Noble Women
Exhibition of Paintings by Alice LenkiewiczAugust 2010
Exhibited in the Lady Chapel are six paintings of the pioneer women listed below as well as celebrated in The Noble Windows of the Lady Chapel. Created are my own interpretations of these women and a moment in their lives.
Statement
Looking into the lives and work of these wonderful women has magnified the importance of giving and doing our best to help those in need. In this present society and changing environment, I feel it is particularly important to try and help and support others in a variety of ways without necessarily putting money at the forefront of our actions. Helping those in need is rewarding and important in order to grow spiritually as human beings and to encourage happiness and well being in the lives of others and ourselves.
As well as clarifying my artistic journey and the kind of subject matter that inspires me, that of social enquiry, women of history and folklore, I now have another theme to nurture, that of women of action and pioneer causes.
I hope you enjoy discovering more about these women and even looking beyond them into our own present society. Think of women who have worked hard towards campaigns and carried out many good and noble deeds. Perhaps you know of someone in your street or someone you remember who contributed towards the needs of others. What these women teach us is that every good cause has to begin somewhere and can eventually have the great potential to change the lives of others on an enormous scale.
Elizabeth Fry and the Patchwork Quilt.
Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney) (21 May 1780 – 12 October 1845)
Elizabeth Fry was an incredible woman who dedicated her life to campaigning and reforming the dire emotional and physical conditions and consequences of women and their children in prison 1814. Her regular visits to Newgate prison and her compassion for their misery and destitution forced her to campaign for changes in the law for better and more humane conditions. The conditions of Newgate Prison were beyond belief. Elizabeth Fry introduced sewing, hygiene and education into the prison.
In this painting I wanted to depict Elizabeth Fry helping the women inside the prison with her friend Anne Baxton.
I tried to imagine how it would be at first when she began with the chaos and the lack of spirit in the women. I read that she cleaned it up and began to help them to sew. Liz Fry would encourage them to make patchwork quilts.
When she began helping the prisoners there is an incident where she and her female friends gathered together scraps of material and encouraged the female prisoners to make patchwork quilts that not only acted as blankets but also brightened up the awful grim environment.
Fry herself was keen to highlight patchwork as an excellent choice for the women of Newgate:
Quilts have been for many years a symbol of collaboration and protest.
So, I pulled this into the painting imagining the cleaning, the washing, cooking, reading, teaching going on within this hopeless environment.
Elizabeth Fry gave hope to the female prisoners and offered a new way of rahabilitating and treating prisoners.
Kitty Wilkinson beside The River
Kitty Wilkinson wash-house pioneer (1785-1860)
The incredible hardworking, open hearted and compassionate Kitty Wilkinson who lived in harsh and poverty stricken times, gave her life to serving the poor, homeless and destitute. As if that was not enough she worked in drudgery, set up a school for children in cellars and lodgings as well as opening up her home to those in need. During the cholera epidemic, she set up a washhouse for those in need of hot boiling water. Kitty having the only hot water boiler in the street contributed to further saving of lives, she and her husband Tom, invited the neighbours down to their cellar to
wash their clothes and bed-linen, offering much help towards warding off the cholera.
I wanted to paint Kitty 1810 aged 25 years old with children she cared for in front of the River Mersey. When Kitty left the Caton Cotton Mill after twelve years, she and her mother found accommodation in Frederick Street in the south of Liverpool and both found domestic work. At the age of 25 Kitty opened a school so that she could have her ill mother with her during the day. Anything from between ten and ninety children attended, paying 3d per week. They were taught reading, writing and sewing. Kitty’s mother made lace and Kitty sold this in the evenings.
Kitty had always helped the poor and destitute. Many of the children during the 1831 cholera epidemic lost their parents. As well as creating hygenic conditions with her washing of clothes and linen she looked after the many homeless children who had no place to go.
I wanted to portray Kitty in her youth looking bright, positive and pretty. I wondered if a woman wants to be remembered. she would like to be remembered pretty and young.
Grace Darling’s Heroic Rescue.
24 November 1815 – 20 October 1842
The brave and goodhearted Grace Darling who risked her life to save the unfortunate at sea. Grace Darling was 22 years old when she risked her life in an open boat to help the survivors of the wrecked SS Forfarshire on 7
September 1838. With her father she rowed for over a mile through
raging seas to reach them, keeping the boat stable in rocky waters and helping the stranded survivors.
Grace, looking from an upstairs window of the Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Islands, spotted the wreck and survivors of the ship, SS Forfarshire on Big Harcar, a nearby low rocky island. The Forfarshire had foundered on the rocks, broken in half and half had sunk during the night.
The Forfarshire steamboat where the people had once been passengers sinks into the sea in the background.
The Forfarshire had been carrying 63 people. The vessel broke in two almost immediately upon hitting the rocks.
Longstone Lighthouse, where Grace and her father had lived and where she spotted the shipwreck is also in the distance.
Mrs Dawson, one of the stranded passengers on the rock sits there with her two children who tragically died in the shipwreck. She is holding them tenderly to her. The remainder people of the shipwreck stranded on the rock were eight sailors.
The sea being stormy and the fact that Grace was able to rescue some of these people encouraged a spiritual element. I decided to include a fairy and a mermaid. The fairy being a comforting symbol of hope and the mermaid being a symbol of the sea and ancient maritime folklore.
Josephine Butler meets the Women of the Oakum Rooms.
13 April 1828 – 30 December 1906
Josephine Butler, a woman much ahead of her time, devoted her life to campaigning on behalf of the rights of prostitutes and succeeded in abolishing the Contagious Diseases Act which began in 1864 which gave permission to the police to internally examine any woman under suspicion of being a prostitute. Butler had considerable sympathy for the plight of prostitutes who she believed had been forced into this work by low earnings and unemployment. Butler's description of this at a public meeting - she had been known to refer to the procedure as "surgical rape"
The Acts were often abused and labelled a misuse of police power: a number of women detained were not prostitutes but were compelled to undergo medical examination by police doctors.
Josephine was a compassionate woman with an intellect and a heart of gold who sacrificed her reputation and status to help these women. She befriended these women and became dedicated to the cause of helping their suffering after visiting the oakum sheds of the Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary. In 1865 Josephine Butler and her husband moved to Liverpool. Soon afterwards she began visiting the local workhouse." where they came, driven by hunger, destitution or vice, begging for a few nights’ shelter and a piece of bread, in return for which they picked their allotted portion of oakum…. I went down to the oakum sheds and begged admission. I was taken into an immense gloomy vault filled with women and girls – more than two hundred at that time. I sat on the floor among them and picked oakum…
In my painting, I wanted to capture the moment when she came face to face with the women of the oakum rooms.
Christina Rossetti: The Annunciation.
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894)
Christina Georgina Rossetti, one of the most important women poets writing in nineteenth-century England.
The publication of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market and Other Poems
in 1862 marked the first literary success of the Pre-Raphaelites.
She campaigned for copyright laws; against vivisection; she lent her support to opponents of female suffrage. One of Christina Rossetti's more innovative poems, "The Iniquity of the
Fathers Upon the Children," is a dramatic monologue in which the poet
addresses the issue of illegitimate children a subject can be linked to her
work for the House of Charity, an institution located in Highgate which
was devoted to the rescue of prostitutes and unmarried mothers.
Rossetti was a high Anglican; she loved the romance of ritual; she was associated with painters who had combined rich and elaborate beauty with religious images. Goblin Market has the same flames of colour as light through stained glass; it has the same headiness as incense. It has the air of a parable, with two sisters, Lizzie and Laura, who distantly resemble Mary and Martha. As a writer, Rossetti enjoys the gorgeous detail of the fruits on offer, the fruits of temptation to which Laura succumbs. Lizzie surrenders only to save her sister from dwindling away: she eats the goblins' fruit so that Laura may revive by sucking the juices from her face. There is no moral, other than that sisters should look out for one another, and that goblins are not to be trusted. It is a fairy story, but told with stunning control, with eccentric metrical brilliance
Her poetry has been subjected to all kinds of analysis, principally because of the perceived tension between its sensuality and Christina Rossetti's apparently ascetic spiritual beliefs.
In this painting, I wanted to capture her in my own version of The Annunciation. This image for me conjures up her personality, her faith, her love of art and her spirituality.
Agnes Jones Past and Future.
(Agnes Elizabeth Jones (1832 – 1868)
Agnes jones of Fahan, County Donegal, Ireland became the first trained Nursing Superintendent of Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary. She gave all her time and energy to her patients and died at the age of 35 from typhus fever.
Agnes Jones, Liverpool’s Angel of Mercy reorganised and cleaned up the Liverpool Workhouse after being called for by William Rathbone. She died for her cause and made great changes to the poor and needy of Liverpool. The conditions of the workhouse were unimaginable when she first arrived. It was filthy, there were convicts and police walking the corridors, no activities, nothing to do but cause mayhem, that is if you were not too sick already. Agnes worked for the first month unaided alone in the workhouse, cleaning it up and creating an environment that was good for the poor and destitute before her nursing assistants arrived from London. She is quoted as having climbed seventy steps fifty times a day as part of her general duties. Her work was often ridiculed by general staff who were uncomfortable by her changes. But she carried on with her good deeds. She organised writing classes and created a more welcoming environment. She went on to work long hours and days from 1865 until 1868. There was huge sadness when she died of typhus at the age of thirty five. The residents missed her deeply and a huge memorial service was held. Florence Nightingale commended her highly.
I decided to create a painting of Agnes 1865 aged 33.
In this painting I wanted to show the contrast of past and future in the life of Agnes Jones.
The story of her life surprised me and I found myself creating a symbolic painting inspired by South American folklore painting.
Exhibition of Paintings by Alice LenkiewiczAugust 2010
Exhibited in the Lady Chapel are six paintings of the pioneer women listed below as well as celebrated in The Noble Windows of the Lady Chapel. Created are my own interpretations of these women and a moment in their lives.
Statement
Looking into the lives and work of these wonderful women has magnified the importance of giving and doing our best to help those in need. In this present society and changing environment, I feel it is particularly important to try and help and support others in a variety of ways without necessarily putting money at the forefront of our actions. Helping those in need is rewarding and important in order to grow spiritually as human beings and to encourage happiness and well being in the lives of others and ourselves.
As well as clarifying my artistic journey and the kind of subject matter that inspires me, that of social enquiry, women of history and folklore, I now have another theme to nurture, that of women of action and pioneer causes.
I hope you enjoy discovering more about these women and even looking beyond them into our own present society. Think of women who have worked hard towards campaigns and carried out many good and noble deeds. Perhaps you know of someone in your street or someone you remember who contributed towards the needs of others. What these women teach us is that every good cause has to begin somewhere and can eventually have the great potential to change the lives of others on an enormous scale.
Elizabeth Fry and the Patchwork Quilt.
Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney) (21 May 1780 – 12 October 1845)
In this painting I wanted to depict Elizabeth Fry helping the women inside the prison with her friend Anne Baxton.
I tried to imagine how it would be at first when she began with the chaos and the lack of spirit in the women. I read that she cleaned it up and began to help them to sew. Liz Fry would encourage them to make patchwork quilts.
When she began helping the prisoners there is an incident where she and her female friends gathered together scraps of material and encouraged the female prisoners to make patchwork quilts that not only acted as blankets but also brightened up the awful grim environment.
Fry herself was keen to highlight patchwork as an excellent choice for the women of Newgate:
Quilts have been for many years a symbol of collaboration and protest.
So, I pulled this into the painting imagining the cleaning, the washing, cooking, reading, teaching going on within this hopeless environment.
Elizabeth Fry gave hope to the female prisoners and offered a new way of rahabilitating and treating prisoners.
Kitty Wilkinson beside The River
Kitty Wilkinson wash-house pioneer (1785-1860)
wash their clothes and bed-linen, offering much help towards warding off the cholera.
I wanted to paint Kitty 1810 aged 25 years old with children she cared for in front of the River Mersey. When Kitty left the Caton Cotton Mill after twelve years, she and her mother found accommodation in Frederick Street in the south of Liverpool and both found domestic work. At the age of 25 Kitty opened a school so that she could have her ill mother with her during the day. Anything from between ten and ninety children attended, paying 3d per week. They were taught reading, writing and sewing. Kitty’s mother made lace and Kitty sold this in the evenings.
Kitty had always helped the poor and destitute. Many of the children during the 1831 cholera epidemic lost their parents. As well as creating hygenic conditions with her washing of clothes and linen she looked after the many homeless children who had no place to go.
I wanted to portray Kitty in her youth looking bright, positive and pretty. I wondered if a woman wants to be remembered. she would like to be remembered pretty and young.
Grace Darling’s Heroic Rescue.
24 November 1815 – 20 October 1842
The brave and goodhearted Grace Darling who risked her life to save the unfortunate at sea. Grace Darling was 22 years old when she risked her life in an open boat to help the survivors of the wrecked SS Forfarshire on 7
September 1838. With her father she rowed for over a mile through
raging seas to reach them, keeping the boat stable in rocky waters and helping the stranded survivors.
Grace, looking from an upstairs window of the Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Islands, spotted the wreck and survivors of the ship, SS Forfarshire on Big Harcar, a nearby low rocky island. The Forfarshire had foundered on the rocks, broken in half and half had sunk during the night.
The Forfarshire steamboat where the people had once been passengers sinks into the sea in the background.
The Forfarshire had been carrying 63 people. The vessel broke in two almost immediately upon hitting the rocks.
Longstone Lighthouse, where Grace and her father had lived and where she spotted the shipwreck is also in the distance.
Mrs Dawson, one of the stranded passengers on the rock sits there with her two children who tragically died in the shipwreck. She is holding them tenderly to her. The remainder people of the shipwreck stranded on the rock were eight sailors.
The sea being stormy and the fact that Grace was able to rescue some of these people encouraged a spiritual element. I decided to include a fairy and a mermaid. The fairy being a comforting symbol of hope and the mermaid being a symbol of the sea and ancient maritime folklore.
Josephine Butler meets the Women of the Oakum Rooms.
13 April 1828 – 30 December 1906
Josephine Butler, a woman much ahead of her time, devoted her life to campaigning on behalf of the rights of prostitutes and succeeded in abolishing the Contagious Diseases Act which began in 1864 which gave permission to the police to internally examine any woman under suspicion of being a prostitute. Butler had considerable sympathy for the plight of prostitutes who she believed had been forced into this work by low earnings and unemployment. Butler's description of this at a public meeting - she had been known to refer to the procedure as "surgical rape"
The Acts were often abused and labelled a misuse of police power: a number of women detained were not prostitutes but were compelled to undergo medical examination by police doctors.
Josephine was a compassionate woman with an intellect and a heart of gold who sacrificed her reputation and status to help these women. She befriended these women and became dedicated to the cause of helping their suffering after visiting the oakum sheds of the Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary. In 1865 Josephine Butler and her husband moved to Liverpool. Soon afterwards she began visiting the local workhouse." where they came, driven by hunger, destitution or vice, begging for a few nights’ shelter and a piece of bread, in return for which they picked their allotted portion of oakum…. I went down to the oakum sheds and begged admission. I was taken into an immense gloomy vault filled with women and girls – more than two hundred at that time. I sat on the floor among them and picked oakum…
In my painting, I wanted to capture the moment when she came face to face with the women of the oakum rooms.
Christina Rossetti: The Annunciation.
Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894)
Christina Georgina Rossetti, one of the most important women poets writing in nineteenth-century England.
The publication of Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market and Other Poems
in 1862 marked the first literary success of the Pre-Raphaelites.
She campaigned for copyright laws; against vivisection; she lent her support to opponents of female suffrage. One of Christina Rossetti's more innovative poems, "The Iniquity of the
Fathers Upon the Children," is a dramatic monologue in which the poet
addresses the issue of illegitimate children a subject can be linked to her
work for the House of Charity, an institution located in Highgate which
was devoted to the rescue of prostitutes and unmarried mothers.
Rossetti was a high Anglican; she loved the romance of ritual; she was associated with painters who had combined rich and elaborate beauty with religious images. Goblin Market has the same flames of colour as light through stained glass; it has the same headiness as incense. It has the air of a parable, with two sisters, Lizzie and Laura, who distantly resemble Mary and Martha. As a writer, Rossetti enjoys the gorgeous detail of the fruits on offer, the fruits of temptation to which Laura succumbs. Lizzie surrenders only to save her sister from dwindling away: she eats the goblins' fruit so that Laura may revive by sucking the juices from her face. There is no moral, other than that sisters should look out for one another, and that goblins are not to be trusted. It is a fairy story, but told with stunning control, with eccentric metrical brilliance
Her poetry has been subjected to all kinds of analysis, principally because of the perceived tension between its sensuality and Christina Rossetti's apparently ascetic spiritual beliefs.
In this painting, I wanted to capture her in my own version of The Annunciation. This image for me conjures up her personality, her faith, her love of art and her spirituality.
Agnes Jones Past and Future.
(Agnes Elizabeth Jones (1832 – 1868)
Agnes jones of Fahan, County Donegal, Ireland became the first trained Nursing Superintendent of Liverpool Workhouse Infirmary. She gave all her time and energy to her patients and died at the age of 35 from typhus fever.
Agnes Jones, Liverpool’s Angel of Mercy reorganised and cleaned up the Liverpool Workhouse after being called for by William Rathbone. She died for her cause and made great changes to the poor and needy of Liverpool. The conditions of the workhouse were unimaginable when she first arrived. It was filthy, there were convicts and police walking the corridors, no activities, nothing to do but cause mayhem, that is if you were not too sick already. Agnes worked for the first month unaided alone in the workhouse, cleaning it up and creating an environment that was good for the poor and destitute before her nursing assistants arrived from London. She is quoted as having climbed seventy steps fifty times a day as part of her general duties. Her work was often ridiculed by general staff who were uncomfortable by her changes. But she carried on with her good deeds. She organised writing classes and created a more welcoming environment. She went on to work long hours and days from 1865 until 1868. There was huge sadness when she died of typhus at the age of thirty five. The residents missed her deeply and a huge memorial service was held. Florence Nightingale commended her highly.
I decided to create a painting of Agnes 1865 aged 33.
In this painting I wanted to show the contrast of past and future in the life of Agnes Jones.
The story of her life surprised me and I found myself creating a symbolic painting inspired by South American folklore painting.
