Virtue and Vice

Sir John Everett Millais Bt PRA (1829-96)

1853

Pen and ink

Source: Millais, I, 210.

Inscribed "1853" and monogram.

Scanned image and text by George P. Landow

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The scene, which may have been intended as a book illustration, represents a scene in the garret of a poor seamstress: a dark-skinned woman, possibly a gypsy, offers the virtuous young girl a coin, possibly as an inducement to enter the world of prostitution. Ever since the appearance of Thomas Hood's social-protest poem,"The Song of the Shirt," poor seamstresses provided a popular subject for art. Like the works of Hogarth and Egg, this work includes texts within the picture space: above the young woman's head hangs a wrinkled paper bearing the words "Distressed Needlewomen," and a package labelled "shirts" and a name, which appears to be "Moses [Hasin?]" -- this last a touch of fashionable anti-semitism. [GPL]

Bibliography

Millais, John Guile. The Life and Letters of John Everett Millais, President of the Royal Academy. 2 vols. New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1899.

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Last modified 16 September 2004