Wednesday, November 02, 2016

More Bronte art

There is lots of drawings by Charlotte Bronte featured in the Morgan Library exhibition, including a possible self-portrait sketch (in addition to the goofy cartoon she drew, which I mentioned yesterday) on the left here. There were many other drawings of people on display, including a portrait of Anne.

Charlotte was the closest thing the Bronte family had to an extrovert. All of them were apparently painfully shy and socially maladjusted, especially Emily who appears to never have made a single friend in her life, except for friends of Charlotte's.

Neither of Charlotte's sisters as far as I know, had any interest in drawing people. At least I haven't seen any examples. What Anne and especially Emily liked to draw were the family pets.

Here are two drawings of Anne's dog Flossy - the first by Anne, the second by Emily.









The picture is a portrait of Emily's beloved  Keeper. The notorious incident of Emily and Keeper was told in Gaskell's biography of Charlotte Bronte and recounted here.



Here are two more pets by Emily - a hawk named Nero and Grasper. As the signature attests, Grasper was drawn when Emily was sixteen.




Emily was so animal-focused that when she did draw a self-portrait, Keeper is much more prominent than she is. This picture is a sketch she included in one of her "diary papers."

She also reportedly told her pupils at the Law School that she preferred the school dog to any of them.