[Vwoolf] National Portrait Gallery exhibition

Tue Aug 12 03:50:45 EDT 2014

It is not possible to know precisely what occurred or didn’t occur 150 years ago inside 22 Hyde Park Gate. But it is possible to know that William Booth wrote in 1890 that “Incest is so familiar as to hardly call for remark” (Bailey & Blackburn 710), that in 1907 H. B. Simpson of the Home Office said that “cases can easily be imagined in which intercourse between a half-brother and a half-sister might take place without exciting any of the feeling of horror which the other forms of incest aimed at in the [1908 Punishment of Incest] Bill excite” (Bailey & Blackburn 716), and that Virginia Woolf’s paternal uncle, James Fitzjames Stephen, wrote in his History of the Criminal Law (1883) that the entry of incest into the criminal law had likely been hindered by its having always been treated by ecclesiastical courts, that is as a moral rather than criminal transgression (Bailey & Blackburn 709).

Woolf herself described her “witness testimony” as something “I have no motive for lying about” (“Sketch” 69).

Hermione Lee: “Nor is it possible to say with certainty that these events, any more than Gerald Duckworth’s interference with the child Virginia, drove her mad. But Virginia Woolf  herself thought that what had been done to her was very damaging.” (158)

I do agree with Stuart that in the UK these matters have been regarded differently than in the US. We have seen the consequences of that difference in the past few years’ revelations at the BBC and elsewhere.  The choice is not between “the DeSalvo view” and that represented by those who dismiss as fantasy what Woolf told Janet Case, Vanessa Bell, Vita Sackville-West and anyone who reads “A Sketch of the Past.”  There are more nuanced approaches.

From: vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Stuart N. Clarke
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2014 3:28 AM
To: woolf list
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] National Portrait Gallery exhibition

But there are fashions in the interpretation of such evidence.

Hermione Lee’s measured analysis in her 1996 biographer seems to have been ignored – or at least not remarked upon – but perhaps it has had an underground effect.

I think I can see the tide turning.  There is not only Frances Spalding, but also the late Pat Rosenbaum in his “The Bloomsbury Group Memoir Club”; he argues that in ‘22 Hyde Park Gate’, ‘it is necessary to reclaim the comedy that has virtually disappeared under the mounds of speculation of George Duckworth’s incestuous fondlings and cuddlings of his half-sisters’ (74).

Of course, in the UK the DeSalvo view has never been held as strongly as in the US.

Stuart

From: Diana Swanson <mailto:dswanson at niu.edu>  

Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2014 12:17 AM

To: 'VWOOLF listserv' <mailto:vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>  

Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] National Portrait Gallery exhibition

And we have Woolf's first-hand witness accounts of abuse at Gerald's and George's hands, and the corroboration of her family members such as Vanessa Bell.

>>> Roy Johnson <roy at mantex.co.uk> 8/9/2014 11:01 AM >>>

Very simple

The first hand witness accounts evidence of his many victims 

Roy Johnson

www.mantex.co.uk

  _____  

From: vwoolf-bounces+roy=texman.demon.co.uk at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [vwoolf-bounces+roy=texman.demon.co.uk at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] on behalf of Mark Hussey [mhussey at verizon.net]
Sent: 09 August 2014 15:52
To: 'Stuart N. Clarke'; 'peter stansky'
Cc: 'VWOOLF listserv'; 'Jenny L Pegg'
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] National Portrait Gallery exhibition

Well, that depends by what you mean by 'evidence'.  Statements in private letters, in draft memoirs, not 'evidence per se.  But then again, what 'evidence' was there against Jimmy Savile?

;>

From: Stuart N. Clarke [mailto:stuart.n.clarke at btinternet.com] 
Sent: Saturday, August 09, 2014 4:55 AM
To: peter stansky; Mark Hussey
Cc: 'VWOOLF listserv'; Jenny L Pegg
Subject: National Portrait Gallery exhibition

I recommend buying the catalogue/book that accompanies the exhibition, esp. if you can't go to it, because it includes images of most of the exhibits.

Although I have not (yet?) read it all, I agree strongly with:

"Whether this was damaging or not, there is no evidence of sexual abuse. ... More harmful, perhaps, to her sense of self was George's sustained attack on her failure to match up with his ideas as to how a young lady of her class should dress and behave." (p. 45)

It's coercion by others that Woolf tries to resist all through her life, once she has escaped to Bloomsbury.  (Thus, I even experience a kind of "Schadenfreude" when she *has* to visit her mother-in-law!)

Stuart

From: peter stansky <mailto:stansky at stanford.edu>  

Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2014 5:04 PM

To: Mark Hussey <mailto:mhussey at verizon.net>  

Cc: 'VWOOLF listserv' <mailto:vwoolf at lists.service.ohio-state.edu>  ; Jenny L Pegg <mailto:jpegg at stanford.edu>  

Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Review of the National Portrait Gallery exhibit in Apollo magazine

I am very much looking forward to seeing the exhibition.  In fact I am doing so on Saturday August 30 about 11 am with a group of Stanford undergraduates; we are doing a short course on Bloomsbury at King's.  Shortly after twelve the group will probably have an informal lunch at the National Gallery Cafe next door which is bigger than the NPG cafe.  Should some Woolfians like to join us, they would be welcome.  Then Stuart is taking the group on a Bloomsbury walk. I can't believe he'd object to a few Woolfians coming along.  It does seem a rather Bloomsbury year with the exhibit, the cookbook, and the Memoir book.

Other than on  that weekend when we are also going to Tilton, Charleston, Bewick, and Monk's House, we will be in residence at King's Cambridge August 27-September 15 and if any Woolfians are in Cambridge during that period they would be welcome to join us informally for lunch or dinner in the King's Hall.  Also on Friday September 5 at 5 we are having a reception at Newnham with the Dadie Rylands' table on which Virginia lunched and Frances Spalding should be giving us a short talk. We are paying ten pounds a head for that event and a few Woolfians would be welcome to join us for that fee!

my best, Peter

On 8/4/2014 11:16 PM, Mark Hussey wrote: 

Frances Spalding has done a wonderful job of creating a narrative through visual artefacts.  Those photos by Ott can actually be seen on the NPG website, I believe.  I was surprised by Mark Gertler's painting of Koteliansky ('Kot'): quite irrationally I had always imagined Kot as an ascetic and tiny man, but in this portrait he looks like a big burly businessman!  There are some real rarities in the show-the bound volumes of letters that Violet Dickinson returned to VW late in life; I had not ever known Violet annotated these (of course, under glass one can only see a page, but the prospect is tantalizing); also the actual Gestapo list on which L & VW's names appear.  And yes, the catalog is very rich and interesting.  I am in London doing research for a biography of Clive Bell, so was lucky to be able to see this wonderful exhibition.

From: vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu [mailto:vwoolf-bounces at lists.service.ohio-state.edu] On Behalf Of Andrea
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2014 8:18 PM
Cc: VWOOLF listserv
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] Review of the National Portrait Gallery exhibit in Apollo magazine

Diana, I was lucky enough to have my trip to London coincide with the exhibit.  I wish it had not been so crowded, as it was hard to pace myself, but I was so glad to get the chance!  The book that Spalding has compiled for the exhibit would be worth the while, I think, and is likely available online through the NPG.  It's very well curated, with some rare pieces, including candid shots from Ottoline Morrell's photo album.  I think the impromptu snaps of Virginia are often so much more interesting than those she posed for.  

--Andrea Adolph

On Mon, Aug 4, 2014 at 2:52 PM, Diana Swanson <dswanson at niu.edu> wrote:

Thanks, Vara. I wish I could be in London for this.

Has anyone on the list seen the exhibition?

Diana

>>> "Neverow, Vara S." <neverowv1 at southernct.edu> 8/2/2014 11:51 AM >>>

Of interest?

http://www.apollo-magazine.com/review-virginia-woolf-art-life-vision-national-portrait-gallery-london/ 

Vara

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