Stephanie G. Mathis Georgiana Houghton, a medium, was guided by the spirits of Titian, Correggio, and other artists of the time in a dimly-lit gas-lit parlor. Houghton claimed to be guided by her heart guides as she created a series of vibrant, colorful, and spiritual abstract expressions unlike anything else seen in art. Houghton declared that her work is “without comparison in the world.”
The Courtauld Exhibition will display a sample of vibrant spirit drawings. Only 40 have survived. Houghton rented an Old Bond Street gallery to show her spirit drawings in 1871. Houghton exhibited her work in 1871, renting a gallery on Old Bond Street to show off her spirit drawings to a London audience.
Anna Mary Howitt and Barbara Honywood were among the British mediums who painted and drew during seances and trance states, allegedly under the influence of spirits. Also included are David Duguid and Jane Stewart Smith. William and Elizabeth Wilkinson also contributed to this movement. These mediums were important contributors to the 19th-century movement of Modern Spiritualism, which spread from America to Australia and from Scotland to South Africa. They used a variety of styles, from abstract to figurative, but they all shared the same goal: to convince viewers that the spirit world exists and can interact with living beings.
Life after death
Spiritualists considered that seance drawings and paintings were spirit artifacts. To understand the visual language of these artworks and their spiritual status, it was important to look at how they were made. The medium would often enter a trance during which they were believed to channel the spirit that would create the artwork.
Watching the creation of spirit artwork and experiencing the seance was alleged to be a way of witnessing the interaction of spirits with mortals. It was also often considered as proof of life after death. The artworks created during seances are also considered evidence of spiritual interaction with mortals. The mediums’ paintings were meant to be understood only by those with a sacred understanding of the spirit realm. For those without this insight, the medium’s role was to help explain the meaning to viewers.
Watercolour by Georgiana Houghton – Glory to God! (1864). Victorian Spiritualists’ Union in Melbourne, Australia/Courtauld Gallery in London.
This is made explicit in an inscription found on the reverse of one of Houghton’s drawings. The caption on the reverse of The Eyes of the Lord (1866) explains the concept of Houghton’s symbolism.
Three conjoined eyes are the Trinity, and I have drawn them throughout my drawings. However, those who do not see the picture in progress will not notice this.
Houghton knew that those who attended seances had an advantage when it came to understanding the sacred message. Houghton used practical methods to make it easier for viewers to understand the drawings. She accompanied the exhibition daily in 1871 and added verso explanations. This also allowed Houghton to share the sacred knowledge about the spirit world with a larger audience. She hoped that the spiritualist teachings would convince this audience.
A forgotten art form
A neglected area of the 19th century’s artistic output is the collective work produced by medium artists. The mainstream was largely unaware of it due to the skepticism that persisted about the practices used to make the “spiritual oeuvre.”” Mediums were notorious for fraudulence, and many of the British medium artists mentioned above have been subject to scandal and suspicion.
The curators of this exhibition bring attention to the response of a critic from the 19th century to Houghton’s 1871 exhibit. The critic, who held a mistrust of spiritualism, stated:
We shouldn’t have brought this exhibition to the attention of anyone because we didn’t think that its follies would disgust and depress all sober people.
These skeptical opinions led to the dismissal of spirit art as an unworthy subject. This genre of outsider art faded away. It was not because of the automatic drawings that French Dadaists, Surrealists, and Symbolists practiced.
Recent attempts have been made to reconsider the significance of these spiritualist artworks as pioneering and innovative for their times. The Serpentine Gallery in London recently held an exhibition about Hilma Af Klimt’s painting The Unseen, which introduced a new audience to this type of art.
Hilma Af Klimt is a Swedish theosophist and spiritualist who produced large abstract works of art allegedly also under the influence of spiritual forces. Recent exhibitions in London have brought to light the colorful, abstract art of these medium artists who predate Mondrian and Kandinsky.
In 1871, a review of Houghton’s exhibition proclaimed it as “the most amazing exhibition in London right now.”” The study of 1871 is still relevant today if the Courtauld exhibition in 2016 can redefine our perceptions of 19th-century art.
