What If We Could Step Through?
A poem to a paper painting
“Jane was able to reinvent herself…” Stephanie Chatfield, Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood
Oh, to be like Alice
yet not quite.
To step not through a looking glass
but a painting
and meet Jane, the reflection
of my dream deepest self.
Jane — a name
regrettably less in favor
these days than her face –
my mentor alighted upon
in one indrawn breath
at an Oxford exhibition, my beautiful
purchased poster child
of emancipation and activism
in a milieu as structured
as Jane’s ornate frame,
the daughter of a laundress
later heralded for queenliness,
plummy accent cultivated like lovers,
the muse of many
wife of one
immortal
a painstaking creator
despite no acclaim.
©Jenine Bsharah Baines 2020
Twenty-five years ago, I met Jane at The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. I was entranced — like so many — by her beauty. I bought a poster, had it framed when I returned home, and although, over the years, I’ve taken to purchasing ‘real art,’ my copy of The Day Dream still has pride of place in my office.
This painting is an example of Pre-Raphaelite art. A genre that was scorned 25 years ago — as sappy, illustrative, too pretty — but is back in vogue today. If you’d like to learn more, check this out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Raphaelite_Brotherhood
At some point, I began wondering what it’d be like to step into a painting like Alice stepped through the looking glass. What people and worlds I could discover!
Jane, I researched. She was quite the feminist — reinventing herself to rival Madonna, ‘running with the wolves’ in a way Clarissa Pinkola Estes would appreciate.
What also struck me is that Jane became an accomplished embroiderer — a valued member of Morris & Company, the famous design house founded by her husband, the artist William Morris. However, she was never given credit for her designs “in the interests of commercial success.”
Raw deal. I’d love to ask Jane, did you embroider like writers ‘embroider’ words? Because you loved the process, applause and acclaim be damned? Or because you HAD to earn a living? Or both?
An interesting aside, William Morris wasn’t but Jane’s two lovers were poets.
If I’ve piqued your interest in Jane, here’s a place to start:
http://preraphaelitesisterhood.com/jane-morris-an-enigmatic-muse/
Thank you, Linda Caroll, for your fascinating article on Tudor art stepping into the present. It inspired me to write a poem about stepping into the past!
Thank you, Martin Rushton and team — especially Victor Sarkin in this case — for offering me a home to share my love of Jane and art.
Also, thank you, dearest readers, for stepping through the frame with me.
