Picture pulls no punches
FEW readers are likely to have seen a minor marvel of Victorian painting in York Museum. I cannot really claim to have discovered something we all own, but you will only get to see it if you are a researcher, as it has not been displayed for ages. That is such a shame.
John Holland’s 1865 lively depiction of a pitched battle in the Old Market Square is one of the Nottingham artist’s best pictures.
Violent public disorder is nothing new, certainly not in the decades before Nottingham came to pride itself as the ‘Queen of the Midlands’ - and Holland’s picture pulls no punches.
The trouble erupted in the aftermath of the general election in which the Liberal government was returned with an increased majority.
But as was reported in The Times, “There was more profound corrupt expenditure than was ever known before”. In thirteen constituencies including Nottingham - a dual borough that returned two MPS the election had to be re-run, unseating the newly elected Conservative Sir Robert Clifton (the ‘villain’ of the piece) and Samuel Morley, the Liberal MP.
Clifton’s bribery and intimidation, that included hiring “a mob of ruffians” that were nicknamed his ‘Lambs,’ wreaked havoc in the town. Their exploits included wrecking the Liberal headquarters before heading to the local pub and, suitably refreshed, turning up at the Assembly Rooms (in the background of Holland’s picture and now the site of the Council House) to be handsomely paid off by one of Clifton’s cronies. It must have seemed as if they were untouchable.
To make a grave situation worse, the new Prime Minster, Lord Palmerston died and was succeeded by Lord John Russell whose government was promptly defeated, ushering in a minority Conservative ministry led by Benjamin Disraeli.
Russell’s 23-year-old son, also named John, was the Liberal party’s candidate for the re-run election at Nottingham. The prospective MP, accompanied by his clever young wife Kate, visited the town to campaign, putting up at the Flying Horse where, with rooms that included a sitting room that had five windows, they had a grandstand view of the events that would unfold in the Market Square.
Husband and wife went out for a walk amidst the tumult, protected by two rows of six men arm-in-arm walking both in front and behind them.
Kate Russell (Lady Amberley) recorded in her Journal that as they walked “there were groans and hisses and cheers.”
Earlier, Russell’s father had been largely responsible for the 1832 Reform Act which extended the franchise.
The burnt-out shell of the Castle, set ablaze by rioters incensed at the Duke of Newcastle’s opposition to the passing of the act, was a striking monument to how in Nottingham tempers could run high.
Despite more bribery at the second election young Russell was victorious. But his wife is the more interesting figure.
She was an early advocate of birth control who enjoyed an affair with her husband’s full consent and was soon to be the mother of the philosopher Bertrand Russell.
She was also one of the first Suffragists and by her agitating for change provoked Queen Victoria to fury, saying “Lady Amberley ought to get a good whipping.”
It is surprising that in this, the centenary of women getting the vote, more is not heard about Lady Amberley.
John Holland was the most talented member of a family of Nottingham artists. Born in 1799 he died in 1879. During the course of his career he exhibited frequently in London and elsewhere but not at the Royal Academy. In the 1860 Census he was living in Vernon Street, off Derby Road, only a minute or two from the Old Market Square.
The painting, titled ‘The Fight for the Platform’ was sold to John Burton. Almost Holland’s exact contemporary, Burton is described by York Museum as “an eccentric character.”
Judging by his portrait (also in the Museum) he certainly was, but the local horse dealer and colliery owner was astute enough to form a collection of 126 pictures which he bequeathed to the Museum, where a gallery is named in his honour.
The action-packed picture, with its sticks brandished and punches thrown, broken furniture and wounded or fleeing citizens Holland’s melee in the Old Market Square took place on a glorious July day.
Election candidates breaking rules, an embattled British Prime Minister and civil war in America, but for Brexit the mid-1860s had it all!
The Fight for the Platform was once considered a contemporary work of art. Taste in art has changed, but I doubt I am not the only one to see many similarities in the politics of our time.