that she had been “unjustifiably robbed” of proper credit.[12] She gave Rosalind the credit that was due, and slashed through all of the insulting ideas brought on by Watson with Rosalind’s true self. Rosalind worked until almost the day of her death- the day she died some of her work was published. She was an extremely intelligent woman, set out and destined to break records.



[1] Galvin, Eileen A., Aphrodite, ClamarSiderits, Mary Anne, Women of Vision: Their Psychology, Circumstances and Success, Springer Publishing Company, January 2007. See page 262
[2] IBID. 
[3] IBID. See page 263.
[4] IBID. See page 264.
[5] IBID. See page 265.
[6] IBID.
[7] IBID. See page 267.
[8] IBID. See page 269.
[9] IBID. See page 267.
[10] Sayre, Anne. Rosalind Franklin and DNA. New York: Norton. 2000. p 18-19.
[11] IBID. See page 21.
[12] Galvin, Eileen A., Aphrodite, ClamarSiderits, Mary Anne, Women ofVision: Their Psychology, Circumstances and Success, Springer Publishing Company, January 2007. See page 270.

Camille Claudel

The Isolation of a Muse
Figure 1: Painting Camille Claudel
Author Unknown

Everyone wants to become something great in life. Everyone has some sort of goal they would like to accomplish. Even if you think you may not want to do something so extraordinary in this world, I believe there's at least one thing you are passionate about.




Claudel is known for being Auguste Rodin's muse. Yet, she was so much more than just a muse. She created sculptors in which many people did not know how to understand them. She was rejected and isolated by the most important people of her life.


She was born in  France on December 8, 1864.She was the eldest sister of three.
Her father worked on mortgages. Her mother was a housewife who came from Catholic farmers.


As a child, Claudel was fascinated with stone and soil. She took interest in studying at Academie Colarossi. It was one of the few schools female students were allowed to enroll. As a young artist Claudel was an inspiration to her peers and also her teacher/lover Rodin.


During the 1800's  female artist  were not given many opportunities so when they accomplished major task not all were praised like men, but were overshadowed.  She became a well-known sculptor and designed many pieces that revolved around her life experience. Claudel was able to create a narrative of anything she wanted using marble and bronze.




Many people did not expect the work Claudel created to come from a woman. After her break up with Rodin, Camille established herself as an independent artist. As an independent women Camille struggled paying her own bill. Claudel's lifestyle was uncommon to see. Why? Well during the 1800's women were bound by their family or by a male. Seeing someone especially a female who is independent was very foreign and strange. Though she was praised by many eminent critics, Claudel's early work was produced under Rodin's name which only worked according to his favor. This left Claudel with no benefactors leaving her broke.


We see this happening in society women not being paid enough for their work but making less and allowing men to make more. Claudel felt the oppression as a woman during her time. She was alone, neglected, and her family was not supportive over her dreams. As she grew up she became more and more isolated within herself. She knew she was an important figure to the world but was not accepted.



Right now in our history, Claudel is recognized for her impeccable talent. She is known to be the most influential sculptors of her past. During her era the early 19th century, Claudel was a brilliant women. She is an influential sculptor who was judged and not accepted by the world of art. The 19th century was a time in history where gender equality was not practiced, people's lifestyles more so females were judged and controlled.


On March 10, 1913 she was committed involuntarily by her mother and brother to an asylum. Many of her friends as well as well as her doctors believed she did not need to be an in asylum. Her family was very bitter and did not want Claudel to be a part of society so they constantly rejected doctor's request for Claudel to join a family environment. They knew deep down her breakdown was due to the ignorance and hate of the world. As a family they should of been there for her and support her through her breakdown. They should've inspired her to create more of her work and be that figure she needed for herself. Not having that support from her mother or her brother really took a toll on her. Her father, who was the only person who did support Claudel, passed away during a time she herself did not know. Losing him was enough for her because he was the only one who really supported her and her craft. She died on October 19, 1943 spending more than 30 years in an asylum.




Bibliography

"Rodin and Camille Claudel." Rodin and Camille Claudel | Rodin Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Feb. 2017.

"Rodin and Camille Claudel." Rodin and Camille Claudel | Rodin Museum. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 FEB. 2017.


The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Camille Claudel." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 07 July 2015. Web. 14 FRB. 2017.

"Académie Colarossi." Académie Colarossi | Artist Biographies. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.






"The triumph of tragedy." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 07 Jan. 2006. Web. 01 Mar. 2017.