I wish there were more portraits of Florence Nightingale. I am surprised there are so few. I would have liked more justice to have been done in paint, to this deeply empathic, forward thinking, scientifically educated and extraordinarily dogged woman.
Most of the artworks devoted to Nightingale pay tribute to Victorian values. They are pseudo religious or loosely documentary paintings, taking their cue from her nickname “Lady of the Lamp”. She appears as a saint: with gentle, downcast eyes (signalling her humility); a veil (white for purity); one hand near the throat (for modesty); or the heart (for sincerity).
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And there’s usually a poor wounded soldier, lifting his adoring eyes to her face, himself lifted straight from one of the Old Masters.Even her lantern – the paper one she used In Crimea, is replaced by a votive lamp.
Nightingale herself, felt called by God to her work, but she actively cultivated the popular ‘image’ of herself as secular saint and soldier’s heroine. I think we can strike ‘humble’ off the list of her virtues. But she clearly stopped at nothing to get what she wanted. I suppose this is hinted at where-ever she is shown with paper and pen, making notes of what she finds.
Sickly artworks notwithstanding, Florence Nightingale was an outstandingly practical woman and an adored nurse.
There is one dedicated portrait sketch of Nightingale by the society painter George Watts: It was made when Nightingale was fresh home from Crimea and still recovering from the typhus she’d contracted whilst out there. Watts may have been good at painting men but he could not resist idealising his female subjects, so his painting tells us more about himself than it does about Florence: Her plumped-up lips, her softened eyebrows, her dreamy gaze, her pallor and even her double chin – all have been put to the service of Victorian ideals and I don’t believe any of it. She’s not exactly rearing to go is she? On Radio 4, on Women’s Hour last week, they said that had she been alive today, facing the lack of PPE on the front line during Coronavirus, she’s have been onto it like a rat.
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Watt’s painting doesn’t even hint at that side of her. But the more I look at it, the more I think she might be suffering here, from a queasy tummy and a blocked nose.
20th (and even 21st) century artworks have continued to show more interest in her ‘image’ than her mould-breaking character. Here, she’s been given the ‘Andy Warhol type’ treatment, complete with Marilyn Monroe’s blue eye shadow and red lipstick. The pop idol status and the caricature lives on.
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An exception is the portrait by Arthur George Walker. Sculpted in 1915, this depiction of Florence Nightingale begins to feel like a real person. She has a look of patient determination about her and bags under her eyes. The artist still makes use of emblems – the votive lamp as opposed to the paper lantern. And I guess it comes closer to a likeness because Walker would have worked from photographs. Nightingale died five years before this statue was made:
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“Nursing is an art” said Florence Nightingale “and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion, as hard a preparation as any painter’s or sculptor’s work.”
I think it’s a shame that artists in her life time, didn’t work harder at getting to the heart of the real woman, and that the photographs are more telling than any of the art works I’ve been able to find.
“Nursing is an art” said Florence Nightingale “and if it is to be made an art, it requires an exclusive devotion, as hard a preparation as any painter’s or sculptor’s work.”
I think it’s a shame that artists in her life time, didn’t work harder at getting to the heart of the real woman, and that the photographs are more telling than any of the art works I’ve been able to find.
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Nightingale is credited with saving thousands of lives: She was one of those directly responsible for the massive leap in life-expectancy we’ve enjoyed since Victorian times: She was the author of a whole stack of books on nursing: She opened St Thomas’ Hospital Florence as a training centre for nurses: Her training methods and improvements to hospitals became model standards all over the world: She revolutionised hospitals by having them connected to main drains and serviced by efficient supply chains: She was a driving force behind the slum clearances and better, cleaner housing. She was a genius at logistics and at communicating about them: She was well ahead of her time in exploiting the power of the press and of public indignation: She pushed her reforms into Law. She turned nursing a respectable profession: She led the way for even upper class women to find work and she led the way for Victorian feminism to become political: She instigated ‘distancing’ as a way of preventing the spread of infection before the concept of ‘germ’ was even invented: And she tended her patients like an angel: She wrote home to the families of her wounded soldiers when they were unable to do so for themselves: She always went that extra mile, even to ensuring they had decent food as they recuperated, which was paid for from her own pocket. Nightingale’s influence and her accomplishments were prodigious and her legacy just goes on and on…
Martina Weatherley
Illustrations:
- Miss Nightingale at Scutari 1854 @Wikipedia
- Coloured lithograph: @Wikimedia.org
- Florence Nightingales lamp. The real one: https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1962-12-29-1
- Engraving by ‘Tomkins’ after a painting by J Butterworth @http://www.intaglio-fine-art.com/proddetail.php? prod=L006
- Oil sketch of Florence Nightingale by George Watts @ https://www.wattsgallery.org.uk/about-us/news/ watts-focus-florence-nightingale/
- Andy Warhol Pop Art style, by The Joker 1986 at Pinterest.
- Sculpture from the Crimean War Memorial, London, by Arthur George Walker
- Photo of Florent Nightingale, @ http://19thhumanitiesschool.blogspot.com/2010/10/flourence-nightingale-artifacts-4.html
- Photo of Florence Nightingale @ BBC iWonder bbc.co.uk
Other References and further reading:
Kaiserswerth (Dusseldorf)Yesterday and Today: https://www.countryjoe.com/nightingale/history.htm
Nightingale in Scutari: Her Legacy Reexamined by Christopher J Gill and Gillian C Gill:
https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/40/12/1799/314039
History of water supply and sanitation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_water_supply_and_sanitation
Some young people don’t know what Florence Nightingale did: http://home.bt.com/news/news-extra/some-young-people-dont-know-what-florence-nightingale-did-11363980661645
The Life of Florence Nightingale, Facts for Kids: https://www.natgeokids.com/za/discover/history/general–history/florence-nightingale/
Florence Nightingale in Punch: https://www.google.com/search? q=Florence+nightingale+in+Punch&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjNhLiPq5rpAhXP4YUKHW8PDOEQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=Florence+nightingale+in+Punch&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzoCCAA6BAgAEBhQh8FZWIDJW WCzzlloAHAAeACAAVaIAdEEkgEBOJgBAKABAaoBC2d3cy13aXotaW1n&sclient=img&ei=phuwXs2ZMc_Dl wTvnrCIDg&bih=1041&biw=1559
Ideals of Womanhood in Victorian Britain: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/trail/victorian_britain/women_home/ ideals_womanhood_01.shtml
Women as subjects in Victorian Art: http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/arts2.html
After Crimea: Florence Nightingale and Slum Clearance: http://www.victorianweb.org/science/health/ nightingale/1.html