Thoughts of the Past

Thoughts of the Past
Thoughts of the Past
Artist	John Roddam Spencer Stanhope
Year	Exhibited in 1859
Medium	oil on canvas
Dimensions	86.4 cm × 50.8 cm (34.0 in × 20.0 in)
Location	Tate Britain, London

Thoughts of the Past is an oil painting on canvas by English Pre-Raphaelite artist John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, first exhibited in 1859 and currently housed at Tate Britain.

History[edit]

Known as one of the "second-generation" of Pre-Raphaelites, Stanhope was among Dante Gabriel Rossetti's mural-painting party at the Oxford Union in 1857, together with Arthur Hughes, John Hungerford Pollen, Valentine Prinsep, Ned Burne-Jones and William Morris (nicknamed Topsy). He was a founder member of the Hogarth Club, a direct descendant of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.^[1]

This painting, with his depiction of a prostitute remorsefully contemplating her life, showed a subject typical of the Victorian era. Works such as Thoughts of the Past and Rossetti's Found (1855) allowed the genteel gallery-going public to sympathise with societal problems - from a safe distance. It was pictures such as William Holman Hunt's The Awakening Conscience (1854), illustrating a married man and his mistress, which were regarded as threatening to Victorian family life.^[2]

Stanhope painted Thoughts of the Past in a studio just above one owned by Rossetti. Although his model is recognisably Pre-Raphaelite, the background of his painting hints at his own individual, artistic style, which was yet to emerge.^[3] The river, boats and bridge owe more to the conventional style of the art in the Royal Academy than to that of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.^{see image detail below}

References[edit]

^ A.M.W. Stirling, "The Life of Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Pre-Raphaelite, a Painter of Dreams," in A Painter of Dreams and Other Biographical Studies (London: Lane, 1916).
^ T. Hilto, The Pre-Raphelites, Thames and Hudson (1970). Cf. also Elaine Shefer, "The 'Bird in the Cage' in the "History of Sexuality: Sir John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt," Journal of the History of Sexuality 1 (1991), p. 475, note 48.
^ Elise Lawton Smith, Evelyn Pickering de Morgan and the Allegorical Body, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (2002).

External links[edit]

Thoughts of the Past at Tate Britain
John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Thoughts of the Past, exhibited 1859, Smarthistory video
John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, artist (Victorian Art in Britain)
History of Cawthorne, Chapter IV, Cannon Hall
John Roddam Spencer Stanhope by Lewis Carroll (National Portrait Gallery)
"John Roddam Spencer Stanhope and the Tomb of His Daughter Mary: An Ongoing Research Project" by Nic Peeters and Judy Oberhausen
Official website of Tate Britain

[1] A.M.W. Stirling, "The Life of Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Pre-Raphaelite, a Painter of Dreams," in A Painter of Dreams and Other Biographical Studies (London: Lane, 1916).

[2] T. Hilto, The Pre-Raphelites, Thames and Hudson (1970). Cf. also Elaine Shefer, "The 'Bird in the Cage' in the "History of Sexuality: Sir John Everett Millais and William Holman Hunt," Journal of the History of Sexuality 1 (1991), p. 475, note 48.

[3] Elise Lawton Smith, Evelyn Pickering de Morgan and the Allegorical Body, Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (2002).

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v t e Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (paintings)
William Holman Hunt John Everett Millais Dante Gabriel Rossetti James Collinson William Michael Rossetti Frederic George Stephens Thomas Woolner
Associated artists and figures	Lawrence Alma-Tadema George Price Boyce John Brett Ford Madox Brown Lucy Madox Brown Richard Burchett Edward Burne-Jones Georgiana Burne-Jones James Campbell John Collier Charles Allston Collins Frank Cadogan Cowper Evelyn De Morgan Walter Deverell Henry Treffry Dunn William Dyce Henry Holiday Arthur Hughes Edward Robert Hughes Frederic Leighton Robert Braithwaite Martineau Louisa Beresford, Marchioness of Waterford William Morris Alexander Munro Joseph Noel Paton Valentine Cameron Prinsep Christina Rossetti John Ruskin Emma Sandys Frederick Sandys Thomas Seddon Elizabeth Siddal James Smetham Rebecca Solomon Simeon Solomon John Roddam Spencer Stanhope Marie Spartali Stillman John Melhuish Strudwick Algernon Charles Swinburne Henry Wallis John William Waterhouse William James Webbe William Lindsay Windus
Some well-known works (period and post-period)	Ophelia Christ in the House of His Parents A Converted British Family Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids Ecce Ancilla Domini Mariana The Light of the World Our English Coasts ('Strayed Sheep') The Scapegoat Paolo and Francesca da Rimini The Last of England Work The Awakening Conscience The Hireling Shepherd April Love Found Autumn Leaves Bocca Baciata Oxford Union murals Lady Lilith Roman Widow Mary Magdalene The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple Morgan le Fay Beata Beatrix The Shadow of Death Proserpine A Vision of Fiammetta Pygmalion and the Image series The Beloved Cymon and Iphigenia King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid The Day Dream The Golden Stairs Dante and Beatrice Love's Messenger The Magic Circle The Legend of Briar Rose The Lady of Shalott (Waterhouse) The Roses of Heliogabalus Lilith Eos Flaming June Hope Hylas and the Nymphs Lady Godiva The Love Potion The Lady of Shalott (Hunt) I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Said the Lady of Shalott
Models	Elizabeth Siddal Fanny Cornforth Effie Gray Sophie Gray Annie Miller Jane Morris Marie Spartali Stillman Alexa Wilding Maria Zambaco Dorothy Dene Fanny Eaton Ruth Herbert
Related	The Germ Hogarth Club Morris & Co. Rossetti and His Circle (1922 book) Dante's Inferno (1967 film) The Love School (1975 series) Desperate Romantics (2009 series) Effie Gray (2014 film)

Thoughts of the Past

History[edit]

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