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Abstract
As is well known to material culture scholars, the typical identification of women with passivity and consumption in relation to objects has a long tail that still wags now. In this article, on the contrary, I explore how Anne Brontë, in The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, sketches a young Victorian woman’s quest for a space of her own as a producer of art, which is intensely engaged with the world of material objects through which selfhood is manifestly demarcated. Anne’s depiction of painting signifies that material objects do not only form bodies and insights but also let their holders create their place in society. I analyse the painting of Helen, the novel’s heroine, as an object of individual identity and social authority by foregrounding the active role of women as creators of art. Mobilised as an analogy for women’s autonomy and agency, the painting embodies women’s active space free from restrictions and male hegemony. In this article, I treat the painting as a material object that depicts the individuality of Helen and how it grows into a non-material, delving into her inner world, her decisions and desires, and radically shaping the social perception of women. Anne’s delineation of Helen identified with painting places women in a male-like active space which sets her apart from the Victorian idealistic heroines who epitomise traits uniquely private and feminine in contrast to public and masculine.