Volunteering

Hello!
Yesterday I did my weekly volunteering for the National Trust and wore one of my favourite dresses, a colourful floral forties concoction. The dress always puts me in an optimistic, somewhat patriotic and summery mood, I just wish the weather would cooperate!

I have included close ups photos of the dress so that you can see the beauty of the details of the dress.

One of the things I love about the dress are the three buttons in varying shades of blue, a great quirky embellishment.

 The pleats are also a great added detail and really give the dress a lovely shape.

I always look forward to Sundays. I feel very fortunate to get to spend a lot of time at Wightwick Manor, as there are so many things to see that I am always discovering something new to fascinate me. This week I was volunteering in the Pomegranate passage where there are these incredibly interesting and I would argue quite bewitching  photographs (reproductions) of Jane Morris taken in 1865, posed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti and photographed by John R. Parsons. Rossetti often used Jane as a model and these photographs were used as studies for his paintings. The use of chiaroscuro, the fall of light within the photograph, the dignity of the sitter, her magnificent dress,  nonchalant posture and bone structure create an exquisite photograph. Jane's presence is so bewitching that I believe, when looking at the photographs, one can observe the passion Rossetti had for Jane, her enticing presence. Her eyes almost have the expression of longing, she looks out of the frame at something we cannot see, a mysterious presence, perhaps that of Rossetti. Unfortunately Wightwick Manor do not allow visitors to take photographs of the interior, unless they specially request it, so I implore people to visit the manor themselves to see them and many other treasures. I have found a few of the images on the V&A website though.


  


http://www.vandaprints.com/image/678950/jane-morris-photo-john-r-parsons
http://www.vandaprints.com/image/337585/jane-morris-photo-dante-gabriel-rossetti


One of the visitors commented on the likeness of the photographs to those of the female British photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron, whom I had heard of  but knew little about. I have since looked at her photographs and one can observe great similarities. I especially love her depiction of Julia Prinsep Jackson, later Julia Stephen, Virginia Woolf's mother, who has such an arresting gaze in the photograph.




http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw84720/Julia-Prinsep-Stephen-ne-Jackson-formerly-Mrs-Duckworth


 A gaze which coincidentally I have observed before in a drawing of Julia Stephen which can be found at Wightwick Manor.





http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/1288001


 I love when I get into discussions with visitors because I feel that not only am I able to impart my knowledge of the collection to them but I also learn so much from the knowledge they provide me with.


Finally, to end this post, I just wanted to say that I intend to post weekly blog posts about my volunteering outfits. I marvel every week at  how many varying reactions I get from visitors due to my appearance. Generally what I love is getting the chance to talk to the visitors about Wightwick Manor and share in their awe and interest, but I also find it curious to see how people react to me. I have had people chuckling at some of my more unconventional outfits. I occasionally get compliments and also some nonplussed looks. The strangest encounter I have ever had with a visitor happened recently. I was volunteering in one of the guest bedrooms and I had not seen the visitor walking into the room yet so I was standing in profile looking out of the window. I felt her presence, within the room turned to greet her, at which point she shrieked and clutched her chest. I then hastily apologised and found out that she had mistook me for some sort of mannequin! I spent the rest of the afternoon feeling guilty but also trying not to laugh at the strange encounter.


I will post in the next few days about my birthday trip to Dudmaston Hall and the soggy sandwiches!

Yours,
 Evalily Harlow xxx