A Comic Valentine for tweNtYEleven

The Independent, Number 77, January to March 1914, provides another example of art used for political leverage in a gender issue.

Happy New Years and may your own mythic Venus remain intact throughout.

Suffraget Outrages.  

The English suffragets in  pursuance of their policy of making as much disturbance as possible without imperiling life have turned their attention to historic monuments and works of art.   A militant known in the police records as "May Richardson" slashed the Rokeby Venus with a hatchet which she had concealed in her muff, inflicting irreparable damage to the canvas.  This painting is one of the most famous in the National Gallery of London, as it is the only work of the kind done by Velasquez and was saved a few years ago from falling into the hands of an American collector by its purchase with $225,000 raised by public subscription.  The painting could probably have been sold for much more than that, but the seven cuts in the back and shoulders of the Venus have materially reduced its value.  The National Gallery has been closed and also the Wallace collection, the Kensington Museum, Hampton Court and other public buildings which are the chief attraction of London to many American tourists.  Miss Richardson is an old offender.  When arraigned in the Bow street police court she defied the Government saying:  "Reginald McKenna, the Home Secretary, has turned the criminal code into a comic valentine.  This is the tenth time I have been before a magistrate this year.  He cannot coerce me and cannot force me to serve a sentence.  He can only repeat the farce of releasing me."  She declared that her purpose was "to destroy the picture of the most beautiful woman in mythology as a protest against the Government for destroying Mrs. Emmeline Pankhurst, the most beautiful character in modern history." 
Mrs. Pankhurst had been arrested the night before because she had threatened to force an audience with the King, but she went on a hunger strike as soon as she was taken to Holloway jail, and was released four days later.  Sylvia Pankhurst got out at the same time by the same method.  The "cat and mouse" policy of the Home Secretary is manifestly a failure and he is not able to protect public property or even his own house.  In spite of a police guard about Mr McKenna's home six suffragets arriving in a taxicab early in the morning smashed all the windows on the ground floor with leaded clubs. The pavilion of a tennis club at Birmingham was burnt by the "arson squad" and a bomb was exploded in St John's Church Westminster after the congregation had left and several stained glass windows were shattered. 


>>following picture at link above.
THE BACKHAND BLOW
It damages the suffrage cause more than Venus.