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At first glance Jacob van Ruisdael’s
View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds (
c. 1670–75) depicts a pleasant pastoral scene. Half of the painting – one of a series of popular
Haerlempjes, or ‘Haarlem views’, for which Ruisdael was well known – is filled with sky, the billowing clouds emphasising the stark flatness of the Dutch landscape beneath. On the horizon lies the busy market town of Haarlem, dominated by the solid 15th-century Grote Kerk, which looms over the surrounding houses like a ship. In the foreground are a lake, trees and fields, on one of which bolts of linen have been laid out to bleach in the sun. It’s a beautiful detail. The bright white sheets cutting across the green and brown of the field give the painting an almost abstract geometry. Yet this formal beauty obscures one of the things that many contemporary viewers would have most associated with the bleaching fields: their overpowering, unavoidable stench.
Arts and Culture
Hidden in the beautiful, undulating countryside of Surrey, south of London much of it ruined, though, by the hideousness of post–Great War suburbia is the Watts Gallery, a museum devoted to the work of the Victorian painter George Frederic Watts, once known (it is impossible to suppress a smile) as England’s Michelangelo. Watts (1817–1904) was the son of an impoverished but ambitious piano tuner, and he owed his rapid ascent up the social scale to the swift recognition of his talents by people in the upper reaches of society. Though somewhat lacking in humor, he was charming and good company. When, as a very young man, he went to Italy to study at the font of Western art, the British ambassador to the Duchy of Florence, Lord Holland, and his wife were so taken with him that they asked him to stay. “We have plenty of room,” said Lady Holland, which was no more than the truth: their residence had 100 rooms. He stayed for years.
The humble heroes of London's Watts Memorial spectator.co.uk - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from spectator.co.uk Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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Caroline Thain
Actress Dame Ellen Terry by Sir Johnston Forbes-Robertson
- Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
From intrepid adventuring to fighting for equality, smashing stereotypes and helping to change society as they went, these 10 Herts wonder women richly deserve their places in history. There are many more to choose from but those profiled here include parachuting lifesavers who bounced back from paralysis, pioneering police officers and feminists leading the way in sport, the arts and engineering.
Dame Ellen Terry
One of the most famous leading ladies of the Victorian era, Dame Ellen Terry was particularly celebrated for her Shakespearean heroines, such as Portia and Beatrice. A young talent and beauty, she left the stage for a while after she married the pre-Raphaelite artist George Frederic Watts aged just 16 (an 1864 painting of her by Watts is in the National Portrait Gallery). He was 31 years older and the marriage only lasted 10 months before she returned t