She turned away

Christiana Hammond

Photomechanical reproduction of pen and ink drawing.

4½ x 3½ inches

Maria Edgeworth.Helen, frontispiece.

Helen and Lady Cecilia engaged in conference in the garden. The illustration depicts the characters in the costume of the Regency (the novel was published in 1834), and typifies Hammond’s representation of the pre-industrial age. As in the art of her contemporary Hugh Thomson, Hammond imagines the past as an age of elegance and sophistication. This resonates with the new elegance of the nineties, making her women, especially, seem both Regency beauties and willowy Aesthetic ladies in the manner of George du Maurier.

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Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

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