Yesterday, I bought the double issue of the Radio Times so Christmas has officially begun! I had to remortgage our house to do it, but it was worth it and many a happy hour with a highlighter pen will commence. To explain to those not in our country, once a year our television listing magazines produce an issue that covers both Christmas week and New Year week and so we have a mammoth, two week edition to wade through and try and work out what exactly you want to watch. There is a lot of Agatha Christie and a new Wallace and Gromit, so I'm as happy as Larry. Let's crack on...
Someone brought some specific energy to picture day...
When someone referred to Childless Cat Ladies in the American election, everyone knew exactly what they meant. They meant spinsters, unmarried women who are not doing what women are meant to do! The nerve of it all! Thinking about it, it's a pretty meaningless phrase - lots of people in all sorts of relationship-status have cats. Why not Childless Fish Ladies? The alliteration isn't so good, I grant you, but cat ownership by a single woman always had a certain connotation, which leads me to today's image..
The Rain It Raineth Every Day (1906) Leonard Campbell Taylor
Oh, good Lord, but I love Leonard Campbell Taylor and his paintings. Despite working mainly in the 20th century - his dates are 1874 to 1969 - he does some beautifully icy Victorian and Edwardian scenes and the one above is no exception. The Rain It Raineth Every Day takes it title from Shakespeare's Twelfth Night and a song sung by the Fool. It is taken as meaning that some people's lives are always a struggle, that they will never live in glorious sunshine and this certainly seems to be the case with the two girls above.
Persuasion (1914)
Ugh, undoubtedly one of the creepiest paintings I know. No-one does a trapped woman liked LCT. The lass in Persuasion reminds me of Victorian doomed heroines like the girl in Alfred Elmore's On the Brink - if you follow the link to the Fitzwilliam's page on the painting, I noticed the quote at the top, which includes the phrase 'will the lily or the passion flower win?' So, those are women's choices then, either to be sat in a room looking at the rain or being cornered by some creepy bloke at a party. Cheers for that.
Returning to the girls in the dreary room, their lives are obviously not a cavalcade of excitement. One sister views the darkened sky, holding her book behind her back. The other sister looks into space and holds a very pretty little cat who sleeps on her lap. They are in a pattern of waiting - for the weather to clear, for the invitations to come, for their lives to begin.
I was very interested in the table of flowers behind the cat lady. We have some very delicate white lilies - I was instantly reminded of the lily in The Girlhood of Mary Virgin by Rossetti, so I think it wouldn't take a genius to see what that is referring to. Almost hidden behind the girl is a small vase of pink and yellow roses. You know how I get with the language of flowers - pink roses mean affection, first love, all good things. Yellow rose mean jealousy! Ah-ha, a narrative emerges!
Is our girl by the window waiting for her first love to pay her a visit?
Is the girl in the chair jealous?
I have further thoughts as, well, to be honest, it's me - I think the girl in the chair met the suitor first but was so intent on protecting herself that he lost interest and has moved on to the sister, the cad. That fine line for women must have been an absolute oiled tightrope, not wanting to end up like the woman in Persuasion but also wanting to secure a husband and not spend your life sat in a dreary room waiting for the rain to end. I was struck by the stark white of the seated girl's dress, in comparison to the floral print of her sister, also possibly a sign of her 'purity.' Strangely, I was reminded of pictures of the Virgin Mary with Jesus, with the pose the girl has with the cat, which I suspect is intentional. He is her immaculate cat baby! Even her knitting on the little side table beside her is white.
So what does the cat mean in this instance? I wondered if it also stood for the girl's jealousy of her sister? I'm not sure there is any hint of a witch's familiar but I think there is a suspicion that the girl will remain a single cat lady and by the look on the cat's face, he is absolutely fine about that.
Whatever your weather, have a great day and I'll catch you tomorrow.
