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smiling Victorians: why it's a myth that our ancestors didn't smile for pictures

为什么我们的祖先没有微笑

Our image of the Victorians is shaped by the photographs we see in history books-stern, austere and relentlessly severe. Yet there was a playful side to our 19th-century ancestors, and Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones has the proof. Here he introdtuces a selection of portraits that show the sitters doing something entirely unexpected smiling

我们对维多利亚时代的印象是由我们在历史书中看到的照片塑造的，这些照片严厉、严肃、无情。然而，我们19世纪的祖先也有顽皮的一面，劳埃德·卢埃林·琼斯就是证据。在这里，他介绍了一系列的肖像画，这些肖像画中，坐着的人做着完全出乎意料的微笑

March 30,2020 at 2:46 pm

2020年3月30日下午2:46

As a historian who's always searching for the text or the image that makes us re-evaluate the past,I' ve become preoccupied with looking for photographs that show our Victorian ancestors smiling(what better way to shatter the image of 19th-century prudery?).I' ve found quite a few, and-since I started posting them on Twitter-they have been causing quite a stir. People have been surprised to see evidence that Victorians had fun and could, and did, laugh. They are noting that the Victorians suddenly seem to become more human as the hundred-or-so years that separate us fade away through our common experience of laughter.

作为一个历史学家，他总是在寻找能让我们重新评价过去的文字或图像，我已经开始全神贯注于寻找那些能展示我们维多利亚时代祖先微笑的照片（还有什么更好的方法可以打破19世纪的普鲁德里形象？）。我发现了不少，自从我开始在Twitter上发布它们以来，它们已经引起了相当大的轰动。人们惊讶地发现，维多利亚时代的人玩得很开心，而且能够笑。他们注意到，维多利亚时代似乎突然变得更加人性化，因为我们相隔的一百多年随着我们共同的欢笑经历逐渐消失。

Of course,I need to concede that my collection of ' smiling Victorians' makes up only a tiny percentage of the vast catalogue of photographic portraiture created between 1840 and 1900, the majority of which show sitters posing miserably and stiffly in front of painted backdrops, or staring absently into the middle distance. How do we explain this trend?

当然，我需要承认的是，在1840年至1900年间创作的大量肖像摄影作品中，我收集的“微笑的维多利亚人”只占很小的比例，其中大多数是坐在画作背景前痛苦而僵硬地摆姿势，或是心不在焉地凝视着中间的距离。我们如何解释这种趋势？

Why didn't many Victorians smile in photographs?

为什么许多维多利亚人在照片中没有微笑？

During the 1840s and 1850s, in the early days of photography, exposure times were notoriously long: the daguerreotype photographic method (producing an image on a silvered copper plate)

在19世纪40年代和19世纪50年代，在摄影的早期，曝光时间是出了名的长：达盖尔照相法（在镀银的铜板上产生图像）

could take several minutes to complete, resulting in blurred images as sitters shifted position or adjusted their limbs. The thought of holding a fixed grin as the camera performed its magical duties was too much to contemplate, and so a non-committal blank stare became the norm.

可能需要几分钟才能完成，当坐着的人改变姿势或调整四肢时，图像会变得模糊。一想到相机在履行其神奇的职责时会咧着嘴咧嘴笑，这实在是太难想象了，于是，一个不负责任的茫然凝视就成了常态。

But exposure times were much quicker by the 1880s, and the introduction of the Box Brownie and other portable cameras meant that, though slow by today's digital standards, the exposurewas alnost instantaneous. Spontaneous smiles were relatively easy to capture by the 1890s, so we must look elsewhere for an explanation of why Victorians still hesitated to smile.

但到了19世纪80年代，曝光时间要快得多，而Box Brownie和其他便携式相机的推出意味着，尽管以今天的数字标准来看，曝光速度很慢，但曝光并非即时的。到了19世纪90年代，人们相对容易捕捉到自发的微笑，所以我们必须从别处寻找一个解释，为什么维多利亚时代的人仍然对微笑犹豫不决。

One explanation might be the loss of dignity displayed through a cheesy grin."Nature gave us lips to conceal our teeth,"ran one popular Victorian maxim, alluding to the fact that before the birth of proper dentistry, mouths were often in a shocking state of hygiene.A flashing set of healthy and clean, regular' pearly whites' was a rare sight in Victorian society, the preserve of the super-rich(and even then, dental hygiene was not guaranteed).

其中一个解释可能是由于一个低俗的笑容而失去了尊严。“大自然给了我们嘴唇来掩饰我们的牙齿，”维多利亚时代的一句流行格言暗指这样一个事实：在适当的牙科技术诞生之前，口腔常常处于令人震惊的卫生状态。一套闪亮的健康和干净的牙齿，普通的“珍珠白”在维多利亚社会是一种罕见的景象，是超级富豪的专利（即使在那时，牙齿卫生也没有保障）。

A toothy grin(especially when there were gaps or blackened gnashers) lacked class: drunks, tramps, prostitutes and buffoonish music hall performers might gurn and grin with a smile as wide as Lewis Carroll's gum-exposing Cheshire Cat, but it was not a becoming look for properly bred persons. Even Mark Twain,a man who enjoyed a hearty laugh, said that when it came to photographic portraits there could be "nothing more damning than a silly, foolish smile fixed forever".

露齿而笑（尤其是在有缝隙或被熏黑的啃咬者的时候）缺乏阶级性：醉汉、流浪汉、妓女和滑稽的音乐厅表演者可能会咧嘴而笑，笑得像刘易斯·卡罗尔的口香糖露出柴郡猫一样宽，但这不是一个适合有教养的人的样子。就连喜欢开怀大笑的马克吐温也说，当谈到摄影肖像时，“没有什么比永远固定的愚蠢的微笑更可怕的了”。

Part of the reticence towards the tooth-exposing photo lies in the fact that, during the 1830s and 1840s, the new mechanical art form of photography had grown out of the old, aristocratic tradition of the oil portrait, which sought to convey nobility and elegance. Now, the burgeoning middle classes and even the new celebrities of the age-such as ' Professional Beauties'(like Lily Langtry) and actors-attempted to mimic this aristocratic grandeur via the medium of photographic portraiture. smiling was therefore unnecessary; laughing was taboo.

对暴露牙齿的照片保持沉默的部分原因在于，在19世纪30年代和19世纪40年代，新的机械摄影艺术形式是从油画肖像的古老贵族传统中发展出来的，油画肖像试图传达高贵和优雅。现在，新兴的中产阶级，甚至是那个时代的新名人，如“职业美女”（如莉莉·兰特里）和演员，都试图通过摄影肖像来模仿这种贵族气派。因此，微笑是不必要的；笑是禁忌。

Yet this was also the age of comic greats-Dickens, Gilbert and Sullivan, Wilde and the musical hall stars Dan Leno and Vesta Tilley-and we know from the literature, songs, drama and graphic arts of the period that the Victorians loved to laugh. It was an essential component of good health. As the 1875 Railway Book o Fun proclaimed: cheerfulness was a "Christian duty" and a"proper means to maintain mental hilarity". The possession of a good sense of humour was an attractive quality and was much looked for in a romantic partner; newspaper Matrimonial Advertisements' often emphasised "jolly"and "fondness of fun"as key requisites in a young man or lady.

然而，这也是喜剧巨星狄更斯，吉尔伯特和沙利文，王尔德和音乐厅明星丹雷诺和维斯塔蒂利的时代，我们从这一时期的文学，歌曲，戏剧和图形艺术中知道，维多利亚时代的人喜欢笑。它是身体健康的重要组成部分。正如1875年铁路书籍《欢乐》所宣称的那样：快乐是一种“基督教的责任”，也是“保持精神愉悦的适当手段”。拥有良好的幽默感是一种很有吸引力的品质，在一个浪漫的伴侣身上是很常见的；报纸上的婚姻广告常常强调“快乐”和“爱好乐趣”，这是年轻男女的关键条件。

The "We are not amused"slogan has tarnished Queen Victoria and her age for long enough. It is time to reclaim Victorian laughter. After all, the queen herself had what we might calla cracking sense of humour', and laughed often, even in her final years. She had a"wonderful laugh"wrote Vicky of Prussia,"and grandmama often laughed till she was red in the face and even till she cried".

“我们不被逗乐”的口号已经玷污了维多利亚女王和她的年龄。是时候恢复维多利亚时代的笑声了。毕竟，女王本人也有一种我们可以称之为“极度幽默感”的幽默感，甚至在她生命的最后几年也经常笑。普鲁士的维姬写道：“她笑得很开心，祖母经常笑到脸红，甚至哭。”。