Self/Portraits
Chapter 3 presents alternative visions of these neglected Victorian figures – the Wattses and the De Morgans – through an analysis of their self/portraits. It explores the Wattses’ and the De Morgans’ self-portraits and portraits of each other as well as of their famous contemporaries in order to examine the construction of artistic identities, the gender-role inversion within creative partnerships, and the self-fashioning of suffragists. It explores public and private self/portraits (that is, self-portraits and/or portraits) in the form of neglected paintings, sketches and photographs in which images and perceptions of these figures as individuals and as couples are built. It also compares the Wattses’ and the De Morgans’ self/portraits with those of their contemporaries, placing them in a wider context to reveal their standpoints and focuses. It explores the gender politics of portraiture and shows how their self/portraits fit into the tradition of Victorian portraiture.