Halik Kochanski's 'Sir Garnet Wolseley. Victorian Hero'

The Hambleton Press first edition -

The long gap between this Blog and the last one can be explained under two headings:

• I was asked to read and produce a Review for the Richard III Society's Journal, The Ricardian Bulletin, on the latest Scott Mariani novel. Since the Review will not be published until June, I daren't use it as a Blog until then.
• I must admit I struggled with this Biography of Sir Garnet Wolseley. The first nine chapters, detailing his early life onwards, until the fiasco relating to the failure to rescue Gordon from Khartoum, were interesting and plain sailing. This took me up to page 176 out of 275; however, the last hundred or so pages were very heavy-going and I kept putting the book down. Well, I have finished just before the end of March. But to Blog on just two books must be one of my lowest monthly totals ever.

I am a great believer in heroes and heroines. From my teenage years, when I had photos of (usually nubile!) film actresses and tennis players (who now remembers the South Africans Sandra Reynolds, now 91!; Annette Van Zyl, just 81? - well, I do) pinned on my locker walls; and, later, the wonderful Argentinian Gabriela Sabatini - now a mere 54. My early interest in History at school was stimulated by my awe when reading about heroes such as Henry V, Prince Rupert and the Marquis of Montrose. Later, it became more nuanced, as I studied the careers of William Gladstone, Cavour and Garibaldi. History, to me, has always been about individuals. In Literature, it was Trollope, Scott, Stevenson, Susan Ferrier, Thomas Hardy; in Art, the Pre Raphaelites and most of the Impressionists. If I had grown up in the late 19th century, undoubtedly, Sir Garnet would have been a hero of mine.

The secrets to Wolseley's long career were threefold. He was undoubtedly talented; he was driven by ambition to reach the top; and he was lucky. He saw action in the Crimean War, then was plucked out of a group of staff officers during the Indian Mutiny and given a staff job; whilst in the relative backwater of Canada, he gained further advancement when the Red River expedition was decided upon. After a period in South Africa in 1879-80, the patronage of well-placed politicians made up for his lack of social connections. It meant administrative posts at the War Office - Quartermaster General, Adjutant General and, finally, Commander-in Chief.

However, it was his innate ability which brought him this career success. He was a master of small wars - in Canada, West Africa, South Africa, Egypt and the Sudan He excelled in administration and logistics; planning each campaign before arriving at the war front and always advancing with great care. He was certainly respected by his troops and most of his peers, but he seemingly was too cold and distant to win their affection. A vital ingredient in Wolseley's success was his ability to select able subordinates. His 'Ring' of officers may have been criticised for being too 'narrow', but they were usually effective. He also recognised the value of the improved education provided by the Staff College. In his later years, driven by a desire to improve the efficiency of the army, he proved to be an extremely talented and energetic administrator at the War Office. He was a major exponent and defender of the newly introduced short service system and the Army Reserve. Leo Amery praised him for having helped to awaken the national consciousness out of the self-satisfied full-bellied drowsiness in which it had so long rested. One of Wolseley's greatest achievements was the organisation of the British army into army corps ready for mobilisation for service at home or abroad. The 1914 British Expeditionary Force was organised on the system he had drawn up in the 1880s. As the author says at the very end of the biography, in such a way Wolseley was the father of the modern British army and fully merits the statue of him looking out over Horse Guards Parade.

Finally, I found his comments to the then Commander in Chief of the British Army, the Duke of Cambridge, when out in the Sudan (and having failed to rescue Gordon), very enlightening.

We cannot flatter ourselves that we are here to fight for an oppressed people, to help a population struggling to be free or to put down slavery. None of the spurious and clap trap pretexts under which we so often invade uncivilised countries will serve us here...

Glenda Youde's 'Beyond Ophelia. The True Legend of Elizabeth Eleanor Rossetti' 2025

Unicorn first edition - 2025

Glenda Youde certainly has a mission and it is praiseworthy - to pluck poor Lizzie from the muddy depths of Millais's painting and explore her true artistic legacy...her design ideas were inspirational and were 'borrowed' by her male counterparts. Without her ideas, Pre-Raphaelitism may have taken a very different course. If Youde is correct in her analysis, then she really has resurrected Lizzie from her cold bath, which the thoughtless Millais had submerged her in and then let the warming lamps go out. For if Lizzie is known at all to the general public, it is for three things: she posed for Millais as the dying/dead Ophelia in that bath; she died from an overdose of laudanum; and her grave was dug up some years later so that her grieving widower, Dante Rossetti, could retrieve the only copy of poems he had placed by her head in the coffin.

Over her eleven chapters, Youde skilfully builds her case. Her first chapter considers The Bathtub Incident, the result of which had a permanent injurious effect on Lizzie's health; her 'discovery' in The Bonnet Shop by Walter Deverell; her Death by Laudanum - suicide or not?; and Firelight Exhumation, when, seven and half years after Lizzie's burial, her coffin was raised, opened and the only copy of Rossetti's poetry with his wife was recovered. Youde then looks at Alternative Narratives for each incident, in particular that there is little evidence to substantiate any suicide claim. Chapter 2 assesses how Lizzie was portrayed after her death: in Fiction - by William Gaunt's The Pre-Raphaelite Tragedy (1942); Paula Batchelor's Angel with Bright Hair (1957);Elizabeth Savage's Willowood (1979); Fiona Mountain's Pale as the Dead (2002); and Rita Cameron's Ophelia's Muse (2015). Youde argues that in Elizabeth's case, biography and fiction have become almost indistinguishable. The author also describes how Lizzie has been portrayed in poetry, drama (particularly on television) and in exhibitions.

Youde now gets to the kernel of her argument. From Chapter 3 onwards she focuses on Elizabeth the Artist, pointing out that both Ruskin and Rossetti himself appreciated and extolled her skills. Youde builds a powerful case that, far from Lizzie simply being the passive sitter (and lier * in a bath!), she is an active member of the pre-Raphaelite circle - learning from, but also contributing and influencing, other members of the group. Her work was on display in Rossetti's home and other artists would have seen and seemingly copied her ideas. Her drawing and watercolours were subsequently put on show in mainstream galleries, such as the Tate (1923); Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery (1947); Maas Gallery (1960s); the Tate again (1984, 2012 and 2023 - the latter I attended); the Ruskin Gallery, Sheffield (1991); Wightwick Manor (2018); and the National Portrait Gallery (2019), which I also visited.

During her lifetime Lizzie made over 100 drawings and watercolours, but only a few are widely known and accessible in public galleries. Many are in private collections, whilst the location of over 30  are currently unknown. Luckily Rossetti not only retrieved as many of his late wife's work as he could, but had the pictures photographed and bound in an album and distributed to friends and associates. Several copies of these photographic portfolios survive in whole or part  - in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Princeton Library, New Jersey and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The portfolios contain 67 authenticated drawings by Lizzie's hand. It is strange that Rossetti is said to have destroyed every letter, photograph or memory of Lizzie he could find, yet he painstakingly preserved her drawings. The photographic portfolios that Gabriel created present Elizabeth as an artist who produced a body of work that is worthy of being recorded.    

Youde's further chapters not only document much of Lizzie's work, but also argues that she had a profound, yet by-and-large unacknowledged, influence on several male Pre-Raphaelite artists. She emphasises the close working relationship with Ford Madox Brown, particularly in Lizzie's art education and the possibility that she was aiming to produce work to be used as illustrations in books. Her chapters 7 to 10 aim to show, with several accompanying illustrations, the direct influence Lizzie's work  had on, for example, Edward Burne-Jones, William Holman Hunt, Frederic Leighton, Arthur Hughes, John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Frederick James Shields and Rossetti himself.  I must admit I found these chapters rather hard going and couldn't always see the relationship between the 'compared' pictures! I tend to agree with Lucasta Miller, who reviewed Youde's book  in The Spectator (22 February 2025), when she writes, Youde's commitment to chasing up every minute lead in terms of possible artistic influence makes this book feel a little pedestrian and heavy on detail. But the build up of evidence she cites compels. The book's origin, as a PhD thesis, probably explains its 'heaviness'.  However, it is a welcome addition to our knowledge of Lizzie Siddal[l] and certainly make us view her in a much more positive and admiring light.                                                                                                        

* - yes, I checked there is such a word as 'lier' !

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I have a small Collection of books on the Pre-Raphaelites, including the ones listed below which are specifically on Lizzie Siddal[l] and Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists. I found it pertinent that a booklet published in 1965 (reprinted in 1970 and 1975), describing some of the most important works of the Pre-Raphaelites in the permanent collection of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, lists Holman Hunt, Millais, Rossetti, as well as Ford Madox Brown and Arthur Hughes, but has no mention of Siddal[l] or any other Woman Artist. It is clear, as Youde and other writers have stated, that the Feminist Movement of the late 1970s onwards led to the rightful reappraisal of the latter and the publication of several important works, such as those by Jan Marsh, Pamela Gerrish Nunn, Lucinda Hawkesley and Serena Trowbridge. Youde has has built on, and developed, their trail blazing.

1906  Elbert Hubbard: Little Journeys to Homes of Great Lovers (Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Elizabeth Siddal)

1981  Paddy Kitchen: The Golden Veil. A Novel based on the Life of Elizabeth Siddall

1985  Gillian Allnutt: Lizzie Siddall: Her Journal [1862]

1989  Jan Marsh: The Legend of Elizabeth Siddal

1991 Jan Marsh: Elizabeth Siddal 1829-1862: Pre-Raphaelite Artist

2004  Lucinda Hawksley: Lizzie Siddal. The Tragedy of a Pre-Raphaelite Supermodel

2018  ed. Serena Trowbridge: My Ladys Soul. The Poems of Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall

2025 Glenda Youde: Beyond Ophelia. The True Legacy of Elizabeth Eleanor Rossetti

1987  Jan Marsh: Pre-Raphaelite Women. Images of Femininity in Pre-Raphaelite Art

1989  Jan Marsh & Pamela Gerrish Nunn: Women Artists and the Pre-Raphaelite Movement

1997  Jan Marsh and Pamela Gerrish Nunn: Pre-Raphaelite Women Artists