'A brilliancy of their own': Female Art, Beauty and Sexuality in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. (2nd October 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Ioannou, Maria
• Is Part Of: Brontë studies. Volume 43:Number 4(2018)
• Page Start: 323
• Page End: 334
• Publication Date: 2018-10-02
• Subjects: art -- beauty -- female sexuality -- gender -- Jane Eyre -- Victorian periodicals; Periodicals; Criticism and interpretation -- Periodicals; Criticism and interpretation -- Periodicals; Criticism and interpretation -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 823.8
• DOI: 10.1080/14748932.2018.1502993
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1474-8932

Abstract

Abstract : This article studies the portraits of Rosamond Oliver and Blanche Ingram in Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre, to argue that, first, the portraits participate in the nineteenth-century dialogue about women in art and, second, capture Jane's convictions on the theme of sexual love. This is especially so in the case of Rosamond's miniature, which comes at a point where Jane has resolved to choose a sexual union rather than a loveless marriage. In an important sense, Jane is Rosamond; the subject (artist) identifies with the object (model) in an equation of female beauty with agency and capacity for sexual feeling.