Welcome to the unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum - for discussing everything CH/Old Blue related. All pupils, parents, families, staff, Old Blues and anyone else related to CH are welcome to browse the boards, register and contribute.
"Also remember that Tissot painted his painting at the height of the British Empire.
Studies of the painting have shown that the dress of the boys depicted in the painting can be identified as being that of Christ's Hospital School in suburban Hertford. I think closer examination of the painting will reveal that this semblance of a transparent and objective vision is illusory, and that Tissot in constructing this painting is making an assertive statement of British ideologies of the period, their attitude to the world, and their position in history."
I think that there are a few errors here. The boys were not, or course, from CH in suburban Hertford, but from CH in very urban Newgate Street - not very far from the scene of this picture. I also think that the text accompanying the pic "Studies of..." to "...in history"(below) and on the museum site with the picture is pretty average garbage. I have read several accounts of CH in the Victorian era where it is reported that the boys used to earn a few coins from gullible visitors by showing them the sites of London town - as here. Thus, all this business about "asserting the British ideologies" etc is bunkum. Indeed, quite why CH should be considered as representative of the British Empire eludes me - not least because it antedates the Empire by several centuries!
So there!
petard249 wrote:I think that there are a few errors here. The boys were not, or course, from CH in suburban Hertford, but from CH in very urban Newgate Street - not very far from the scene of this picture. I also think that the text accompanying the pic "Studies of..." to "...in history"(below) and on the museum site with the picture is pretty average garbage. I have read several accounts of CH in the Victorian era where it is reported that the boys used to earn a few coins from gullible visitors by showing them the sites of London town - as here. Thus, all this business about "asserting the British ideologies" etc is bunkum. Indeed, quite why CH should be considered as representative of the British Empire eludes me - not least because it antedates the Empire by several centuries!
So there!
I think I tend to agree with petard.
The piece on the museum page shows a significant lack of academic rigour and a significant amount of bullsh*t.
Alexandra (if I may?),
You are quite right that the younger boys were at Hertford until 1902 (-ish), but I doubt very much that they would have been loitering around the centre of London in uniform. Quite apart from whether they would have been allowed out, I would have thought that the costs and complexity of a return journey from Hertford to London and back would have been prohibitive to Housie children in the 1870s who were, by definition, short of money.
So, I believe that the balance of probability is that the boys seen here were from Newgate Street and that whoever captioned the picture simply got the two establishments muddled. As to the bit about the British Empire, I take your point about Old Blues being sent to the colonies, but I agree with englishangel that the text accompanying the picture is pretty abysmal.
petard249 wrote:Alexandra (if I may?),
You are quite right that the younger boys were at Hertford until 1902 (-ish), but I doubt very much that they would have been loitering around the centre of London in uniform. Quite apart from whether they would have been allowed out, I would have thought that the costs and complexity of a return journey from Hertford to London and back would have been prohibitive to Housie children in the 1870s who were, by definition, short of money.
So, I believe that the balance of probability is that the boys seen here were from Newgate Street and that whoever captioned the picture simply got the two establishments muddled. As to the bit about the British Empire, I take your point about Old Blues being sent to the colonies, but I agree with englishangel that the text accompanying the picture is pretty abysmal.
Yes, why use a word of one or two syllables when when an incomprehensible one of four or more will do?
Or does that belong on the 'Mysteries of the Universe' thread?
"Culture can be defined as those social practices [or discourses] whose prime aim is signification, i.e. the production of sense or making orders of 'sense' for the world we live in. Culture is the social level in which are produced those images of the world and definitions of reality which can be ideologically mobilized to legitimize the existing order of relations of domination and subordination between classes, races, and sexes." (Griselda Pollock, Vision and Difference: Feminity, Feminisism, and Histories of Art, New York, 1988, p. 20).
Richard Ruck wrote:"Culture can be defined as those social practices [or discourses] whose prime aim is signification, i.e. the production of sense or making orders of 'sense' for the world we live in. Culture is the social level in which are produced those images of the world and definitions of reality which can be ideologically mobilized to legitimize the existing order of relations of domination and subordination between classes, races, and sexes." (Griselda Pollock, Vision and Difference: Feminity, Feminisism, and Histories of Art, New York, 1988, p. 20).
What makes people write this stuff??
Do you think this might have something to do with it?
Richard Ruck wrote:"Culture can be defined as those social practices [or discourses] whose prime aim is signification, i.e. the production of sense or making orders of 'sense' for the world we live in. Culture is the social level in which are produced those images of the world and definitions of reality which can be ideologically mobilized to legitimize the existing order of relations of domination and subordination between classes, races, and sexes." (Griselda Pollock, Vision and Difference: Feminity, Feminisism, and Histories of Art, New York, 1988, p. 20).
What makes people write this stuff??
Do you think this might have something to do with it?
Apropos the painting which started all this, I have a feeling it is currently in exhibition in London (on loan from its US owner). Can anyone confirm this, please, and say where it is and for how long?
The picture is called "London Visitors". It is used for the front jacket illustration of a book called "London" by an American called John Russell (pub. 1994).
and plantation owners assistants etc
