favourite U.K suffragette: Leonora Cohen

Police court summons and photo, Nov 1911

Photo credit: Leeds Museums & Galleries

Leonora Throp Cohen (1873–1978) was born in Leeds to Canova & Jane Throp. Her father was a stone carver but died in 1879 when Leonora was only 5, after he devel­op­ed TB of the spine. This left her widowed mother to raise the 3 young children. Her seamstress mother worked to provide for the family, especially difficult since Leonora also developed TB

Leonora apprenticed as a milliner and while she was working as a mil­l­inery buyer, she met Henry Cohen. He was a jeweller's assistant in central Leeds and the son of Jewish immigrants from Warsaw. Married in 1900, the couple's first child Rosetta died on her first birthday but thankfully in 1902, they had a healthy son Reginald. For the next nine years, the small family enjoyed a peaceful life as Henry's business as a jeweller and watchmaker flourished. 

Because her mother Jane had been a widowed seamstress struggling to raise the children alone, it was obvious to Leonora that her mum had few rights as a woman living in Britain. Life was hard because women had little control over their own lives. So it was her mother's lack of empowerment that had radicalised the young woman. 

At the time of Cohen's first job as a milliner, there was a campaign for better working conditions for women. This affected Cohen and her view of the treatment of women in the working world. Thankfully husband Henry was supportive of her fight for women's rights. 

Cohen later donated her scrapbook, many papers, craftwork, photos and other momentos to Abbey House Museum Leeds. Her scrapbook provided an insight into what inspired her to become a suffragette and indicated her interested in current affairs via an article about Nurse Edith Cavell's death

One cabinet from the Leonora Cohen section of Abbey House Museum.

The green dress is covered in Suffragette symbols, and the logo of the Women’s Social & Political Union

In 1909, she joined Leeds branch of Women's Social & Political Union/WSPU, founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903. Later, Cohen was in The Bodyguard to Mrs Pankhurst.

In 1911, Cohen joined in a rally that was packed out with support­ers. And the mounted police. When she protested by throwing a rock at a government-building window, she was promptly arrested and placed in Holloway Prison for seven days. Spending time behind bars only in­creased her passion to fight for women’s right to vote. She de­fend­ed herself in court and even though found guilty, the authorities re­leased her. As Cohen began to take bolder steps as a suffragette, her family supporting her allegiance.

In 1913 Cohen took more vigorous action. At a protest at the Tower of London, she followed a group of school children inside, acting as a teacher. Hidden under Leonora’s coat was an iron bar, taken the night before and filed off for the purpose. Leonora used this bar to smash a glass showcase containing in­signia of the Order of Merit in the Tower’s Jewel House. She tied a note to the bar: My Prot­est to the Government for its refusal to Enfranchise Women, but continues to torture women prisoners. Deeds Not Words. 100 years of Constitutional Pet­ition, Resolutions, Meetings & Processions have Failed. Lenora Cohen 

Cohen was re-arrested, but decided to make a stand by going on a hunger strike, & not speaking out in anger. Because of the Cat & Mouse Act, Cohen was released from prison after a few days to allow her to recover from her hunger strike.

In 1913 suffragettes Annie Kenney & Flora Drummond asked for WSPU members to speak to leading politicians David Lloyd George and Sir Edward Grey at Westminster. The delegates described the terrible pay and working conditions that they suffered and their hope that a vote would enable women to challenge the status quo. Voting women would have power to demand higher wages, just as men had done.

During WW1 Leonora threw herself into the war effort, without other distractions. She worked in a munitions factory where she set up a trade union branch for women workers and defused strikes. She also established a charity, raising money for surgical appliances for women who had been injured in munitions factories.

A coalition government passed the Representation of the People Act 1918, enfranchising all men, and women over 30 who met minimum property qualifications. The Conservative gov­ernment passed the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928, giving the vote to all women over the age of 21 on equal terms with men. 

Cohen, a dedicated trade unionist, became the Leeds district org­aniser of the National Union of General and Municipal Workers and served a term as president of the Leeds Trades Council. By 1923, Cohen became the first woman president of the Yorkshire Federation of Trades Councils. In 1924 she was appointed a magistrate, one of the first women appointed to the bench and a JP for decades. In 1928, she was awarded the Order of the British Empire.

Blue Plaque on Leonora Cohen's home 

Leeds, Wiki

Suffragette Memorial honoured those fighting for women's suffrage,

unveiled in 1970

in the Christchurch Gardens, London

Leonora Cohen retired to north Wales. In 1970, she attended the unveiling of the Suffragette Memorial in London, along with other famous suffragettes and Labour politicians. Since Cohen lived to 105, long enough to become a role model for the 1970s feminists and Coh­en was brought back into the public eye. Brian Harr­ison inter­viewed 200+ people, including Cohen, as a part of his project Oral Evidence on the Suffragette and Suffragist Movements.

Before she died in 1978, Cohen donated all her mem­orabilia to Abbey House Museum, Leeds. The Times newspaper pub­lished her obit­uar­y, covering The Tower Suffragette’s imprisonment and hunger strike, and long career as a trade unionist and magistrate. She was seen as a regional act­ivist who was willing to be gaoled for the cause. And that later she became a very important trade unionist and magistrate

Tyrannicide Brief: he sent Charles I to die

Read Tyrannicide Brief: Story of the Man Who Sent Charles I to the Scaffold by Geoffrey Robertson. Charles triggered the tragic civil wars (from 1642) when 1 in 10 Eng­lish­men died. But in 1649, Parliament struggled to find a law­yer with guts to pro­secute a king who claimed to be above the law.

In the end, they chose the radical lawyer John Cooke (1608–60) whose Pur­it­an consc­ience, pol­itical vis­ion and love of civil liberties made him stand out. Cooke might have been just an average lawyer but he was an impressive reformer. Robertson said that in the 1640s, Cooke had been the first to assert that poverty was a cause of crime. Cooke was already arguing for: a nat­ional health service; a national legal serv­ice; end most capital punishment; probation for those who stole out of hunger; and an end to the use of Latin in court.

Geoffrey Roberston's book

Note the execution of King Charles I on the front cover

Cooke was a criminologist who wrote frequently. Ev­ery­thing that came off the presses in this 1640-60 era was collected and placed in a special room in the British Library, in­cluding all the transcripts of the trials and public­at­ions. Robertson gave the Puritans the credit for the good years, all the more note­wor­thy because they had suff­ered the king’s destruction of their relig­ious beliefs. Some left for the USA, but those who remained for­ged a belief in the literal Bible and in Magna Carta, civil liberty and bills of rights. Robertson was most impressed with their fierce belief in civil lib­er­ties, but I was not. Where was the historical evidence?

What the Puritans achieved in the 1640s was the abolition of Star Ch­am­ber. They created the principle of no taxation without repres­en­t­­­at­ion, and were keen on the separation of church and state. They fought in the civil wars that the king started. The king was also guilty, as Cooke later showed, of supervising torture of prisoners of war, and of encouraging plunder by the royalist forces.

In 1649, after Oliver Cromwell's army took Charles I pris­­on­er, the new regime had to decide what to do with the king. They could have killed Charles, but a fair trial was seen as more ethical. Cooke was asked to prosecute him, esp after other suitable lawyers hid away from their Inns of Court.

In Par­liament's brief to Cooke, the judge had to end the immunity of the head of state. But the divinely appointed king WAS the law, so prosecuting him seemed impossible. Thus Cooke had to invent the crime of Tyranny (aka War Crimes today). He put Charles on trial in Jan 1649, charging him with abolishing peop­les’ civil liberties and with mass murd­er­ing citizens. In Westmin­ster Hall, as this improbable trial was starting, the king was brought in and Cooke delivered the charges.

John Cooke

The king did the right thing at his trial, asking by what lawful auth­ority the state disregarded sov­ereign imm­unity and put a king on trial? Cooke answered that, be­cause there were certain crimes that were so heinous they dimin­ished the whole state, a king COULD be put on trial.

The decision to execute the king was the judges to make, but perhaps they didn’t predict that the executed royal would become a martyr. King Charles I was taken to the scaf­f­old and beheaded later in Jan 1649, and for the next ten years he was remembered kindly. Executing him only inflamed the civil war further.

Cromwell appointed Cooke as a reforming Chief Justice in Ireland where of course he made very progressive rulings. Naturally the wealthy land-owning lords hated Cooke.

In 1653, at the head of an army, Oliver Cromwell marched into Parliam­ent and dis­mis­sed the members.

King Charles II returned from France in 1660 and the monarchy restored. Cooke was the very first to be arrested, suff­ering a rigged trial at the Old Bailey when Charles II avenged his father. The ex-judge was taken to Charing Cross and made a very fine gallows speech: 'We are not traitors; we would have secured the lib­erty of the people and the whole groaning creation if the country had not pref­er­red servitude to freedom.' He was hung, drawn and quartered.

Cooke and other regicides were executed. Cooke’s heart and genit­als were fed to street dogs, and his head was shown at West­min­ster Hall. Samuel Pepys travelled to see some of Cooke's colleagues executed, but found that the exec­ut­ions had been sus­pended. App­ar­ently Charles II’s advisors saw the crowd turning nasty. They would have to detain republicans without trial, despite the fact that habeas corpus laws were in place. So it was decided to put all the repub­lic­ans on off-shore islands (eg Jersey) where habeas corpus wouldn't reach. Does this remind us of Guantanamo Bay?

Conclusion The key years 1640-60 was an era when extra­ordinary prog­ress was made in human rights. The sovereignty of parl­iament, indep­end­ence of the jud­ges, separation of church and state all go back to this short, important era.

The Hon Michael Kirby believed that the King Charles' trial was by legal stand­ards a dis­creditable affair. This seemed indisputable, until Robertson dug out a very old edition of the State Trials. Rob­ert­son was surpris­ed to find that Charles’ trial was far from discreditable - on the con­trary it app­eared for its time as an oasis of just­ice and fairness."

Rob­ert­son said Cooke's trial was actually the dis­cred­it­able affair. The defendants had been locked up for months in plague-filled prisons, and were brought to the Old Bailey in leg-irons to be viciously taunt­ed by pro-Charles II judges. The Cooke events, Robertson proposed, showed that a person was more likely to get a fair trial in a repub­lic­an court, than in a monarchical court. And provided a model for modern trials of criminal national leaders. 

The devil sits with 11 men: 9 regicides and 2 chaplains who supported Charles I's execution

Wikiwand

Robertson showed that some important 1640s men have been white­washed out of history by British historians, both conservative and liberal, for pol­itical reas­ons. These extra­ord­inary men, who had taken on King Charles I, were later ex­ec­ut­ed at the Old Bailey in 1660. Thus Robert­son concluded that the king’s execution was necessary to est­ab­lish Parl­iament's sovereignty and that the regic­ide trial victims should be seen as national heroes. I can agree with his first conclusion but his second conclusion sounds like a barrister, not like an historian  

one of world’s dream cities: Palermo

 

A 2023 survey by Travel + Leisure invited readers to vote on the world’s most beautiful cities. Clearly the answer differed for everyone, but see their non-exhaustive list of the world’s 25 most beautiful cities. I chose Palermo.

On Sicily's Nth coast the sunny city is a dream for archit­ect­ure fans, right on the Mediterranean's cross roads. Palermo shows a striking mix of architectural styles, after centuries of conquest & differing cultural influences, a rich history of local civilisations. It changed from a Carthaginian stronghold to a Roman province, reaching its cultural peak in Arab rule (831–1072) and then Christian Norman conquerors, creating the unique Arab-Norman architectural style seen now.

Palermo has many fine museums, Sicily's Regional Gallery being housed in a stunning C15th Gothic-Catalan palace and containing iconic works of medieval and Renaissance art. Separately Palermo noted that a Goddess Artemis fragment be­l­ong­­ing to the Parthenon’s east­ern frieze on loan from Sic­ily’s Archaeol­og­ical Museum will remain in Ath­ens. And the Vatican will return Marble fragments from the Vatican Museums, with papal donations

Royal Norman Palace of the Kings of Sicily created in C12th, had the beautiful Palatine Chapel in its 2nd floor. Inside the chapel is decorated with beautiful golden mosaics, and the ceiling is very different from any other Christian church. Carved wood in an Islamic style. Tickets to the Norman Palace include entry to Palatine Chapel, Royal Apartments, Royal Gardens and special exhibitions. 

Palermo Cathedral, built 1185, was built on a Byzantine Church. See the architectural styles that reflect the long history of additions & renovations to the cathedral. In a chapel, right of the altar, lies St Rosalie, patron saint of Palermo. And see the tomb of Blessed Father Puglisi, Mafia-killed. Entry to the cathedral is free except for a visit to the rooftop for great views over the city and to the royal tombs.

The Arab-Norman architectural style features unique blends of Islamic domes & Byzantine mosaics. Palace of the Normans is a striking gold-stone example of the Arab-Norman style and home to Sicily's regional parliament,  a C9th palace representing one of Europe's most ancient royal residences. And the Palatine Chapel, completed in 1142 is one of Europe's great artistic treasures with stunning Byzantine mosaics covering the walls and ceiling.

teatro massimo

Built from 1875-97, Teatro Massimo is the largest Opera House in Italy and the 3rd largest and most celebrated in the world after Paris & Vienna Operas. Tea­t­ro Mass­imo’s copper dome is c250’ over the piazza bel­ow. From the roof­top, see the city’s terracotta skyline in the early evening.

Quattro Canti Square/Piazza Vigliena is the centre of Palermo’s historic quarter, lined with 4 Baroque buildings. Tourists can see some beautiful opera performances in the square, a famous Baroque intersection that beautifully divides the historic city into 4 distinct quarters. It is the architectural marvel of squares, with baroque beauty & intricate details. Each corner is a masterpiece, with the baroque statues representing the Four Seasons. 

C16th nude sculptures at the Piazza Pretoria

 

Near Quattro Canti is Praetorian Fountain, built in Florence in C16th. When the owner lost money, he sold the fountain to the City. The fountain was broken into hundreds of pieces and shipped to Palermo to be reassembled. Because of the totally nude statues, and a convent looking out onto the fountain, it was called the Square of Shame.

Norman Palace

Palatine Chapel

Porta Nuova/New Gate next to the Norman palace was built when Holy Roman Emperor Charles V came to the Kingdom of Sicily in 1536 and crossed the arched entrance to Palermo. To honour the event, New Gate was completed in 1584, later destroyed by fire and then rebuilt more elaborately by the City Senate as the triumphal arched gateway leading to the oldest street, Cassaro.

Porta Nuova 

Like Rome's Church of the Capuchin Monks, where there are bodies & bones arranged into art, the Capuchin Catacombs in Palermo opened 1599, to avoid throwing all the dead brothers into a mass grave. Originally only Capuchin friars were entombed in the catacombs, but in C17th & 18ths, it was a way for people to show their wealth and power. There are 2000+ mummified bodies in the catacombs now, dating to C16th-early C20th. Men were embalmed and put on display in their clothes, remarkably well preserved, as are their intact hair and skin. There's NO photography in this eerie historical site. 

Capuchin catacombs

The World of Sicily

Ballaro Market is the one of the oldest street-markets in Italy & Palermo’s largest. Fish, meat, fruit & vegetables are available, complete with plenty of street food stalls. Loud and crowded, the stall holders can be very vocal advertising their produce and the atmosphere in the passionate street-life surrounds its historical outdoor markets like Arabic souks. il Capo Market is smaller and quieter than Ballaro, primarily a fish market and also has plenty of street foodstalls. The best time to visit is in the morning since many stalls close after lunch. la Vucciria Market Square in Sicilian means chaos, an apt description for this small square with its fish restaurants and food trucks. 

Gorgeous coffee shops in the small lanes

A train runs from Naples to Sicily then drives onto the ferry, by day or on overnight sleepers. Or fly to Falcone-Borsellino Airport from several European cities or get a connecting flight via Rome. If driving to Sicily by car, vehicle ferries travel from different mainland ports to Messina, Sicily’s primary transit hub.

transport from Southern Italy to Sicily

 Summer is peak season but winter is the best time to visit when the mild weather is great for walking around the city. All the attractions are open, and there are smaller crowds! The only issue might be the fewer daylight hours in winter. Near the Norman Palace, relax in the Gardens of the Villa Bonnano with palms and citrus trees, offering relief from the city’s action. And Mondello Beach is just a short distance from the city centre, an iconic coastline with pure water and stunning Mediterranean views. Although Palermo was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2015, and since I've only spent one day there, I gratefully thank Nigel and Sue Adventures.

Edgar Degas, impressionist or modernist?

Edgar Degas (1834-1917) was born in Paris, son of banker Augustin De Gas. At 11 Degas enrolled in Lycée Louis-le-Grand, graduating in 1853. He was painting seriously and by 18, his bedroom became an artist's studio. He began making copies in the Louvre, but his father wanted him to study. So Degas enrolled in Law at Paris Uni in Nov 1853 but was bored. In 1855, Degas met Jean Auguste Ingres whom he revered. In Ap that year, Degas enrolled at Ecole des Beaux-Arts, where he studied drawing & flourished. In Jul 1856 Degas moved to Italy for 3 years, copying Renaissance art.

After returning home, Degas continued copying paintings at the Louvre, still remained a keen copyist. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1865, when the jury accepted his painting Scene of War in the Middle Ages, attracting little attention. Although he exhibited annually in the Salon for 4 years, he submitted no more history paintings; his Steeplechase: The Fallen Jockey (1866 Salon) signalled a new commitment to modernity. The change in his art was influenced by Édouard Manet who he met in the Louvre.

Degas, Cotton Office in New Orleans, 

1873, Wiki

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When the Franco-Prussian War erupted in 1870, Degas enlisted in the National Guard, defending Paris. During rifle training, his eyes were damaged. Post-war Degas enjoyed a long stay (from 1872) in New Orleans LA where his brother René and other relatives lived. One of Degas' New Orleans works, Cotton Exchange at New Orleans, won positive notice in France. Note it was his only work purchased by a museum during his lifetime!

Impressionism emerged in the 1860s, and grew in part from the realism of men like Courbet and Corot. The Impressionists painted the world's realities using notable colours, concentrating mainly on light effects. Degas hurt the Impressionists when he constantly belittled their en plein air art. He was anti-Impressionism, just like the critics who reviewed their shows, saying: What I do is the result of reflection and of the study of the great masters; I know nothing of spontaneity. See his Parisian scenes, off-centre compositions, experiments with colour & form, and friendship with key Impressionists.

Degas returned to Paris in 1873. Alas his father died and in settling the estate, it was found that brother René had amassed huge business debts. To preserve the family name, Degas had to sell his house and a collection of art he’d inherited. He suddenly found himself dependent on his own art sales for income. By now very unhappy with the Salon, Degas joined forces with young artists who were organising an Independent Art Society. Their first Impressionist Exhibitions started in 1874,  and they later held 7 additional shows until 1886.

Degas’ distinct style showed his respect for the old masters and his admiration for Ingres and Eugène Delacroix. And he liked the vigorous realism of popular illustrators. When he became famous for horses and dancers, his treatment of traditional historical subjects became less idealised. Degas already showed the mature style that he would later develop more, by cropping subjects awkwardly and by choosing unusual views. By late 1860s, Degas had shifted from his initial history paintings to contemporary life.

 
The artist organised the shows and displayed his style in all of them, despite conflicting with other group members. He had little in common with Monet & other landscape artists whom he mocked for painting outside. Conservative socially, he disliked the scandal created by the shows, plus the publicity that his colleagues sought. He rejected the name Impressionist that the press popularised, and his insistence on having traditional artists in the shows annoyed the group, disbanding in 1886. As his financial situation improved via selling his own works, he was keen to collect works by old masters eg El Greco, and moderns eg Manet, Pissarro, Cézanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh. Loved artists, Ingres & Delacroix, were well represented.

The Ballet Class, c1875

Wiki

The Dancing Class, 1870s

The French Desk

Degas became isolated, due partly to his belief that an artist could have no personal life. The Dreyfus Affair (1894->) brought his anti-Semitism to the fore and he separated from all his Jewish friends. His interest in portraiture led him to study the ways in which peoples’ social stature and employment type were revealed in their features, posture & dress. In Portraits At the Stock Exchange 1879, he anti-Semitically showed a group of Jewish businessmen. With his athletic dancers and solid laundresses painting, he revealed their occupations by their dress, activities and body type.

His subject matter & his technique changed. The dark palette displaying Dutch art’s influence gave way to colour use and bold brush strokes. Place de la Concorde 1875 “froze” to portray them accurately, seeing movement. The changes to his palette, brushwork & composition displayed the influence that both Impressionism’s & photography’s natural images had.

Jockeys, 1881

all that's good

Race horses, 1884

While visiting a childhood friend in Normandy, Degas made his first studies of horses. Then his treatment of traditional historical subjects became idealised. Degas did racing scenes throughout his career, using his horses and jockeys from one picture to the next. All the figures had been in earlier works and some of the poses were quite distinguished. The prancing mount and rider derived from Benozzo Gozzoli's Journey in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi Florence, which Degas copied earlier. Yet this picture was unusual for its medium—pastel, colouring the sky and landscape, & giving a warm undertone in front. Race course scenes allowed Degas to depict horses and riders in a modern context.

Laundry Girls Ironing, 1884

WikiArt

When he painted working women eg milliners & laundresses, his treatment of traditional historical subjects became less idealised. Portrait of Mlle Fiocre in Ballet La Source, in the 1868 Salon, was his first major work to introduce his favourite models: dancers. In many later paintings, dancers were shown backstage or rehearsing, focusing on their status as working professionals. Degas also began to paint café life. He urged other artists to paint real life instead of traditional mythological or historical art, and his few literary scenes were modern. By the later 1870s Degas had mastered not only the traditional oils, but also pastels. The dry medium enabled him to reconcile his interest in line and in expressive colour. In the mid-1870s he returned to etching and less traditional printmaking.

These changes in media engendered the paintings that Degas produced in later life. Degas drew and painted women drying themselves with towels, combing their hair and bathing. The backgrounds were simplified.

Except for his skilled draftsmanship and obsession with figures, his later work bore little resemblance to his early era. Ironically the works created after the heyday of the Impressionist movement that most obviously used the colouristic techniques of Impressionism. Certain features of Degas's work remained for life. He always painted indoors, working IN his studio using models. The figure remained his primary subject; his landscapes were produced from memory or imagination. His works were prepared, calculated, practised and developed in stages.

Public reception of Degas' work included both admiration to contempt. As a promising artist in the conventional mode, Degas had a few works accepted in the Salon in the early years. These works received praise from some French critics. But Degas soon joined forces with the Impressionists and rejected the rigid rules, judgements, and elitism of the Salon. The Salon initially rejected the experimentalism of the Impressionists!

Degas' work was controversial, but in time it was admired for its draftsmanship. The nudes Degas exhibited in the 8th Impressionist Exhibition in 1886 produced "the most concentrated body of critical writing on the artist in his lifetime. ... The overall reaction was positive and laudatory." Little Dancer of Fourteen Years was probably his most controversial piece, with some critics said they saw ugliness.

He was a key artist late in life, esp by his great admirer Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec; it was his lively creation of daily activities and his bold colours that urged him into late Impressionism. But his paintings, pastels, drawings & sculptures weren’t intended for exhibition. Degas had no formal pupils, although he did influence painters like Mary Cassatt & Walter Sickert. He was working more, only ceasing his art in 1912. With demolition of his home, he spent the last years of his life, single and nearly blind, wandering Paris streets. Degas died in 1917. His paintings were discovered only after post-death, now prominently displayed in important museums.