A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern.

  • Iwan Bloch
Date:
1936
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A history of English sexual morals / by Ivan Bloch ; translated by William H. Forstern. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    53/700
    English women of rank passed in and out, for this most fashionable ball had gathered them in rare numbers. Here I encountered women like living van Dyck portraits; with the fine regular features, the transparent, warm complexion and fair hair which he knew how to reproduce so incomparably. Still more striking were quite Southern types, with black hair and sharply defined foreheads, on which grew small velvety eyebrows, giving a piquant effect to the face. They might well have descended from the early Britons; at any rate the invading Saxons and Normans were blonde races. ' England possesses, for the highest class of society at any rate, a peculiarly favourable soil for such flowers. And this is easily understandable. The physical education of children is nowhere so sensibly and healthily organised as in England: nowhere have I seen such a number of children bursting with health as here. Great regularity of life, simple but nourishing food and much outdoor exercise form the main features of their upbringing, which is strictly adhered to until the children are grown up. ' One great advantage is that the children are not forced to live in terribly overheated rooms for half the year as children in other Northern countries are obliged to do; for the open fire in England does not cause the same complications. Thus the skin does not become blotchy and unhealthy; but one finds here as in Italy that the bone structure shows through in a marked manner, which gives at once greater definition to the face and finer distinctions. Finally, it is remarkable how a special type of beauty has persisted in some of the old families: many collections of family portraits bear witness to this fact. The English aristocracy, owing to their greater freedom in the choice of wives, have avoided the degeneration to caricature and the stunted growth which is noticeable here and there in other countries1.' 1 Wagen, Art and Artists in England. Berlin, 1837. Vol. I, pp. 241-244. [23]