I sometimes stop and dream how beautiful it must have been living back in those days, waltzing the night away under the chandeliers and living in a magnificent home.
However there must have been many things that were very tedious, and hard work.
Wash day used to be an all day job, with boiling up the copper and I am so glad for the modern day washing machine. Then there was the day of ironing with heating the iron over the fire and then pressing the clothes with a very heavy iron. ( I bought one from an antique shop and you would soon build up big muscles, from using it.)
One day for baking over the hot coal range, imagine the heat in the kitchen during the Summer.
Scrubbing the kitchen floor every day with a rag and on one's hands and knees and then I suppose there would be the firewood to chop.
It is no wonder they needed to retreat to the drawing room, with their needlework.
They must have been very tenacious back in the olden days!
Most of the people in the paintings that James Tissot painted, though would have had maids and servants, I would have thought.
I hope that you are having a great week.
Hugs
Carolyn
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Thank you Carolyn for your sweet comment!
ReplyDeleteTruly this artist has such a wonderful hand. Simply amazing!!! Can you imagine living in those days, lots of hard work, these images makes it look soooo easy. Beautiful!!!
Beautiful post and I love his paintings when I was in Berlin I had the pleasure of seeing his work for real.
ReplyDeleteevery time i have to vacuum clean the floors I think what would I do without this invention?..Brisbane is a dusty place.
Have a lovely week carolyn.
Lovely JJJT images Carolyn! I think the greatest change from those times is who is actually doing the work in the house. The occasional times MOTH gives our vacuum cleaner a workout, I think gosh, that wouldn't have happened 50 years ago!
ReplyDeleteMillie ^_^
Oh, I love this artist's work, too! It must have been a lovely time to live in as long as you could afford the luscious fabrics and the "help"! LOL! :)
ReplyDeleteHi Carolyn...I can't even imagine how hard life really was behind the beautiful hair and finery.
ReplyDeleteLovely pictures...
Have a wonderful day!
Hugs,Nancy
His work is just gorgeous! I actually have the fourth picture in my office. I swapped it with a picture in another office and often wondered who the artist was because I just love it! Thanks for revealing the secret!
ReplyDeleteReading your description of life in the Victorian era made me feel so at home:) I would have loved living in that era so long as I was the wealthy one and not the one doing all of the work-lol:)
Great post!!!
Hi Carolyn
ReplyDeleteWe need to imagine and dream about such a life but then I wonder how clean they were???
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for introducing me to this gifted artist! I do love his work!
With Kindness,
Mary
Miss Kris,
ReplyDeleteHis work is simply amazing and I his skill is something you do not see today.
Mona
Isn't the vacuum cleaner a great invention. Lucky that you could see his work in Berlin.
Millie it is so lovely to see the Man of the house doing jobs and back in the olden days, they would have never even thought about that.
Yes, TattingChic ~ Imagine the yards and yards of the beautiful silk fabrics.
Nancy lovely of you to drop by.
Victorian Parlor ~ I would have loved to live in that era also.
How lucky you are to have that painting in your office, what a lovely swap.
in those gowns.
Hi Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for your nice comments on my blog.
These women had the prettiest clothes. I loved looking at the pictures.
Thanks,
Rosemary
Hi Patrica,
ReplyDeleteThey were known to not bathe very often ~ wasn't Saturday bath day?
I think that is why they would dab a drop of eau-de-cologne behind their ears, to make them smell pretty!
Thanks so much for visiting Mary and Rosemary and I have enjoyed looking at your pretty blogs.
Hugs
Carolyn
Oh he is just wonderful. You posted a few pictures of his work that I had never seen. Delightful!
ReplyDeleteWow, wow, wow! Incredible in the detail and beauty. Just look at those clothes. I have actually seen the family portrait once before, but I had never heard his name. (Quite a tongue twister, if you ask me!) They are all so beautifully rich and romantic, but I think my favorite is the last one in the rowboat.
ReplyDeleteMy big vacuum cleaner just died, and I'm loathe to buy another one when we're going to be leaving Tokyo in just a few months. I'll have to make do with my tiny hand held one for now. Now where's my big poofy dress to go along with it?!
Hi Bella,
ReplyDeleteYes, I love how pensive and dreamy she looks, in her rowboat. I also love the first painting. oh I love them all and a lot of his others.
Sorry about your vacuum cleaner and I hope that your family and dog will be kind by keeping the house clean. You will then be able to be a Lady about the house in your poofy dress.
Hugs
Carolyn
Tissot is my all time favourite artist. I fell in love with one of his paintings when I was a teenager and visited the Art Gallery of Ontario here in Toronto. The painting was "A Girl in an Armchair (The Convalescent.) The detail of the dress, the fuzziness of the model's hair and detail of the furniture was wonderful to look at. Years later when my daughter and I were in Montreal, we went to the art gallery and saw Tissot's painting of a lady in black with yellow chestnut leaves in the background. I have forgotten the title. That painting was huge - about 8 or 10 feet high! Although the lady wore all black, Tissot showed off the folds and ruffles of her clothing - amazing. Two weeks ago I was in California and saw more of Tissot's paintings at the Getty Center. Wonderful!
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting these.
So beautiful, Carolyn!
ReplyDeleteI love Art.
Monica.
You are very lucky to have seen some of JJJT paintings at Art Galleries, Dolores.
ReplyDeleteI love Art too Monica and I enjoy watching Antiques Roadshow and seeing all the wonderful paintings that are out there, for us to admire.
Hugs
Carolyn
Stunning work. I especially like the elegant ladies looking out into the ocean. What might they be thinking? "This dressy is itchy" maybe? ;)
ReplyDeleteMaybe Jessica ~ I did remember those stiff petticoats we wore for best were terribly itchy, even though they looked pretty.
ReplyDeleteMaybe dreaming of a wonderful Man in their life?
Hugs
Carolyn
Oh Carolyn I so adore the frilly feminine outfits in his paintings too. As to all the manual housework, I think you and I will just assume that had we lived back then, we would have had many servants to take care of all those pesky domestic chores!
ReplyDeleteIt would be lovely Lavinia to think of others doing the pesky domestic
ReplyDeletechores like cleaning the coal range - how could you do that sort of work in a dress like these!
Hugs
Carolyn