The top that the lady is wearing is a "wrapper" and it was basically a sweatshirt for the Victorian era. It was casual home wear. Notice that it doesn't require a corset. She's wearing her openwork petticoat skirt under the wrapper, a shawl around her waist, and her long hair down loose. She's in Victorian loungewear. She's dressed for only staying in the house and looks like she hasn't yet gotten dressed for the day.
I saw an old movie recently where a woman referred to her "wrapper." I think it might have been The Corpse Vanishes because it has a man visting a woman in the guest room she is staying in.
Nowadays it's hookup culture. Girlfriend = rent a wife. Replace her when she hits to wall at 30. Marriage is dead and women are destroyed because of feminism.
Honestly I don’t think this is a sad story, it started out hard but it sounds as though her early experiences taught her to hold onto herself and what she wanted. Obviously life is more complicated than that but it’s nice to hear of a woman who’s life wasn’t ruined by her painter.
Oh. That really explains a scene in Sense and Sensibility (1995) in a way that isn't so obvious from the scene itself. Gosh, Mrs. Jennings! Such a nasty, bawdy piece of work.
For me, this painting is a symbol of liberation. When she saw the bright sunny ambience of the window she finally see what's beyond the house she's caged in. A more life that she is more genuinely happy than fooling around with a man that only see her as a pastime and go back to his "holy and decent" life after two days or weeks they are together.
@@Darkstar-se6wc when she's to follow his likings. When she isn't, he didn't give 2 shits about her. He likes her moldabillity, he likes his influence on her.
@@haphuongnguyen3358 He likes being in control of her. It probably annoyed him to no end that she did as she pleased instead of what he wanted her to do.
Her dress wasn't a dress, it was a petticoat. I know this because I have a fragment of one of my English grandmother's petticoats.(She was born in 1885.) The fabric has the same tucking, the same hand-made lace as the skirt in the painting. I had it made into a christening gown for my youngest child, who is now 28. Which makes the painting even more poignant...
That's right. I remember researching this painting and writhing about it when I was an art student. The white garment is can under garment and the red sash represents a loss of virginity or innocents.
Wonderful story, illuminating the content of the painting in a concrete historical way. I bet your English grandmother was in attendance at the christening, whether or not you could see her.
I never saw this painting as cute, I always saw it as a woman wanting to get out of the illicit relationship she was in. But I didn't know the background story, thank you! So glad things ended well for Annie the model. Grooming = failed, lol
Artist's model, hardly equals grooming! 😏 It seems to me, that each of these ages has its own overbearing moralism. Ours, and theirs, I mean. They had patriarchal and often quite priggish (if often hypocritical also) Christianity. We are subject to the drivellings of #MeToo. If one is "cringe" so certainly is the other! 😏
@edelweissdebergbaldrian7696 Which may be why she didn't go through with the marriage. Because she felt he was too controlling? (After all, he did attempt to control her career while he was overseas.)
@@oneoflokisKind of like my ex husband who was making out his will, and wanted to make sure I didn't receive anything if I remarried! He wanted to control me from the grave. The lawyer said he couldn't do that, that made the ex-husband angry. By the way, I never remarried, once was more than enough. A jailer that gives you everything you need because you are poor and are trapped by that person because of poverty: is still a jailer.
So fascinating! I literally would have walked past this painting in 20 seconds and never noticed any of these details or context. I’m gonna need you to narrate my next museum walk. I look forward to these uploads.
You can see this painting in Tate Britain, London where they often discuss it on the guided tours along with many other Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood paintings.
Thank goodness Annie didn't hang around to be 'saved' by the hypocrite who had used her. What an arrogant wretch to think he could go off on a religious tour for two years and expect her to be totally obedient to his wishes. I'm glad she escaped to make her own happiness and managed to live a long life.
Hunt wanted to marry Annie. Part of a relationship is that you support your partner. Annie wanted the support but not the marriage and wasn't faithful. When Hunt discovered her persistent adultery, he chose to end their engagement. Annie responded by threatening to sue for breach of promise. I know simp leaves a girl because she's sleeping around, so she threatens him legally, isn't as dramatic as the video, but that's only because it happens every day.
Hunt was a control freak and she was his prisoner. He helped her, but Hunt's double standards were so typical of many men, even of this era. Annie realized she had to get the hell out of there to save herself! So, please do not compare your life to the life of a Victorian woman in poverty. @@joshm3484
@@joshm3484You can't force someone to love you if they don't. Annie was poor and probably tired of having to suffer and Mr. Hunt came along. It wasn't his fault or her fault that he fell in love with her, and she didn't fall in love with him. Sometimes it happens. Better to find out sooner rather than later.
@@edelweissdebergbaldrian7696 Very true. I may be a bit old-fashioned, but I believe that accepting a marriage proposal implies that you will remain faithful to your fiancé. If someone chooses to be unfaithful and then finds themselves single because their fiancé has had enough of them, the culpability falls with the person who is whoring around. The narrative promoted by this video and most commenters, that he is a hypocrite and villain and she's an innocent victim fortunate to have escaped, doesn't fit reality, logic, or their fairly well-documented history.
Generally, I feel using humor in analysis seems unprofessional, yet I love this channel. It speaks to how well every other aspect works that I don't mind it.. and even find myself chuckling a bit.
Annie was extremely lucky. Unfortunately, many women of that time (in similar position) weren't, so society was right to "warn" them. It sucks but it was what it was back then...
If society wasn't structured to have forced women into ridiculously high standards of purity, in addition to criminalizing the poor then this wouldn't have happened. Annie did what she had to do for money to make a living while the artist had his head up his butt. So, there we are.
@@seeleunit2000 of course, I have tons of sympathy for the women of that time, especially the disadvantaged ones! There was no safety net to catch you, nothing. If you had a not ridiculously rich husband and he suddenly died, you had so little options... So little decent job opportunities, and almost no one to help you. NOT to mention if you were left with kids to feed! It was truly horrible 😞 Those women are my heroes, I have it so easy compared to them!
@@Amaranthyne Well, everything that happens is always the woman's fault, don't you know that? Men can definitely do whatever they want. It's been that way for thousands of years.
Super interesting that Annie's face was repainted and that originally she looked more distraught or horrified. With the original expression it would be more obvious that she's supposed to be leaping up from the pervy guy's lap. As it is, she seems to be awkwardly hovering over his lap for some unknown reason. (History's first lap dance?}
I dunno, but it definitely looks like she's trying to get away from him. I thought maybe someone had walked in on them, but only the woman was aware of this mystery person's presence. Though the mirror kinda confirms no one is there. I guess she could have also come to a sudden realization that she didn't want any part of what the man wanted.
@shadowpitched4401 Yes, art historians would agree with you. Someone has walked in on them, and she is the only aware of that prescence. That prescence is Jesus Christ. This painting is paired with another named The Light of the World, which is a depiction of Jesus at the garden gate holding a lantern awakening the woman in this painting.
I dipped in expecting to bookmark this for later, but the storytelling just drew me in so I had to watch it all now... The editing, humour, and addition of all the other paintings to flesh out the story are great, too. And I learnt a lot!
Good for Annie. It's a Wonderful story thanks for breaking it down. In the time before movies it's amazing how artists could tell an entire story from a single Painting. At University I took an Art Appreciation class because I had to pick an elective at the last minute and it was basically all that was available. This was 26 years ago and if you would have been my Professor I would have loved it instead of being bored to tears struggling just to stay awake during class.
My daughter took a two-semester Art History survey course in college. I remember her saying the hardest part of the first semester was keeping straight all those medieval paintings of "Madonna and Child."🎨🖼😄
Delightful analysis as usual! It seems to me she's in the act of standing up to leave. Hunt is sitting awkwardly, possibly thrown back by her sudden motion? If playing the piano, he'd have had his arms wrapped around her, but his right hand appears thrust away. I add my own thoughts only to corroborate your analysis that she is indeed having an awakening and is in the process of leaving him.
This painting was recreated in a big glossy full page print in the social studies textbook I used for 3 years of Middle School. I saw it over and over, along with the lesson of the narrative of the Fallen Women it accompanied. I recognize almost every brush stroke, but I feel like I didn't really understand it until now. Thank you for putting the painting in context after all these years.
Explicit narration and a good summarize of the painting. But did anyone spot the time shown on the clock? It is 5 minutes until twelve o clock,- in most cultures it means short before doom... Maybe he was already aware of this coming to an end...
I like the cat looking up, waiting to see what she'll do. He has the bird with wings spread maybe ready to escape soon. The window is open, I see her getting her freedom as the bird will too. 🐦🐦
@@9iht6ihgt43rzhijj --- well, I'm not sure if you've ever sat in a large, dark lecture hall on a college campus for two years of art history classes at 8am having to watch almost two hours of slides twice a week, of art from the earliest of work considered good art, and every meaningful change in technique and media, then perspective, subject, realism, sculptures, architecture, through the ages up to post modernism. The professor was a good lecturer and told pretty much the same stories for each piece, just as on this channel but, I would've gladly have some sarcastic, sardonic, facetious, and off color humor thrown in the lecture as I was usually nursing a hangover from working the night before at a strip club, until 3am. It would have helped keep me awake and able to take proper notes if I was chuckling every so often. I actually loved my art history classes but the fun factor was far and few between iconic artwork and the lack of humour that can be extracted from all art in one way or another, either from the artist, the patron, or the subject. But, most people in the art world have their heads so far up each others asses blowing smoke up the latest trending artists skirt (men's and women's skirts) hahahahaha that they make the average person cringe when at the though of going to a gallery showing or to a museum. The air has been sucked out of such venues by the art snobs that there seems to be only lifeless, boring pieces of garbage in place of actual art, although art is subjective, anyone with a three digit IQ can tell art from someone's temper tantrum in oil on canvas. That's where the sarcasm and snickering should be in the conversation. It breathes life into a world where everyone who was great is dead. To each their own opinion.
Honestly, the Victorians and their puritanical thought processes are just so skin crawling... Talk about Madonna/Whore complexes. But I am pleased that the Annie had a full life and did what she wanted. Though the artist is a real head trip, isn't he ?
Ah yes, it’s so much more wholesome to have teenage girls planning to become OF models the minute they turn 18. Current day is indeed the measure of all things!
There are a lot of comments on this video that display loud and clear that those Victorian attitudes did not, in fact, get left in the dustbin of history where they belong. They are alive and well and even grosser now than they were then.
I have to agree with you most heartfelt way. These things still happen and they can be much worse. How many women have been kept prisoner then had to run for their life? Then they are blamed to be mentally ill because of PTSD. @@purplecat4977
i was taught that this painting was about a promiscuous woman who came to her senses and saw the light to leave the man and become christian. this is a whole different take, intetrsting
Great video! I've long had a fondness for this picture. It's referred to in my favourite book, Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited; after (Catholic-raised) Julia has a distraught emotional episode when her brother bluntly refers to her "living in sin" with her lover Charles, Charles is reminded of the picture and shows her a copy - Julia responds that she felt the same way as the woman in the picture, i.e. that her conscience was also awoken, though she dismisses it as an embarrassing "attack of hysteria" that meant little (though watch this space...) So when I was in London some years ago, I went to Tate Britain to see the picture and bought a postcard of it to use as a bookmark in my copy of the book.
The French Lieutenant's Woman comes to mind ; a different story but a similar struggle with limited options. Fowles may have known this tale, or not, but his protagonist had that eye to the horizon beyond her caged dilemma.
Thanks for that background. I have always been puzzled by this painting. I have never understood that slightly goofy expression on the woman's face. The historical background you provided addressed a lot of my questions.
Oh God! The woman under the bridge is horrifying, I feel like that is a story in and of itself 😢 Fantastic video as always, thank you so much, you never disappoint.😍
Wait, you didn’t mention that Annie’s gaze, which you say is directed outside the window, seems to be directed at a man who is looking through the trees at Annie 12:07. Annie’s expression appears to me to be pleasantly surprised and excited as she notices him. Is he her real lover come to call? What’s up with that?!
I always love your analysis, backstory & animation of these artworks. You make it so interesting & entertaining. I look forward to your next one. Thank you!
I really love your work. You make art history engaging and fun, and your narrator's voice sounds unique and interesting. And the storytelling just excels. Thank you.
This comment, of all the others, succinctly and gloriously says what I would want to express to this channel creator, if I ever felt I could drop comments on her freakin magnificent videos. Thank you.
Very beautifully composed narrative. First part makes you think it will be sad ending. And then the twist. What an awesome way to present and explain story behind, how and why, etc. This channel makes it so interesting that it makes me want to know more. Great work once again.
C'mon, the back of her skirt, which you cannot see, is hiked up, and she is standing up from having been "engaged" with her suitor. Just look at their eyes. Quad Erat Demonstrandum.
I look forward to your videos so much! You bring a painting to life and give us details no one ever has. We don't learn any of this in art class or in books. You are truly amazing and so interesting! Art classes should use your videos in their classroom for sure!
Ppppplllllllleeeeeeaaaaaaassssssseeeeee!!!!!!! Do a video on Jane Morris next, PLEASE! The Proserpine/Persephone painting! While we are on the Pre-Raphaelite muses!
Oft, in the stilly night, Ere slumber’s chain has bound me, Fond memory brings the light Of other days around me; The smiles, the tears, Of boyhood’s years, The words of love then spoken; The eyes that shone, Now dimm’d and gone, The cheerful hearts now broken! Thus, in the stilly night, Ere slumber’s chain hath bound me, Sad memory brings the light Of other days around me. When I remember all The friends, so link’d together, I’ve seen around me fall, Like leaves in wintry weather; I feel like one Who treads alone Some banquet-hall deserted, Whose lights are fled, Whose garlands dead, And all but he departed! Thus, in the stilly night, Ere slumber’s chain has bound me, Sad memory brings the light Of other days around me.
@@ClaireCopeland-n6y O Death in Life, the days that are no more. Yes I did. The song is the same as the man is playing on the piano, what she talked about in the video, written by Thomas Moore.
It isn't my favorite painting of a beautiful woman by any stretch, one of my favorite of your recent videos is about Flaming June. It's the depth of her slumber and the light that attracts me. But I am very pleased to see a painting of a woman not ruined by the obsessive admiration of her painter or another man who saw her as an object to be obtained and in trying to possess her ended up ruing her reputation or giving her a debilitating health issue as a result of the modeling process. That being said I think women are industrious and intrepid creatures capable of living a life with a sordid past and transcending it with unparalleled grace and dignity. It's clear that she did exactly that.
My mum had an LP with this painting on it. When I was a kid I used to look at it quite a lot but never really thought about its meaning, just that I thought it was beautiful and I liked spotting little details. This video was so interesting. I learned a little about Annie in art class at school, but just that she was a popular pre-raphaelite model.
So the artist actually did deflower but created and saved his perfect woman in a weird way. Only for another man to end up with her once he was thru! Odd how she ended up getting married and having 2 kids as much as the original Pymalion did. The goddess would be proud.
Excellent analysis… just want to add that this is probably set in an area of London called St John’s Wood… it was a part of town notorious for being where rich men kept their mistresses (it was also handy for Lords Cricket Ground!). It now has some of the most expensive private property in London. Another brief note: the shiny furniture is meant to indicate Rosewood veneer… then a new technique for making cheep furniture look expensive…. So the furniture is an indicator that all is not what it seems…
Thanks for Distracting me once again with Your Beautiful Paintings and wonderful backstories. My research unveiled the discarded papers on the floor. It is Edward Lear's arrangement of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Tears, Idle Tears". Hunt knew he lost Annie Miller, life goes on. But he seems a bit hateful in re-doing her face both times...
Glad for the happy ending! Appreciate the symbolism explanation. Even without it, however, when I first saw this painting in an art book, I understood her expression. She looks like she' suddenly thought, "What have I done? What have I become? I'm fallen! I'm lost!"
I've seen lots of William Holman Hunt's paintings in Manchester, England. This his style and he always used bright vivid colours and rich patterns.... 🙂🇬🇧
So you go through hidden messages that are not obvious until we are told of them, but you ignore the scratches on the wall. They seemed to me like screams"get me out of here!". The first thing I noticed orher than the figures.
I had to laugh at the "twist" at about 9:10-- From the start I thought that the guy in the painting was the painter! Thanks for the story/analysis. I really enjoyed it!😊
No discussion of the scribbles interrupting the wallpaper print? Like would be done by a child or by a desperately bored person. I find the emotion seconded in the yarn scraps.
I'm glad things were ok for her in the end, at least as far as I can tell. I love how well you interpret symbols in these paintings, I would habe to stare and think for quite a while to pick up all of that. I enjoy listening to you explain because I know very little about painting. Thamk you!
I know it's the shortest detail of this video, but it's funny how she went with Dante of all people from that group. You can tell she couldn't stand Hunt's love-bombing and nice-guy act.
I am just guessing here, but I suspect that Hunt's attentions were quite smothering and highly controlling. His face in that painting is most unpleasant, like a prissy dandy just begging to be cuckolded (I'm assuming that illicit lovers can also be cuckolded), too smug in thinking that he had her effectively trapped.
Again another awesome well studied upload 😗💖 my gosh girl you do do your homework💥 thank you for all you do, as well as educate🎓 and teach 😎. If Anne had only got to hear "Hearts, Dreamboat Annie!"🤔💖💚 Sending love your way from Nova Scotia💙 Canada 😊
I am changing the narrative here, feel like we need some intervention: The woman is a succesful courtesan who managed to get herself a somewhat succesful life and convenience room in the wealthy guy's room. She realizes she wants to stop being a courtesan and realizes she will change her fate, using the money she has earned from her life as a courtesan.
Meaning she has forgotten how bad she had it in the gutter, feels no gratitude to him for saving her and has options she could NEVER have dreamed of before he rescued her.
02:38 -- "...because the books on the table are manuals for writing that look like they've never been opened." Say _what?_ How on earth can you tell what the contents of the books are, when no titles are visible?! And what makes a hardbound book look like it's "never been opened"? Were you expecting dog-eared pages, or lots of bookmarks? I own many 19th-century cloth and leather-bound books, which I've _read,_ and they look just as "never opened" as those do. Sometimes people read _juuust a bit too much_ into ambiguous scenes.
"Begging the question" doesn't mean raising or inviting a question about he subject; it means incorrectly phrasing the question so it already answers itself through circular logic.
Thank you for giving a beautiful history of all these masterpieces. The videos are concise, clear, and with just the right amount of humor to keep us on the subject matter at hand. So many videos today focus on the mediocre humor or the quick laughs and it's nice to see that you have a balance of both. I hope when I go to an art museum again in the future, I'll be having one of your videos playing in my ear to the painting that I'm looking at. Keep doing a great job. I'm so happy you finally found the formula that worked for you, that's not an easy thing to do. If I were to give it one piece of advice, maybe at the end of one of your videos, you can thank the viewers for their support. It truly is appreciated.
I don’t think he prophesied this through the painting, I think he knew the dynamic between them. It was unrequited love. Most artists paint what they know, paint their pain.
Thank you for your research. It’s the back story that makes this painting interesting for me. Otherwise I would have been tempted to skip over it as a routine piece of Victoriana. Little by little your channel is redeeming my innate philistinism.😂
An awakened conscience. I like your narratives alot! Thank You Art Deco I wondered if keeping a glove on his left hand may have been hiding his ring finger. I find it somewhat refreshing how a painting can be like a movie. I have the sense that popular literature of the day written by women seems to be reflected. All said it puts me in mind of an episode of the Twilight Zone or perhaps a Alfred Hitchcock production.
Rotten man. Sounds like his pilgrimage served a holy purpose-freeing Annie! Good that she found someone to treat her with the respect she deserved instead of some controlling creep.
The top that the lady is wearing is a "wrapper" and it was basically a sweatshirt for the Victorian era. It was casual home wear. Notice that it doesn't require a corset. She's wearing her openwork petticoat skirt under the wrapper, a shawl around her waist, and her long hair down loose. She's in Victorian loungewear. She's dressed for only staying in the house and looks like she hasn't yet gotten dressed for the day.
That's nice to know! 🙂👍
Why would Annie get dressed if she wasn't allowed to leave?! 🤔
@@edelweissdebergbaldrian7696 who said she wasn’t allowed to leave?
Yeh, that’s what’s just been said .
I saw an old movie recently where a woman referred to her "wrapper." I think it might have been The Corpse Vanishes because it has a man visting a woman in the guest room she is staying in.
The painting of the puppy definitely made up for it
🐶❤️
Haha 😊
Everyone loves a puppy. 😂❤
it's so cute
Nowadays it's hookup culture. Girlfriend = rent a wife. Replace her when she hits to wall at 30. Marriage is dead and women are destroyed because of feminism.
Honestly I don’t think this is a sad story, it started out hard but it sounds as though her early experiences taught her to hold onto herself and what she wanted. Obviously life is more complicated than that but it’s nice to hear of a woman who’s life wasn’t ruined by her painter.
Right?! I think that’s a beautiful story with a happy ending.
It was beautiful and deserves a movie or series
🙂👍
@@Saffron-sugarYeah! 🙂👍
But, she used men to get what she wanted. I just dont understand why it's ok for women to use men but not the other way around.
Playing a four-handed piano piece was a way for a wooing couples to sit closer together than would be normally acceptable.
How very interesting! Thank you!🎉
But a three handed piece was an even better way.
Oh. That really explains a scene in Sense and Sensibility (1995) in a way that isn't so obvious from the scene itself. Gosh, Mrs. Jennings! Such a nasty, bawdy piece of work.
It looks like she was lap-dancing him.
The rare six handed “pieces “ would often suggest a threesome…
For me, this painting is a symbol of liberation. When she saw the bright sunny ambience of the window she finally see what's beyond the house she's caged in. A more life that she is more genuinely happy than fooling around with a man that only see her as a pastime and go back to his "holy and decent" life after two days or weeks they are together.
Except IRL he evidently saw her as more than a pastime; he wanted to marry her.
@@Darkstar-se6wc when she's to follow his likings. When she isn't, he didn't give 2 shits about her.
He likes her moldabillity, he likes his influence on her.
@@haphuongnguyen3358 He likes being in control of her. It probably annoyed him to no end that she did as she pleased instead of what he wanted her to do.
I agree, she is having an epiphany in the picture. A realisation of her own worth.
Agreed, she is evolving and moving forward..he is releasing her also
Her dress wasn't a dress, it was a petticoat. I know this because I have a fragment of one of my English grandmother's petticoats.(She was born in 1885.) The fabric has the same tucking, the same hand-made lace as the skirt in the painting. I had it made into a christening gown for my youngest child, who is now 28.
Which makes the painting even more poignant...
That's right. I remember researching this painting and writhing about it when I was an art student. The white garment is can under garment and the red sash represents a loss of virginity or innocents.
Wonderful story, illuminating the content of the painting in a concrete historical way. I bet your English grandmother was in attendance at the christening, whether or not you could see her.
@@jamesrobiscoe1174 I suspect she was, yes.
Colonialism was painful, aren't you ashamed at all?
I never saw this painting as cute, I always saw it as a woman wanting to get out of the illicit relationship she was in. But I didn't know the background story, thank you! So glad things ended well for Annie the model. Grooming = failed, lol
Yes, absolute grooming by a control freak. Why can't people see these things?
Artist's model, hardly equals grooming! 😏
It seems to me, that each of these ages has its own overbearing moralism. Ours, and theirs, I mean. They had patriarchal and often quite priggish (if often hypocritical also) Christianity. We are subject to the drivellings of #MeToo. If one is "cringe" so certainly is the other! 😏
@edelweissdebergbaldrian7696 Which may be why she didn't go through with the marriage. Because she felt he was too controlling? (After all, he did attempt to control her career while he was overseas.)
@@oneoflokisKind of like my ex husband who was making out his will, and wanted to make sure I didn't receive anything if I remarried! He wanted to control me from the grave. The lawyer said he couldn't do that, that made the ex-husband angry.
By the way, I never remarried, once was more than enough.
A jailer that gives you everything you need because you are poor and are trapped by that person because of poverty: is still a jailer.
annies fannie ❤🤓🤓
So fascinating! I literally would have walked past this painting in 20 seconds and never noticed any of these details or context. I’m gonna need you to narrate my next museum walk. I look forward to these uploads.
Those details are not subdle
@@Ronkyort0dox?
You can see this painting in Tate Britain, London where they often discuss it on the guided tours along with many other Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood paintings.
Thank goodness Annie didn't hang around to be 'saved' by the hypocrite who had used her. What an arrogant wretch to think he could go off on a religious tour for two years and expect her to be totally obedient to his wishes. I'm glad she escaped to make her own happiness and managed to live a long life.
Yep. She lived a long life and had two kids with a man she wanted to marry.
Hunt wanted to marry Annie. Part of a relationship is that you support your partner. Annie wanted the support but not the marriage and wasn't faithful. When Hunt discovered her persistent adultery, he chose to end their engagement. Annie responded by threatening to sue for breach of promise.
I know simp leaves a girl because she's sleeping around, so she threatens him legally, isn't as dramatic as the video, but that's only because it happens every day.
Hunt was a control freak and she was his prisoner. He helped her, but Hunt's double standards were so typical of many men, even of this era. Annie realized she had to get the hell out of there to save herself! So, please do not compare your life to the life of a Victorian woman in poverty. @@joshm3484
@@joshm3484You can't force someone to love you if they don't. Annie was poor and probably tired of having to suffer and Mr. Hunt came along.
It wasn't his fault or her fault that he fell in love with her, and she didn't fall in love with him.
Sometimes it happens.
Better to find out sooner rather than later.
@@edelweissdebergbaldrian7696 Very true. I may be a bit old-fashioned, but I believe that accepting a marriage proposal implies that you will remain faithful to your fiancé. If someone chooses to be unfaithful and then finds themselves single because their fiancé has had enough of them, the culpability falls with the person who is whoring around. The narrative promoted by this video and most commenters, that he is a hypocrite and villain and she's an innocent victim fortunate to have escaped, doesn't fit reality, logic, or their fairly well-documented history.
I just love your analysis of these art pieces. Informative and humorous ❤.
Thank you!
Generally, I feel using humor in analysis seems unprofessional, yet I love this channel. It speaks to how well every other aspect works that I don't mind it.. and even find myself chuckling a bit.
Annie was extremely lucky. Unfortunately, many women of that time (in similar position) weren't, so society was right to "warn" them. It sucks but it was what it was back then...
If society wasn't structured to have forced women into ridiculously high standards of purity, in addition to criminalizing the poor then this wouldn't have happened.
Annie did what she had to do for money to make a living while the artist had his head up his butt. So, there we are.
@@seeleunit2000 of course, I have tons of sympathy for the women of that time, especially the disadvantaged ones! There was no safety net to catch you, nothing. If you had a not ridiculously rich husband and he suddenly died, you had so little options... So little decent job opportunities, and almost no one to help you. NOT to mention if you were left with kids to feed! It was truly horrible 😞 Those women are my heroes, I have it so easy compared to them!
@@seeleunit2000 I wouldn’t begrudge them the strictures about chastity except that it was a complete double standard. 😡
I don’t disagree, but where are the paintings telling men to keep their hands to themselves?
@@Amaranthyne Well, everything that happens is always the woman's fault, don't you know that? Men can definitely do whatever they want. It's been that way for thousands of years.
Super interesting that Annie's face was repainted and that originally she looked more distraught or horrified. With the original expression it would be more obvious that she's supposed to be leaping up from the pervy guy's lap. As it is, she seems to be awkwardly hovering over his lap for some unknown reason. (History's first lap dance?}
I dunno, but it definitely looks like she's trying to get away from him. I thought maybe someone had walked in on them, but only the woman was aware of this mystery person's presence. Though the mirror kinda confirms no one is there. I guess she could have also come to a sudden realization that she didn't want any part of what the man wanted.
@shadowpitched4401 Yes, art historians would agree with you. Someone has walked in on them, and she is the only aware of that prescence. That prescence is Jesus Christ. This painting is paired with another named The Light of the World, which is a depiction of Jesus at the garden gate holding a lantern awakening the woman in this painting.
She's simply sitting on his lap.
@@erikab1317And Jesus said, "Annie! This life isn't for you!"
@@edelweissdebergbaldrian7696 Jesus just bursts into singing Smooth Criminal.
I dipped in expecting to bookmark this for later, but the storytelling just drew me in so I had to watch it all now...
The editing, humour, and addition of all the other paintings to flesh out the story are great, too. And I learnt a lot!
Good for Annie. It's a Wonderful story thanks for breaking it down. In the time before movies it's amazing how artists could tell an entire story from a single Painting. At University I took an Art Appreciation class because I had to pick an elective at the last minute and it was basically all that was available. This was 26 years ago and if you would have been my Professor I would have loved it instead of being bored to tears struggling just to stay awake during class.
My daughter took a two-semester Art History survey course in college. I remember her saying the hardest part of the first semester was keeping straight all those medieval paintings of "Madonna and Child."🎨🖼😄
Delightful analysis as usual! It seems to me she's in the act of standing up to leave. Hunt is sitting awkwardly, possibly thrown back by her sudden motion? If playing the piano, he'd have had his arms wrapped around her, but his right hand appears thrust away. I add my own thoughts only to corroborate your analysis that she is indeed having an awakening and is in the process of leaving him.
This painting was recreated in a big glossy full page print in the social studies textbook I used for 3 years of Middle School. I saw it over and over, along with the lesson of the narrative of the Fallen Women it accompanied. I recognize almost every brush stroke, but I feel like I didn't really understand it until now. Thank you for putting the painting in context after all these years.
Explicit narration and a good summarize of the painting. But did anyone spot the time shown on the clock? It is 5 minutes until twelve o clock,- in most cultures it means short before doom... Maybe he was already aware of this coming to an end...
you make learning about art such a fun experience😄
Thank you!
Thanks! Wonderful as always.
Thank you so much for your support, John!
Thanks for the Happy Ending (+ the cute dog). ☺
Thank you so much, Dave! Your generosity means so much!!
Get it Annie!!!
I’m quite familiar with her face from paintings by a host of different artists. I’m so glad I know more about her story.
I have long enjoyed your videos. It's very obvious that you put a lot of work into them. I just struck the bell again to make sure I get them all.
I like the cat looking up, waiting to see what she'll do. He has the bird with wings spread maybe ready to escape soon. The window is open, I see her getting her freedom as the bird will too. 🐦🐦
The bird is already injured, it can only glide for short bursts, so the cat isn't worried it will actually escape. The lady is much more interesting.
Your voice is so relaxing.❤
🥰
I've commented before on how her voice is so easy to listen to.
She could read the phone book and I could be content for hours.
"Relaxing"? I wouldnt say so...
That sarcastic undertone doesnt make it sound relaxing at all..
@@9iht6ihgt43rzhijj --- well, I'm not sure if you've ever sat in a large, dark lecture hall on a college campus for two years of art history classes at 8am having to watch almost two hours of slides twice a week, of art from the earliest of work considered good art, and every meaningful change in technique and media, then perspective, subject, realism, sculptures, architecture, through the ages up to post modernism. The professor was a good lecturer and told pretty much the same stories for each piece, just as on this channel but, I would've gladly have some sarcastic, sardonic, facetious, and off color humor thrown in the lecture as I was usually nursing a hangover from working the night before at a strip club, until 3am. It would have helped keep me awake and able to take proper notes if I was chuckling every so often.
I actually loved my art history classes but the fun factor was far and few between iconic artwork and the lack of humour that can be extracted from all art in one way or another, either from the artist, the patron, or the subject. But, most people in the art world have their heads so far up each others asses blowing smoke up the latest trending artists skirt (men's and women's skirts) hahahahaha that they make the average person cringe when at the though of going to a gallery showing or to a museum. The air has been sucked out of such venues by the art snobs that there seems to be only lifeless, boring pieces of garbage in place of actual art, although art is subjective, anyone with a three digit IQ can tell art from someone's temper tantrum in oil on canvas.
That's where the sarcasm and snickering should be in the conversation.
It breathes life into a world where everyone who was great is dead.
To each their own opinion.
Agreed!! Wonderful voice!
Thanks!
Thank you so much!!
The clock says it's five minutes to noon -- time is almost up for this relationship.
Great explanation of this painting. What would have been just another painting to me is now the juiciest of stories if I should see it again.
Honestly, the Victorians and their puritanical thought processes are just so skin crawling... Talk about Madonna/Whore complexes.
But I am pleased that the Annie had a full life and did what she wanted. Though the artist is a real head trip, isn't he ?
Victorians were prudes in the streets and freaks in the sheets, as the saying goes.
Ah yes, it’s so much more wholesome to have teenage girls planning to become OF models the minute they turn 18. Current day is indeed the measure of all things!
There are a lot of comments on this video that display loud and clear that those Victorian attitudes did not, in fact, get left in the dustbin of history where they belong. They are alive and well and even grosser now than they were then.
I have to agree with you most heartfelt way. These things still happen and they can be much worse. How many women have been kept prisoner then had to run for their life? Then they are blamed to be mentally ill because of PTSD.
@@purplecat4977
Actually the true skin crawling things are the trans...
i was taught that this painting was about a promiscuous woman who came to her senses and saw the light to leave the man and become christian. this is a whole different take, intetrsting
That take is sooooo boring
BAHAHAHA i agree! i assume bc people were even more religious back then this take wouldn’t have been too far off if it’s not the actual meaning
And it is basically exactly what you said, except for the Christianity part. And, who knows, maybe she became a Christian as well?
This video makes the mistake of using modern thought to interpret the past -- the way of the amateur.
Ah yes, a "promiscuous woman" who's completely covered up from the neck down
Great video! I've long had a fondness for this picture. It's referred to in my favourite book, Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited; after (Catholic-raised) Julia has a distraught emotional episode when her brother bluntly refers to her "living in sin" with her lover Charles, Charles is reminded of the picture and shows her a copy - Julia responds that she felt the same way as the woman in the picture, i.e. that her conscience was also awoken, though she dismisses it as an embarrassing "attack of hysteria" that meant little (though watch this space...) So when I was in London some years ago, I went to Tate Britain to see the picture and bought a postcard of it to use as a bookmark in my copy of the book.
Good for Annie she knew what she wanted.
The French Lieutenant's Woman comes to mind ; a different story but a similar struggle with limited options. Fowles may have known this tale, or not, but his protagonist had that eye to the horizon beyond her caged dilemma.
I read that book. It sickened me. She did her best to destroy the man who loved her. She was sick in the head and a waste of space.
You are the most intelligent person who interprets paintings that I've ever seen!! Thank you!! Your vids are so entertaining!!❤
Annie, are you ok? Are you ok, Annie?
You been hit by, you been struck by, a smooth criminal
🤣🤣🤣why doesn’t this have more likes??
Thanks for that background. I have always been puzzled by this painting. I have never understood that slightly goofy expression on the woman's face. The historical background you provided addressed a lot of my questions.
Oh God! The woman under the bridge is horrifying, I feel like that is a story in and of itself 😢
Fantastic video as always, thank you so much, you never disappoint.😍
The theme was even treated as a comic (and often bawdy) comic song: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Was_Poor_but_She_Was_Honest
Even worse that no one even recognized her. It’s breaks my heart
The puppy definitely helped‼️🤧
Wait, you didn’t mention that Annie’s gaze, which you say is directed outside the window, seems to be directed at a man who is looking through the trees at Annie 12:07. Annie’s expression appears to me to be pleasantly surprised and excited as she notices him. Is he her real lover come to call? What’s up with that?!
I always love your analysis, backstory & animation of these artworks. You make it so interesting & entertaining. I look forward to your next one. Thank you!
I wait patiently for all your new videos and I’m not disappointed. I Love your analysis and humor. ❤
Always look forward to these fascinating analyses/intriguing stories!
I absolutely love your sophisticated, entertaining essays!
That's, how art should be brought to life!
You're the best; your narrative is informative, hilarious and so well narrated. Well done!
I really love your work. You make art history engaging and fun, and your narrator's voice sounds unique and interesting. And the storytelling just excels. Thank you.
This comment, of all the others, succinctly and gloriously says what I would want to express to this channel creator, if I ever felt I could drop comments on her freakin magnificent videos. Thank you.
He explicitly told her she couldn’t model for Dante Gabriel Rossetti, because, look at him 😍
He was a far better painter than Hunt.
LMAO YES
Dude had the most glorious mane lol
Sadly, his looks didn't last, but his artistic ability definitely did.
Eh, Dante was also married during this time and also told his own wife she wasn’t allowed to model for other painters… they’re all horrible men.
Fun fact. CPR Annie was said to be modeled after a body of a drowned victim found in the Thames of the UK
Annie are you ok?
@@kozy15x
Tim Burton would kill a movie about her. The Dr who examined was obsessed. But did she fall, ended it. or crime.
I actually did know that. They made that her face because when the lady died she looked really peaceful
Very beautifully composed narrative.
First part makes you think it will be sad ending. And then the twist.
What an awesome way to present and explain story behind, how and why, etc.
This channel makes it so interesting that it makes me want to know more.
Great work once again.
C'mon, the back of her skirt, which you cannot see, is hiked up, and she is standing up from having been "engaged" with her suitor. Just look at their eyes. Quad Erat Demonstrandum.
I look forward to your videos so much! You bring a painting to life and give us details no one ever has. We don't learn any of this in art class or in books. You are truly amazing and so interesting! Art classes should use your videos in their classroom for sure!
I love when you teach about the woman model in the paintings life!!
Thank you! Amazing how much sub-text there is when you know (or are guided) to look for it.
Ppppplllllllleeeeeeaaaaaaassssssseeeeee!!!!!!!
Do a video on Jane Morris next, PLEASE! The Proserpine/Persephone painting! While we are on the Pre-Raphaelite muses!
Yes! That piece is going in my house one day. It's one of my favorites.
Oft, in the stilly night,
Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Fond memory brings the light
Of other days around me;
The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood’s years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm’d and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere slumber’s chain hath bound me,
Sad memory brings the light
Of other days around me.
When I remember all
The friends, so link’d together,
I’ve seen around me fall,
Like leaves in wintry weather;
I feel like one
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!
Thus, in the stilly night,
Ere slumber’s chain has bound me,
Sad memory brings the light
Of other days around me.
This is beautiful. Who is the poet? have you read Tears Idle Tears? .... THINKING OF THE DAYS THAT ARE NO MORE.
@@ClaireCopeland-n6y O Death in Life, the days that are no more. Yes I did.
The song is the same as the man is playing on the piano, what she talked about in the video, written by Thomas Moore.
The "light" might indicate a sudden door opening hence "your" view of the painting, and the interruption causing the girl to stand suddenly.
What a great story. I LOVE learning the stories behind paintings. Thank you so much.
I always look forward to your videos. Excellent job, as usual!
It isn't my favorite painting of a beautiful woman by any stretch, one of my favorite of your recent videos is about Flaming June. It's the depth of her slumber and the light that attracts me. But I am very pleased to see a painting of a woman not ruined by the obsessive admiration of her painter or another man who saw her as an object to be obtained and in trying to possess her ended up ruing her reputation or giving her a debilitating health issue as a result of the modeling process. That being said I think women are industrious and intrepid creatures capable of living a life with a sordid past and transcending it with unparalleled grace and dignity. It's clear that she did exactly that.
My mum had an LP with this painting on it. When I was a kid I used to look at it quite a lot but never really thought about its meaning, just that I thought it was beautiful and I liked spotting little details. This video was so interesting. I learned a little about Annie in art class at school, but just that she was a popular pre-raphaelite model.
So the artist actually did deflower but created and saved his perfect woman in a weird way. Only for another man to end up with her once he was thru! Odd how she ended up getting married and having 2 kids as much as the original Pymalion did. The goddess would be proud.
He wasn't "through" with her. He still wanted her, which must have made her rebellion and independence burn him so much more. Delightful!
Excellent analysis… just want to add that this is probably set in an area of London called St John’s Wood… it was a part of town notorious for being where rich men kept their mistresses (it was also handy for Lords Cricket Ground!). It now has some of the most expensive private property in London. Another brief note: the shiny furniture is meant to indicate Rosewood veneer… then a new technique for making cheep furniture look expensive…. So the furniture is an indicator that all is not what it seems…
I really love your reviews, so insightful! 🥰
Thank you so much!
Thanks for Distracting me once again with Your Beautiful Paintings and wonderful backstories. My research unveiled the discarded papers on the floor. It is Edward Lear's arrangement of Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem "Tears, Idle Tears". Hunt knew he lost Annie Miller, life goes on. But he seems a bit hateful in re-doing her face both times...
Glad for the happy ending! Appreciate the symbolism explanation. Even without it, however, when I first saw this painting in an art book, I understood her expression. She looks like she' suddenly thought, "What have I done? What have I become? I'm fallen! I'm lost!"
I've seen lots of William Holman Hunt's paintings in Manchester, England. This his style and he always used bright vivid colours and rich patterns.... 🙂🇬🇧
This is really interesting! Your videos make me want to visit an art gallery and have a deep look on the paintings.
So you go through hidden messages that are not obvious until we are told of them, but you ignore the scratches on the wall. They seemed to me like screams"get me out of here!". The first thing I noticed orher than the figures.
I had to laugh at the "twist" at about 9:10-- From the start I thought that the guy in the painting was the painter! Thanks for the story/analysis. I really enjoyed it!😊
Go, Annie! This painting is very creepy to me.
Great video!!! Love the Pre-Rephael art. I look forward to your videos!
I feel so sorry for this woman. She deserves to be recognized for her own life, not for the horrid men who used and discarded her.
Exactly, there are an unusual amount of creepy fellows here in these comments.
I love this channel so much.
No discussion of the scribbles interrupting the wallpaper print? Like would be done by a child or by a desperately bored person. I find the emotion seconded in the yarn scraps.
I'm glad things were ok for her in the end, at least as far as I can tell.
I love how well you interpret symbols in these paintings, I would habe to stare and think for quite a while to pick up all of that. I enjoy listening to you explain because I know very little about painting. Thamk you!
I know it's the shortest detail of this video, but it's funny how she went with Dante of all people from that group. You can tell she couldn't stand Hunt's love-bombing and nice-guy act.
I am just guessing here, but I suspect that Hunt's attentions were quite smothering and highly controlling. His face in that painting is most unpleasant, like a prissy dandy just begging to be cuckolded (I'm assuming that illicit lovers can also be cuckolded), too smug in thinking that he had her effectively trapped.
Again another awesome well studied upload 😗💖 my gosh girl you do do your homework💥 thank you for all you do, as well as educate🎓 and teach 😎.
If Anne had only got to hear
"Hearts, Dreamboat Annie!"🤔💖💚 Sending love your way from Nova Scotia💙 Canada 😊
Annie Miller, you are officially a girlboss
Boss
Boss
Gross
“Girlboss” is capitalist cringe
omg great video as always
Thank you so much!
I am changing the narrative here, feel like we need some intervention:
The woman is a succesful courtesan who managed to get herself a somewhat succesful life and convenience room in the wealthy guy's room. She realizes she wants to stop being a courtesan and realizes she will change her fate, using the money she has earned from her life as a courtesan.
Meaning she has forgotten how bad she had it in the gutter, feels no gratitude to him for saving her and has options she could NEVER have dreamed of before he rescued her.
@@xhagastthis is exactly what happened
Ein toller Kanal! Ich bin gefesselt von den großen und kleinen Geschichten der Gemälde! Vielen Dank!
02:38 -- "...because the books on the table are manuals for writing that look like they've never been opened."
Say _what?_ How on earth can you tell what the contents of the books are, when no titles are visible?! And what makes a hardbound book look like it's "never been opened"? Were you expecting dog-eared pages, or lots of bookmarks? I own many 19th-century cloth and leather-bound books, which I've _read,_ and they look just as "never opened" as those do.
Sometimes people read _juuust a bit too much_ into ambiguous scenes.
this is literally the video version of my english teacher making up meaning from books to cope with her unhappy marriage
"Begging the question" doesn't mean raising or inviting a question about he subject; it means incorrectly phrasing the question so it already answers itself through circular logic.
always brilliant, thank you
Thank you for giving a beautiful history of all these masterpieces. The videos are concise, clear, and with just the right amount of humor to keep us on the subject matter at hand. So many videos today focus on the mediocre humor or the quick laughs and it's nice to see that you have a balance of both. I hope when I go to an art museum again in the future, I'll be having one of your videos playing in my ear to the painting that I'm looking at. Keep doing a great job. I'm so happy you finally found the formula that worked for you, that's not an easy thing to do. If I were to give it one piece of advice, maybe at the end of one of your videos, you can thank the viewers for their support. It truly is appreciated.
the analysis says a lot more about the analyzer than it does about the painting
Ah, the Pre-Raphaelite muses… Love ‘em!
First Lizzie, now Annie. If you don’t finish the triumvirate with Jane Morris, I’ll be disappointed. ✌🏼😘❤️
Love all your observations and it really shows how deep and meaningful a painting can be. THANK YOU. I love the Pre raphaelites.
I don’t think he prophesied this through the painting, I think he knew the dynamic between them. It was unrequited love. Most artists paint what they know, paint their pain.
The position of her hands told everything to me.
Can’t deny it is brilliantly painted
Wonderful...I adore this channel..😊
I love the Pre-Raphaelites.
You tell a better story from a single scene than hollywood can in one or two hours.
I adore you work.
For once you give us a nice ending really, that's an agreeable surprise.
I'm alway happy to see one of your video 👍
Thank you for your research. It’s the back story that makes this painting interesting for me. Otherwise I would have been tempted to skip over it as a routine piece of Victoriana. Little by little your channel is redeeming my innate philistinism.😂
Sounds like he was a Nice Guy™. Also kind of reminds me of the ending to the Nymphomaniac film. I'm glad she got away from him.
Wait is William suppose to be Seligman?
An awakened conscience.
I like your narratives alot! Thank You Art Deco
I wondered if keeping a glove on his left hand may have been hiding his ring finger.
I find it somewhat refreshing how a painting can be like a movie. I have the sense that popular literature of the day written by women seems to be reflected.
All said it puts me in mind of an episode of the Twilight Zone or perhaps a Alfred Hitchcock production.
Rotten man. Sounds like his pilgrimage served a holy purpose-freeing Annie! Good that she found someone to treat her with the respect she deserved instead of some controlling creep.
Excellent video! i no virtually nothing about art, but your video is intriguing!
Her face reminds me so much of late Egyptian portraits - like on mummy cases.