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Georgy Girl: portrait of George Elliot

Steve Justice Painting Title: Georgy Girl: portrait of George Elliot Material: oil on wood Size: 30x30 Year: 2015 “If we had a keen vision of all ordinary life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heart beat, and we should die of the roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well-wadded with stupidity.” -- George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) George Elliot assumed a man’s name to overcome the second-class citizenry her society forced upon women, and became one England’s finest writers. It was either that or stay locked in the attic. Behind her is pictured lush English countryside, separated by her from the London townhouse where she breathed her last. The title suggests swinging London of the 1960s (Hey there, Georgy Girl), a time that might have kinder to her.Title: Georgy Girl: portrait of George Elliot
Material: oil on wood
Size: 30×30
Year: 2015

If we had a keen vision of all ordinary life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel’s heartbeat, and we should die of the roar which lies on the other side of silence.  As it is, the quickest of us walks about walk about well-wadded with stupidity.     – George Elliot

George Elliot (Mary Anne Evans) assumed a man’s name to overcome the reduced status Victorian English society forced upon women (sound familiar?), and was one of the finest writers in a country of finest writers.  Her choice was to write under a pseudonym or stay locked in the attic for failing to occupy her proper sphere and act with purity, piety, submissiveness and devotion to home and hearth, and thereby falling short of the Victorian ideal of true womanhood.  Come on, George, was that really too much to ask?

Behind her is pictured the London townhouse where she breathed her last, and the lush English countryside where she breathed her best.  The title hints at swinging 1960s London (‘Hey there, Georgy Girl …’), an era that was somewhat kinder to birds.

 

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