There's nothing that beats teaching a class that involves actually standing in front of the works of art that we're discussing ... today our Victorian Visual Culture class went to the Getty, each member with a work to introduce. This worked very well, apart from the officious Outside Tour Guide who elbowed us out of our position in front of Alma Tadema's Spring and said that She was going to talk about it to Her group. Harrumph. This is Sarah - once she got back in front of Spring - and Dylan, looking at Henry Weekes' Bust of an African Woman - by common critical consensus Mary Seacole, although there's no hard evidence there. What one can't see in photos of the bust - but what fascinated us all - was the detail with which the snood that held her hair into place is sculpted. Was this a nod to fashionability, or was it complying with common-sense when it came to hair and nursing? (I do love this class - I'm going to be bereft when the semester is over ...).
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