Life into art and art into life : visualising the aesthetic woman of "hisgh art meiden" of the Victorian "Renaissance"

there ahas been a great deal of research concerning the effect of aestheticism on men in the late nineteenth century, especially in terms of their sexuality, but ist impact on women has been largely dismissed as unnecessary, as women were naturally "feminine". this article examines wheather "the selfabsorption and heightened emotional life of aestheticism" (J.B. Bullen, 1998) was tolerable in women ot if it was leading to disease, decy and corruption. Aestheticism's insistence on individuality and self-discovery were to have important consequences for women, fuelling the desire for a life of their won rather than sloley service to others