Oh! Give Dear All Thy Love to Me (valentine) c. 1840

Editor: This is “Oh! Give Dear All Thy Love to Me (valentine),” a print, drawing, and watercolor on paper by George Meek from around 1840, housed at the Art Institute of Chicago. I find the message and the dainty, almost frilly presentation juxtaposed against a more somber colour palette quite compelling. What strikes you about this piece? Curator: What’s really fascinating to me is how an object like this – a Valentine – exists as both an intensely personal declaration and a product of very specific societal constraints and expectations of love and courtship in the Victorian era. Consider the emerging commercialization of love – the commodification of feelings, really. Editor: Commodification of feelings… interesting. Curator: Yes! Think about the rise of a middle class with disposable income and how industrialization allowed for mass production of these ornate paper items. Then, also, ponder the rigid social codes surrounding courtship. These Valentines allowed for a certain carefully controlled expression, perhaps for those who felt constrained by social norms around romance, gender and even class. Editor: So, the Valentine becomes a socially acceptable outlet? Curator: Exactly! And, given the sentimentality of the era, these objects became cherished keepsakes. Do you see that tension playing out in the design itself? The delicate floral imagery versus the rather direct, even pleading, declaration of love. Editor: Now that you mention it, yes. It feels like a carefully constructed performance. I guess I hadn’t thought about it within that historical and social context. Curator: Precisely! It reveals how seemingly simple artworks often participate in and reflect complex social power structures. Editor: I’ll definitely look at other works from this era with that in mind now. Curator: Understanding that relationship between object and culture, that is, is key to interpreting art’s deeper meanings.