Ruth's Blog

Within the Town Gallery, at eye level with the Town Mezzanine, sits a painting of Hetty Sorrel - a central character in George Eliot’s 1859 novel ‘Adam Bede’. The beauty in the novel that she is known for can be demonstrated through the glowing candlelight on her face that makes her youthful smile alluring, yet thoughtless. Apart from her physical qualities, Eliot makes it clear that she possesses few admirable personal qualities - being cold, spoiled, indifferent to others’ problems and dramatically vain. In this painting, this is made apparent through the little personal items displayed around her, as well as the painting appearing to be set at a makeup vanity.

In the novel, Hetty is a milkmaid who is in the middle of a love triangle between the eponymous Adam Bede and Captain Arthur Donnithorne. Due to her desire for wealth, she is attracted to Captain Donnithorne however he abuses this position to start a sexual relationship with her, with no intentions of marriage. After Adam interrupts a meeting between the two, he insists that Arthur writes Hetty a letter informing her of the end of their relationship. Secretly pregnant, Hetty agrees to marry Arthur but before their wedding, she unsuccessfully searches for Arthur. During this, she gives birth to her child and kills it by abandoning it in a field. Hetty is caught and trialed for murder but instead serves a sentence of penal transportation to Australia. After serving eight years of her sentence, she is permitted to return but dies before she reaches England.

From the oil painting, audiences can not only notice the late 18th century impact on the ideas and attitudes surrounding the influence of the novel, but there is also stark damage to the painting as a result of the Louth Flood of 1920. The portrait hung in the drawing room of The Limes on James Street (where the Tile Centre currently is) and the damage, which stretches across the bottom third, is a true testimony of the height and severity of the flood.