Victorian Paintings as Immensely Rich Sources for Analysing the Emergence of the New Woman from the Role of the Obedient Middle-Class Housewife

Abstract

The development of the Victorian woman is examined through several paintings of remarkable artists of the era, like John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, John William Waterhouse, Sir Edward John Poynter and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. These painters valued art for its aesthetic value rather than for the content. However, on the basis of the paintings analysed, we can see that the details, symbols, and motifs are of high importance to follow this female development