Anne Brontë (1)
Charlotte Brontë
1834
From an original watercolour on paper, cut into an oval
Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (Murray ed., frontispiece)
This feisty-looking young woman might well possess the moral strength and conviction that recent critics have found in Anne Brontë's life and writings. Even before Nick Holland's reassessment of her, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was being seen as "an innovative and radical expression of feminist values, challenging the then current ideal of woman as an 'angel in the house,' submissive to her lot as her husband's chattel" (Smith).
Image acquisition and text by Jacqueline Banerjee.