Aestheticism and Decoration: At Home with Michael Field

Talia Schaffer’s work on the poet Rosamund Marriott Watson and her theories of home decoration has been key to understand how female aesthetes reconfigured and re-appropriated this aspect of aestheticism. Looking at the aesthetic writings of Marriott Watson’s The Art of the House, Schaffer has shown...

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Main Author: Ana Parejo Vadillo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée 2011-11-01
Series:Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/cve/1040
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author Ana Parejo Vadillo
author_facet Ana Parejo Vadillo
author_sort Ana Parejo Vadillo
collection DOAJ
description Talia Schaffer’s work on the poet Rosamund Marriott Watson and her theories of home decoration has been key to understand how female aesthetes reconfigured and re-appropriated this aspect of aestheticism. Looking at the aesthetic writings of Marriott Watson’s The Art of the House, Schaffer has shown how she forged a new, complex version of aestheticism by both aligning herself with male aesthetes in their critique of women’s arts and crafts tradition and distancing herself from male aestheticism by re-articulating an aesthetic of the home embedded in feminine décor.But how did female aesthetes inhabit and live that aestheticism We know nothing of how Watson’s theories informed her own life as an aesthete. For this reason the case of Michael Field is particularly important. Michael Field never wrote on home decoration, but an examination of Bradley and Cooper’s diaries, letters and photographs reveal their unique approach to the house beautiful movement. As they put it in their diary, Works and Days: “To-day’s dreams & desires—the tongs with wh. the angel makes living coals of our lips to-day—these are the things to be expressed in our walls, in our furniture, in our dress.” This expressive, living aestheticism is at the core of this essay.
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spelling doaj-art-b9fad6d9eb68462998831b4e6f4564da2025-01-30T10:21:51ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492011-11-0174173610.4000/cve.1040Aestheticism and Decoration: At Home with Michael FieldAna Parejo VadilloTalia Schaffer’s work on the poet Rosamund Marriott Watson and her theories of home decoration has been key to understand how female aesthetes reconfigured and re-appropriated this aspect of aestheticism. Looking at the aesthetic writings of Marriott Watson’s The Art of the House, Schaffer has shown how she forged a new, complex version of aestheticism by both aligning herself with male aesthetes in their critique of women’s arts and crafts tradition and distancing herself from male aestheticism by re-articulating an aesthetic of the home embedded in feminine décor.But how did female aesthetes inhabit and live that aestheticism We know nothing of how Watson’s theories informed her own life as an aesthete. For this reason the case of Michael Field is particularly important. Michael Field never wrote on home decoration, but an examination of Bradley and Cooper’s diaries, letters and photographs reveal their unique approach to the house beautiful movement. As they put it in their diary, Works and Days: “To-day’s dreams & desires—the tongs with wh. the angel makes living coals of our lips to-day—these are the things to be expressed in our walls, in our furniture, in our dress.” This expressive, living aestheticism is at the core of this essay.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/1040
spellingShingle Ana Parejo Vadillo
Aestheticism and Decoration: At Home with Michael Field
Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens
title Aestheticism and Decoration: At Home with Michael Field
title_full Aestheticism and Decoration: At Home with Michael Field
title_fullStr Aestheticism and Decoration: At Home with Michael Field
title_full_unstemmed Aestheticism and Decoration: At Home with Michael Field
title_short Aestheticism and Decoration: At Home with Michael Field
title_sort aestheticism and decoration at home with michael field
url https://journals.openedition.org/cve/1040
work_keys_str_mv AT anaparejovadillo aestheticismanddecorationathomewithmichaelfield