This essay will cover the aspects of Kimono in the Portraiture of the Pre-Raphaelites. The Pre-Raphaelites were a group of British artists and writers active during the late Victorian period. Unlike the Royal Academy artists, this circle of painters operated outside of the established comfortable boundaries of the expected white, cisgender middle class audience of the Victorian age. The movement is notable for its inclusion and encouragement of women, and in portraying and engaging non-conventional beauty and beauties as figures from the Classical World alongside Religious, Mythological and Folklore Heroines into Victorian 'Femme Fatales'.[8]
The woman portrayed in our first image is the mythological heroine Morgan le Fay by Frederick Sandys (1829-1904). Sandys as an artist often produced beautiful images of voluptuous women whose hair was often in freefall, here painting his mistress Keomi Gray (1849–1914) as the magickian of Arthurian legend. It is most likely that Sandys acquired his Kimono through either an import merchant shop in London, or from a bulk warehouse such as Farmer & Rogers’ Great Shawl & Cloak Emporium's Eastern Goods Warehouse.
Sandys uses the Kimono here as an aesthetical tool. The dramatic colours fit into the bold colour schemes which were characteristic of the Brotherhood. The Kimono itself is clearly a Furisode, perhaps for a young woman of wealthier status going by the red inside of the sleeves. Whilst unknown if Sandys was aware of this, Green in Japan was recognised as being associated with nature, vitality and immortality.[3][4] Green was also a favourite of the Victorians as associated with the natural or nonindustrial world, and the occult, specifically the fae.[5] Red for the Victorians would signify (military) power, boldness and ardour.[6]
Whilst it is unknown how much Sandys collected or and understood of Japanese aesthetics, he was a clear early adopter of the aesthetical importance of Kimono in placing it at the center of the composition. The placement with other objects of Middle and Far Eastern and Celtic origin also may offer further clues as to the mindset of how Sandys used the Kimono as a signifier of the junction of wisdom and power, and in this depiction as a enchantress, using the green which was associated with the occult at the time to denote this. It is most likely Sandys therefore used it to denote the atmosphere of the otherworld of the green man and employed the silks lustre to enhance this effect.[5]
Those depicted in this painting were from 12:00 Clockwise the models Alexa Wilding (1847-1884), Fanny Eaton (1835-1924), Keomi Gray, Gabriel (model dates unknown) and Ellen Smith (active 1863-1869) and Marie Ford (dates unkown). Interestingly the young child figure Gabriel is meant to act as a stand in for Rossetti to the viewer, who both attend to the central bridal figure.[1]
The Kimono presented here is most likely the same as that used in Frederick Sandys Morgan le Fay (1864), although Rosetti was known to have a rivalry with Whistler in the collection of Japanese art objects which Rosetti first began collecting from the famous French importer Madame Louise Mélina Desoye (1836-1909). Rosetti frequented these establishments as he was a collector of beautiful objects of global origins, with his inspiration in composition being drawn from the classical world of Renaissance Italy and the Greek Hellenistic standard.
Kimono is used here arguably in juxtaposition with other elements of the Beauty of Venus trope, which Rosetti used to reference the beauty ideal in Titians Venus with Mirrors (1555).[1] The Venus trope is a particularly frequent one used by Rosetti, here denoting the wife of King Solomon de-robing for her husband in lavish dress. Venus at the center, is surrounded by mirrors or here reflecting beauties, which either signify in Titians work her vanity, or under the original Greek understanding of Venus as a/the great standard of beauty, signifying the beauty of those surrounding Venus as well, imparting the notion of beauty in the objects and clothes they wear, ie Kimono, therefore.[2]
Kimono here is used not as an allegorical device to my knowledge, but in appreciation of its dyed colour and ability to drape, as Rosetti frequently used bright colours in his paintings and a common gripe among the Pre-Raphaelites was the ability to find decent cloth which would hang as they desired with the ability catch light correctly and as needed for producing such lavish, decorative and bold paintings as the Beloved. The Kimono itself here is bundled up at the sleeves and clearly displays a pattern along the sleeve of Plum and Bamboo, and may perhaps be worn back to front.
The inclusion of Kimono tells us that was in the early acceptance of Kimono as beautiful objects in British painting. Kimono clearly held a place among the Pre-Raphaelites as art objects, if not for their usefulness in their ability to provide useful fabric qualities but also for their decorative patterning to be included rather than painted out.
The sitter for this portrait is Anonymous as very little information is held surrounding this portrait, but ould easily be one of the many muses of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; Marie Spartali Stillman (1844-1927), Fanny Cornforth (1835-1909), Jane Morris (1839-1914), Georgiana Burne-Jones (1840-1920), Effie Gray (1828-1897), Maria Zambaco (1843-1914), Aglaia Coronio/Ionides (1834-1906) Elizabeth Burden (1841-c1902) or Annie Miller (1835–1925).
It is most likely that Boyce had access to Kimono through either their own collecting of objects or from an artist friend who collected Kimono, perhaps someone such as Rosetti. However given that the Pre-Raphaelites had painted Kimono, it is also plausible this could have been Boyce's own Kimono, which Boyce would have come into contact with through most likely similar means to Rosetti, or through other proto-Department or Emporium stores which by 1867 were known to stock them in limited quantities as items for decorating the home.
By this time as Kimono had become more available, and were highly sought after items amongst artists for their ability to drape, which allowed the painter more room for playing with light and depth in their work. Boyce may have particularly taken to this Kimono as it depicted rural lifestyles, as seen in the blue section of fencing motif and presumably larger structure in the blue fold on the neck. Boyce as a painter was a frequent landscape painter using soft tones and spots of colour, so this particular pattern which distributes ornamental Ji-Monnyou using florals and scenes of Japanese farm life would be right up his alley. The Blue, White and Red may also be reminiscent of the Blue and White porcelain Rosetti famously collected, or perhaps specifically within the English context the collection of Kakiemon Porcelain colour pallettes as well.
Now whilst this is a bit presumptuous of me because Arabesque patterns were no doubt also used in Albert Moore use of Turkish and Persian patterning, I do believe his use of this fabric is indicative of popular Kimono patterns available in the West at the time. Only a hunch, however Moore was more than familiar with Japanese Ukiyo-e and design theory having being introduced to it in the late 1850s if I recall correctly. However, the pattern layout is reminiscent enough of trailing vines and wisteria, small florals and possible matsu motifs that is plausible this could be Japanese fabric.
In conclusion therefore we see that by 1865, Kimono as art objects had developed a highly sought after reputation among artists for their beauty and decorative qualities. By 1867, Kimono had clearly become established as an item used in the Pre-Raphaelites repertoire of costumes and props to embody on their own resplendent decorative beauty within the feminine mystic and lover archetype. By the 1870's, the wider influence of the Japan Cult had come to pass which is reflected in the wider and more subtle use of Japan as influencing composition, aesthetics and for the Pre-Raphaelites, inspiration surrounding the female form and beauty. Kimono formed an early visual engagement with British artists between Japanese and Western sensibilities, during what Ono; byway of Lacambre; terms the Discovery stage of British Japonisme for each the 1860s, and Adoption by the 1870s in Pre-Raphaelites Art.[7]
Bibliography
[1] http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/s182.raw.html
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_with_a_Mirror
[3] https://kokoro-jp.com/culture/298/
[4] https://www.color-meanings.com/color-meanings-japan/
[5] https://madeleineemeraldthiele.wordpress.com/2016/06/04/huxtable-on-her-false-crafts-morgan-le-fay-and-the-wild-women-of-sandys/
[6] https://fashionhistory.fitnyc.edu/the-red-craze/
[7] Japonsime in Britian: Whistler, Menpes, Henry, Hornel and nineteenth century Japan, Ayako Ono, 2003, p.18, RoutledgeCurzon
[8] https://www.artandobject.com/articles/women-pre-raphaelite-art
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