WEBVTT - The Lady Vanishes 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:22.276 Bushkin Saint James Palace in London, down the street from 0:00:22.276 --> 0:00:26.236 Buckingham Palace. It's the official residence of the British monarchy, 0:00:26.836 --> 0:00:30.276 built in the fifteen thirties by Henry the Eighth. It's 0:00:30.316 --> 0:00:32.756 not open to the public, but you can apply to 0:00:32.756 --> 0:00:36.076 go inside, which I did not long ago. It's not 0:00:36.156 --> 0:00:39.076 that hard. As a soldier with a machine gun standing 0:00:39.076 --> 0:00:41.836 by a little cottage. He tells me to go inside, 0:00:42.116 --> 0:00:44.436 and then a man named Desmond shaw Taylor comes and 0:00:44.476 --> 0:00:47.636 gets me. He's the curator of the Royal Art Collection, 0:00:48.356 --> 0:00:52.356 Early Middle aged distinguished, a kind of high end exuberance. 0:00:52.876 --> 0:00:55.316 You know, look at that building now, it's coming missing. 0:00:54.996 --> 0:01:00.476 A page, a nice jumble. Yes, I came here to 0:01:00.476 --> 0:01:03.236 see a painting bought by Queen Victoria nearly one hundred 0:01:03.236 --> 0:01:10.916 and fifty years ago. It's called the Roll Call. Inside 0:01:10.956 --> 0:01:16.556 the palace there's red everywhere, Royal red, red carpets, red wallpaper. 0:01:17.076 --> 0:01:20.156 All the trim is in gold. The rooms are massive 0:01:20.196 --> 0:01:23.756 and almost entirely empty except for the art on the walls. 0:01:24.676 --> 0:01:29.236 Enormous canvasses spanning many centuries everywhere, and in a kind 0:01:29.236 --> 0:01:32.476 of hallway not far from the entrance there it is 0:01:33.036 --> 0:01:35.116 Roll Call, eighteen seventy four. 0:01:36.076 --> 0:01:39.676 The absolute point of the rocal is that it has 0:01:39.716 --> 0:01:43.196 a single brilliant image idea. 0:01:43.756 --> 0:01:46.236 The painting depicts a group of British soldiers in the 0:01:46.276 --> 0:01:49.676 Crimean War, which is a war England and France fought 0:01:49.676 --> 0:01:53.236 against Russia in the eighteen fifties. In Roll Call, there's 0:01:53.396 --> 0:01:56.356 just been a battle and the soldiers are lining up 0:01:56.396 --> 0:01:59.156 in the gray light of morning to be reviewed by 0:01:59.156 --> 0:02:04.596 the commanding officer. We start talking about a particularly distinctive 0:02:04.596 --> 0:02:07.476 figure in the middle of the painting. Desmond has a 0:02:07.476 --> 0:02:10.876 flashlight in his hand because it's quite gloomy in the palace. 0:02:11.276 --> 0:02:15.476 Of course, palaces are supposed to be gloomy. He shines 0:02:15.516 --> 0:02:17.276 the light directly on the man's face. 0:02:17.636 --> 0:02:21.196 That's a brave young man who manages to stand up brighton. 0:02:21.516 --> 0:02:26.356 And this sort of encounter is suggestive of comradeship, isn't it. 0:02:28.876 --> 0:02:32.516 Saint James Pallace has dozens of war paintings, Handsome generals 0:02:32.516 --> 0:02:38.636 on white chargers, panoramic battle scenes, faceless soldiers in glistening uniforms. 0:02:38.916 --> 0:02:44.116 They're almost cartoons. But in Roll Call the men are exhausted, wounded, 0:02:44.236 --> 0:02:46.116 defiant but draggled. 0:02:46.476 --> 0:02:50.796 It's real and they are standing in a line, but 0:02:50.916 --> 0:02:54.116 they're not in a straight line, and they're not anonymous. Yes, 0:02:54.436 --> 0:02:58.276 so it's got one fantastic idea foth. 0:03:02.636 --> 0:03:05.396 My name is Malcolm Glabo. You're listening to the first 0:03:05.436 --> 0:03:16.836 episode of my podcast, Revisionist History. Every week for the 0:03:16.836 --> 0:03:19.156 next ten weeks, I'm going to take you back to 0:03:19.196 --> 0:03:22.636 examine something that I think has been overlooked or misunderstood. 0:03:23.316 --> 0:03:25.396 One week, I'm going to talk about a car crash 0:03:25.516 --> 0:03:28.276 just outside of San Diego. Another week, I'm going to 0:03:28.316 --> 0:03:30.876 take you back to a secret Pentagon project in Saigon. 0:03:32.516 --> 0:03:36.316 The tagline of this show sometimes the past deserves a 0:03:36.356 --> 0:03:39.436 second chance, and that really goes to the heart of it. 0:03:40.116 --> 0:03:42.396 I think too often we make up our minds about 0:03:42.396 --> 0:03:45.156 something that has happened, and then we move on without 0:03:45.156 --> 0:03:48.636 pausing to ask, Wait a minute, is that actually what happened? 0:03:49.316 --> 0:04:02.716 Do we really understand it? I'm starting with something very simple, 0:04:03.116 --> 0:04:07.276 a painting the roll call all but Forgotten. Now, if 0:04:07.276 --> 0:04:09.436 you want to see it before you listen to this story, 0:04:09.636 --> 0:04:12.676 you can pause and go to Revisionististory dot com. But 0:04:12.756 --> 0:04:16.956 in eighteen seventy four, when this painting became famous, something 0:04:17.116 --> 0:04:20.996 extraordinary happened that I think is worth revisiting because it's 0:04:20.996 --> 0:04:23.196 an issue that we deal with all the time today, 0:04:23.596 --> 0:04:26.876 which is what it means to be the first, the 0:04:26.956 --> 0:04:34.396 first outsider to enter a closed world. The art world 0:04:34.516 --> 0:04:37.596 in England at that time is controlled by something called 0:04:37.596 --> 0:04:41.436 the Royal Academy. It consists of forty artists and being 0:04:41.436 --> 0:04:44.596 elected to the Royal Academy is the highest honor any 0:04:44.716 --> 0:04:48.596 artist can get. It's like winning an Oscar. Membership makes 0:04:48.636 --> 0:04:51.836 your reputation and makes it possible to become very wealthy 0:04:51.876 --> 0:04:55.116 as an artist. And every year the Academy puts on 0:04:55.196 --> 0:04:59.596 an art exhibition. Thousands of paintings are submitted, they choose 0:04:59.596 --> 0:05:03.076 a select few and display them at Burlington House on Piccadilly. 0:05:03.596 --> 0:05:06.916 Remember this is before movies and television and recorded music 0:05:07.196 --> 0:05:11.116 painting is it. Hundreds of thousands of people come to 0:05:11.156 --> 0:05:15.316 these shows and roll Call gets chosen for the Royal Academy, 0:05:15.476 --> 0:05:18.236 and not just chosen, chosen in a way that makes 0:05:18.276 --> 0:05:21.956 it a really big deal. First of all, where the 0:05:22.076 --> 0:05:24.836 Academy hangs at painting on the wall matters a lot. 0:05:25.436 --> 0:05:27.236 If they hang it way up near the ceiling, if 0:05:27.236 --> 0:05:30.756 they sky it, that means your painting is considered second class. 0:05:31.476 --> 0:05:33.796 If they hang it at eye level, what's called on 0:05:33.876 --> 0:05:37.836 the line, that's fantastic. Roll Call is on the line. 0:05:41.156 --> 0:05:44.276 Then there's where in Burlington House they put it. There's 0:05:44.316 --> 0:05:46.796 a gallery in the back called the Lecture Room. The 0:05:46.876 --> 0:05:49.876 lecture room is known as the black Hole. Being hung 0:05:49.916 --> 0:05:51.676 in the black Hole was almost as bad as not 0:05:51.716 --> 0:05:54.396 being hung at all. But if they hang at painting 0:05:54.436 --> 0:05:58.716 near the front in gallery two, that's incredibly prestigious. So 0:05:58.836 --> 0:06:03.116 where was roll Call hung Gallery two? Unbelievable? On the 0:06:03.196 --> 0:06:04.916 line in Gallery. 0:06:04.516 --> 0:06:11.516 Two I was reading about it creates an extraordinary sensation. Yes, 0:06:12.116 --> 0:06:15.996 completely in an unusual way, even for that time. 0:06:16.436 --> 0:06:18.836 The day the show opens, the crowds make a bee 0:06:18.836 --> 0:06:19.676 line for Roll Call. 0:06:19.916 --> 0:06:21.916 The crowds were so great that you had to have 0:06:22.276 --> 0:06:26.996 basically we employ warden, but they're police to say you know, 0:06:27.116 --> 0:06:29.156 they touch or yeah, move on. 0:06:29.716 --> 0:06:32.796 The only contemporary equivalent I can think of is people 0:06:32.876 --> 0:06:35.836 camping out in line for two days to buy Beyonce tickets, 0:06:36.356 --> 0:06:38.436 or the kind of frenzy the Beatles faced when they 0:06:38.476 --> 0:06:42.076 first came to America. Roll Call is the hit of 0:06:42.116 --> 0:06:45.796 the Royal Academy show. After that, Roll Call goes in 0:06:45.836 --> 0:06:49.316 a tour of England. In Newcastle, men walk up and 0:06:49.356 --> 0:06:52.996 down the sidewalks with sandwich boards saying simply, the Role 0:06:53.076 --> 0:06:57.156 Call is coming. In Liverpool, twenty thousand people go to 0:06:57.196 --> 0:07:00.556 see it. In those days, prominent paintings were put on 0:07:00.636 --> 0:07:04.236 little playing cards, and two hundred and fifty thousand cards 0:07:04.236 --> 0:07:06.756 are sold with an image of Roll Call. A bidding 0:07:06.796 --> 0:07:10.716 war breaks out among potential buyers. Only Queen Victoria, one 0:07:10.756 --> 0:07:13.996 of the greatest art collectors of her day, decides she 0:07:14.356 --> 0:07:17.276 absolutely has to have it, which is how it comes 0:07:17.276 --> 0:07:21.756 to hang in Saint James's Palace. Desmond Shaw Taylor must 0:07:21.756 --> 0:07:24.676 have seen Roll Call a thousand times, but as he 0:07:24.756 --> 0:07:28.476 shines his flashlight over the artist's brushwork, it's like he's 0:07:28.476 --> 0:07:31.796 seeing it for the first time. He's excited about every 0:07:31.876 --> 0:07:34.876 little detail, even down to the soldier's shoes. 0:07:35.156 --> 0:07:38.836 That's pretty fabulous, isn't it. It's always so difficult too, 0:07:40.676 --> 0:07:45.436 and to paint nothing in particular happening without over doing it. 0:07:45.556 --> 0:07:48.076 And if you just get one gray color and just 0:07:48.676 --> 0:07:51.636 a little bit of unpicturing and just pick out fulls 0:07:51.676 --> 0:07:57.636 of shoes, just very impressive. H I mean, i I'm 0:07:57.676 --> 0:07:58.556 enjoying looking at this. 0:07:59.716 --> 0:08:02.996 It's a remarkable story, but I've left out the most 0:08:02.996 --> 0:08:09.476 remarkable fact of all. The artist, an unknown, more importantly woman. 0:08:09.996 --> 0:08:12.756 At a time when the art world was overwhelmingly male, 0:08:13.676 --> 0:08:16.636 British women in the nineteenth century weren't even allowed to 0:08:16.716 --> 0:08:20.796 study fine art. It was a closed world. And suddenly, 0:08:20.836 --> 0:08:23.516 in the middle of that closed world there enters a 0:08:23.556 --> 0:08:27.796 striking young woman named Elizabeth Thompson, raised in Switzerland by 0:08:27.836 --> 0:08:32.236 wealthy Bohemian parents, an outsider, and she breaks down the door. 0:08:36.356 --> 0:08:39.436 I've been fascinated by the story of Elizabeth Thompson for years, 0:08:39.916 --> 0:08:43.156 by roll Call, and more particularly by what happened to 0:08:43.196 --> 0:08:47.356 Elizabeth Thompson after the stunning success of her painting. What 0:08:47.476 --> 0:08:51.836 fascinates me is how her story is repeated over and 0:08:51.996 --> 0:08:56.156 over again. Once you know about Elizabeth Thompson, you see 0:08:56.196 --> 0:09:04.036 Elizabeth Thompson's everywhere. I don't know if you've ever heard 0:09:04.036 --> 0:09:07.036 of Julia Gillard. She was the first woman to become 0:09:07.116 --> 0:09:10.396 Prime Minister of Australia. He served from twenty ten to 0:09:10.436 --> 0:09:14.676 twenty thirteen, and she had an incredibly tumultuous time in office. 0:09:15.316 --> 0:09:17.476 Near the end of her tenure, she gave a famous 0:09:17.556 --> 0:09:20.636 speech on the floor of the Australian Parliament. Here's the 0:09:20.636 --> 0:09:21.636 part everyone noticed. 0:09:22.236 --> 0:09:25.596 The Leader of the Opposition says that people who hold 0:09:25.676 --> 0:09:30.196 sexist views and who are melogynists are not appropriate for 0:09:30.356 --> 0:09:33.156 high office. Well, I hope the Leader of the Opposition 0:09:33.196 --> 0:09:35.996 has got a piece of paper and he is writing 0:09:36.036 --> 0:09:39.316 out his resignation, because if he wants to know what 0:09:39.436 --> 0:09:43.316 misogyny looks like in modern Australia, he doesn't need a 0:09:43.436 --> 0:09:46.756 motion in the House of Representatives. He needs a miro. 0:09:47.036 --> 0:09:48.316 That's what he needs. 0:09:48.996 --> 0:09:51.556 When I heard Julia Gillard give that speech, I thought 0:09:51.596 --> 0:09:55.436 about Elizabeth Thompson because Gillard and Thompson were in the 0:09:55.516 --> 0:09:59.796 same situation. Women dealing with the consequences are breaking down 0:09:59.836 --> 0:10:03.596 the door. I also remember Elizabeth Thompson when I think 0:10:03.596 --> 0:10:10.356 of Hillary Clinton. Theres an idea that I think helps 0:10:10.396 --> 0:10:14.316 explain the phenomenon of Elizabeth Thompson and Julia Gillard. It's 0:10:14.356 --> 0:10:19.196 called moral licensing. It's a fairly new concept in social psychology. 0:10:19.516 --> 0:10:21.436 It was developed by a number of the best young 0:10:21.516 --> 0:10:25.316 psychologists in the field, chief among them Daniel Efren, who 0:10:25.356 --> 0:10:29.116 teaches at the London Business School. Here's the official definition 0:10:29.156 --> 0:10:33.396 of moral licensing. Past good deeds can liberate individuals to 0:10:33.516 --> 0:10:38.636 engage in behaviors that are immoral, unethical, or otherwise problematic, 0:10:39.076 --> 0:10:42.356 behaviors that they would otherwise avoid for fear of feeling 0:10:42.716 --> 0:10:50.036 or appearing immoral. When we do something good, in other words, 0:10:50.196 --> 0:10:54.036 sometimes we then, on occasion, give ourselves permission to do 0:10:54.076 --> 0:10:58.716 something bad. One of Efron's first experiments in moral licensing 0:10:58.836 --> 0:11:02.516 was in two thousand and nine. He surveys people who 0:11:02.596 --> 0:11:06.476 publicly self identify as supporters of Barack Obama for president, 0:11:07.316 --> 0:11:09.796 and what he finds is that supporting a black politician 0:11:10.156 --> 0:11:14.076 doesn't always signal that you're a racially open person who 0:11:14.116 --> 0:11:17.076 is inclined to be progressive in other areas. It can 0:11:17.116 --> 0:11:20.396 also have the opposite effect. It can free you up 0:11:20.436 --> 0:11:23.476 to go back to your old racist ways because you've 0:11:23.516 --> 0:11:25.636 proven to the world what a good person you are. 0:11:26.676 --> 0:11:29.916 And that's what he discovers. A significant chunk of the 0:11:29.956 --> 0:11:33.796 people who supported Barack Obama were then more likely, at 0:11:33.876 --> 0:11:37.236 least in the experiment, to express racially questionable opinions. 0:11:39.716 --> 0:11:44.236 I was taken by this finding that people appear to 0:11:44.276 --> 0:11:48.596 be able to license themselves based on pretty paltry virtues. 0:11:49.076 --> 0:11:51.676 I met Efren in his office in London, up in 0:11:51.676 --> 0:11:55.076 near Regent's Park. I asked him why a little egalitarian 0:11:55.116 --> 0:11:59.276 behavior doesn't lead to more egalitarian behavior. Why don't good 0:11:59.316 --> 0:12:01.316 deeds just lead to more good deeds? 0:12:01.596 --> 0:12:05.676 So your question is about when does evidence that I'm 0:12:05.756 --> 0:12:11.236 virtuous lead to more virtuous behavior versus when does evidence 0:12:11.236 --> 0:12:14.876 a virtue lead to less virtuous behavior? When does doing 0:12:14.916 --> 0:12:17.076 good lead to doing bad? And when is doing good 0:12:17.156 --> 0:12:19.636 lead to doing more good? This is the million dollar 0:12:19.796 --> 0:12:22.916 question in this literature, and it's been a puzzle. 0:12:23.436 --> 0:12:25.956 All we know is that human beings go both ways 0:12:26.716 --> 0:12:30.356 after a good deed, They sometimes follow a virtuous trajectory 0:12:31.036 --> 0:12:34.916 and sometimes they don't. There's what happens after Jackie Robinson 0:12:34.956 --> 0:12:38.076 broke the color line in nineteen forty seven becomes the 0:12:38.116 --> 0:12:42.356 first ever black professional baseball player. Within five years there 0:12:42.396 --> 0:12:44.716 are one hundred and fifty black ball players in the 0:12:44.756 --> 0:12:48.276 major leagues. I think that's what we expect. It fits 0:12:48.316 --> 0:12:52.196 our romantic notions of progress. The door opens for one person, 0:12:52.516 --> 0:12:55.676 and soon it opens for everyone. But what we have 0:12:55.756 --> 0:12:58.996 to understand is that a lot of times the opposite happens. 0:12:59.556 --> 0:13:02.316 The door opens for one person and they're the only 0:13:02.356 --> 0:13:05.196 one to slip in those who open the door then 0:13:05.236 --> 0:13:08.436 feel free to close it again for everybody else. A 0:13:08.476 --> 0:13:11.916 couple years ago, the Israeli author Almost Ilan wrote a 0:13:11.996 --> 0:13:14.196 history of the Jews in Germany called The Pity of 0:13:14.196 --> 0:13:18.236 It All. It's a fascinating book for precisely this reason, 0:13:18.876 --> 0:13:22.036 because what Ilan is interested in is the great paradox 0:13:22.076 --> 0:13:25.116 of Germany's history with the Jews. Here we have a 0:13:25.156 --> 0:13:29.716 country that committed the greatest historical atrocity against the Jewish people. 0:13:30.356 --> 0:13:33.116 Yet if you take the long view, as Alan does, 0:13:33.316 --> 0:13:36.676 you see that time and time again, German culture welcomed Jews, 0:13:37.036 --> 0:13:42.356 or at least welcomed some Jews. From the seventeenth century onwards, 0:13:42.476 --> 0:13:44.836 Many German states had a tradition of what were called 0:13:44.956 --> 0:13:48.556 court Jews. Most Jews were banned from living in major 0:13:48.556 --> 0:13:51.956 German cities. There were severe restrictions on what they could do, 0:13:52.596 --> 0:13:55.876 but simultaneously there was a group of protected Jews who 0:13:55.916 --> 0:13:58.596 were allowed to live and work within the city walls. 0:13:59.556 --> 0:14:02.716 In the seventeen thirties, the King of Prussia becomes alarmed 0:14:02.716 --> 0:14:05.356 by the number of Jews in Prussia, likening them to 0:14:05.516 --> 0:14:09.596 locusts bringing ruin to Christians, so he banished wish them 0:14:09.636 --> 0:14:12.516 from Berlin, but not all of them. He kicks out 0:14:12.516 --> 0:14:15.196 one hundred and forty families, and he keeps one hundred 0:14:15.196 --> 0:14:19.196 and twenty. That pattern is repeated over and again in 0:14:19.236 --> 0:14:23.516 the German speaking world. In the eighteenth century, the philosopher 0:14:23.636 --> 0:14:26.876 Moses Mendelssohn, who is Jewish, was considered one of the 0:14:26.916 --> 0:14:30.756 most brilliant men in Europe. He lives in Berlin, and 0:14:30.836 --> 0:14:34.076 people come from far and wide to visit him. How 0:14:34.116 --> 0:14:38.396 does he stay in Berlin? The King grants him exceptional status. 0:14:38.556 --> 0:14:41.356 That is to say, and these are Amasalon's words here, 0:14:41.676 --> 0:14:46.836 Mendelssohn is the Unjewish jew. The same happens one hundred 0:14:46.916 --> 0:14:50.676 years later with Bertold Auerbach. He's Jewish and he's the 0:14:50.716 --> 0:14:53.876 most widely read German novelist of his day. He's called 0:14:53.916 --> 0:14:56.916 the German Dickens. This is now at a time of 0:14:57.276 --> 0:15:02.316 virulent antisemitism throughout Germany, but Bertold Auerbach is somehow immune 0:15:02.396 --> 0:15:08.156 from that prejudice. Richard Wagner Wagner, the notorious anti Semite, 0:15:08.476 --> 0:15:12.556 loves ours and calls him a man rooted in German life. 0:15:12.876 --> 0:15:16.276 One of the brothers grim thanks Auerbach for curing him 0:15:16.276 --> 0:15:20.116 of prejudice. The Germans hate Jews as a rule, but 0:15:20.236 --> 0:15:23.516 they love Aerbach. What's going on here? It sounds like 0:15:23.556 --> 0:15:27.876 a contradiction, it's not. It's just textbook moral licensing. The 0:15:27.956 --> 0:15:31.316 Germans love Berthold Auerbach, and because they think they have 0:15:31.436 --> 0:15:35.516 demonstrated their open mindedness by loving this one Jew, they 0:15:35.516 --> 0:15:38.156 feel free to act in the most despicable way to 0:15:38.236 --> 0:15:42.396 other Jews. You open the door to one outsider, and 0:15:42.436 --> 0:15:46.236 that gives you permission to close the door to others. 0:15:53.276 --> 0:15:56.356 After seeing roll Call at Saint James's Palace, I went 0:15:56.396 --> 0:15:58.996 to the tape and sat on a little bench outside 0:15:59.036 --> 0:16:03.756 the Turner Gallery with Paul Usherwood. Usherwood is an art 0:16:03.836 --> 0:16:07.756 historian who has written extensively on Elizabeth Thompson. In fact, 0:16:07.956 --> 0:16:10.796 I first learned about Liz with Thompson because they stumbled 0:16:10.796 --> 0:16:14.516 across an absolutely brilliant article by Usherwood in the Woman's 0:16:14.596 --> 0:16:18.556 Art Journal. It was called Elizabeth Thompson Butler, a case 0:16:18.596 --> 0:16:23.036 of tokenism. Usherwood is wispy and tweedy in the best 0:16:23.076 --> 0:16:26.876 possible English way. I imagined that after our chat he 0:16:26.876 --> 0:16:29.396 would go straight home, spend an hour in the garden, 0:16:29.676 --> 0:16:32.316 then go for a brisk walk across a few soggy 0:16:32.316 --> 0:16:36.756 fields through the dogs. Ushwood argues that in making sense 0:16:36.756 --> 0:16:39.996 of what happened to Elizabeth Thompson, it's really important to 0:16:40.076 --> 0:16:43.436 understand the role of the Royal Academy. They control the 0:16:43.556 --> 0:16:48.996 art world at this point forty aloof dictatorial white men, as. 0:16:48.916 --> 0:16:53.156 An institution that was just very very powerful and much 0:16:53.236 --> 0:16:58.956 resented by people who weren't very very well by it. 0:16:59.236 --> 0:17:02.676 Academy members gave their own pictures the best positions on 0:17:02.716 --> 0:17:06.396 the walls of the annual exhibition. Meanwhile, they pretty much 0:17:06.436 --> 0:17:09.596 ignored everyone else's art, including an eighteen six tventy four. 0:17:09.956 --> 0:17:11.836 The Irwin roll call went up so. 0:17:11.956 --> 0:17:15.876 That yeah, there were six thousands paintings which didn't mate 0:17:16.156 --> 0:17:18.316 the expertise of thousands. 0:17:18.516 --> 0:17:20.956 There's only one art show that matters in England, and 0:17:20.996 --> 0:17:23.716 it's so small that thousands of artists are stuck on 0:17:23.756 --> 0:17:33.316 the outside looking in. There's a revolution brewing. So along 0:17:33.356 --> 0:17:38.156 comes Elizabeth Thompson, a woman, an outsider, with an absolutely 0:17:38.196 --> 0:17:41.516 brilliant painting, and the Academy hangs it on the line 0:17:41.516 --> 0:17:44.916 in Gallery two, and everyone thinks this is a sign 0:17:44.956 --> 0:17:48.316 that the Academy is finally opening its doors to what 0:17:48.956 --> 0:17:52.476 to the Holy Grail membership in the Royal Academy itself. 0:17:53.276 --> 0:17:56.636 It seems destined to happen. One of the most prominent 0:17:56.756 --> 0:17:59.276 art critics of the day writes in The Daily Telegraph 0:17:59.476 --> 0:18:02.276 that role call success proves that, and I'm quoting here, 0:18:02.756 --> 0:18:07.876 real genius has no insurmountable obstacles in the English art world. 0:18:10.356 --> 0:18:13.356 In short order, Thompson is nominated for election to the 0:18:13.436 --> 0:18:16.956 Royal Academy. She's one of the most famous artists in England. 0:18:17.516 --> 0:18:20.916 She has a huge public following. Every artist in the 0:18:20.996 --> 0:18:25.516 country is riveted by her candidacy. And what happens. She loses, 0:18:25.716 --> 0:18:28.836 but by just two votes. It doesn't feel At the end, 0:18:29.436 --> 0:18:33.396 everyone says, this is progress. Here we have a young artist, 0:18:33.516 --> 0:18:36.316 still in her twenties, and on her first try she 0:18:36.396 --> 0:18:39.556 comes within a hair's breadth of acceptance into the old 0:18:39.596 --> 0:18:42.876 boys club. Everyone thinks that she's going to be a 0:18:42.956 --> 0:18:45.796 lock for election the next time round. They look at 0:18:45.796 --> 0:18:54.116 her and they say Elizabeth Thompson, pioneer. But then Thompson 0:18:54.156 --> 0:18:58.796 submits another painting to the Academy, another brilliant painting called 0:18:58.876 --> 0:19:01.916 Quatro Bras, a depiction of the Battle of Waterloo. 0:19:02.076 --> 0:19:05.956 By that time, she's celebrity and has fantastic assistance from 0:19:05.996 --> 0:19:10.476 the Niamators, I mean three hundred soldiers point operator, so 0:19:10.676 --> 0:19:11.796 she could paint that picture. 0:19:12.196 --> 0:19:15.276 This is in eighteen seventy five, the year after Roll 0:19:15.356 --> 0:19:18.276 calls Triumph. So what happens to Quatrabra? 0:19:18.836 --> 0:19:21.316 What they do is they stuff it away in an 0:19:21.356 --> 0:19:23.916 obscure corner. Says quite hard. 0:19:23.876 --> 0:19:27.036 Seas Thompson's new work is hung in the lecture room 0:19:27.316 --> 0:19:30.876 at the back the black hole. And the black hole 0:19:30.956 --> 0:19:33.316 is where her election to the Royal Academy also goes. 0:19:34.076 --> 0:19:36.876 Remember she was within two votes of getting in, and 0:19:36.916 --> 0:19:39.316 everybody said she's a lock for the next time around, 0:19:39.516 --> 0:19:42.876 but she isn't. There is no next time around. Instead, 0:19:43.156 --> 0:19:47.876 the male Academy members have these absurd internal conversations about 0:19:47.916 --> 0:19:50.316 how it would work if a woman ever got elected. 0:19:50.596 --> 0:19:51.796 What about the etiquette? 0:19:51.996 --> 0:19:55.436 That's a banquet? How would that they arranged? Who would 0:19:55.596 --> 0:19:58.916 bring in? Is the thing for the male academician to 0:19:59.236 --> 0:20:01.796 escort a woman into the bank cred for? How would 0:20:01.796 --> 0:20:02.556 that work with a woman? 0:20:02.956 --> 0:20:06.196 They fussed about it. They tied themselves in knots at 0:20:06.196 --> 0:20:08.636 the thought of a woman entering their club. So the 0:20:08.676 --> 0:20:12.196 Academy members passed new regulations to limit the privileges of 0:20:12.316 --> 0:20:15.796 any women whom might get elected in the future. Because 0:20:15.836 --> 0:20:19.076 they've proven their bona fides, they hung rall call on 0:20:19.156 --> 0:20:21.916 the line in Gallery two. Who can doubt how open 0:20:21.956 --> 0:20:24.996 and progressive they are? Now they can go back to 0:20:25.076 --> 0:20:31.316 the way they were. In eighteen eighty one, Elizabeth Thompson 0:20:31.316 --> 0:20:35.076 paints what might be her most famous painting, Scotland Forever. 0:20:35.796 --> 0:20:38.276 It's a thrilling depiction of a charge of the Scots 0:20:38.356 --> 0:20:42.396 Grays at Waterloo in eighteen fifteen. Scotland Forever is never 0:20:42.436 --> 0:20:45.796 shown at the Royal Academy, and Thompson doesn't even try 0:20:45.836 --> 0:20:48.516 again to get elected. She can read the writing on 0:20:48.556 --> 0:20:52.036 the wall. In fact, no woman would be elected to 0:20:52.036 --> 0:20:55.836 the Royal Academy until nineteen thirty six, more than half 0:20:55.876 --> 0:21:01.476 a century later. As for Thompson, she married an army 0:21:01.516 --> 0:21:05.196 officer named William Butler. She changed her name. She raised 0:21:05.276 --> 0:21:08.876 six children. Her career took a backseat to her husband's. 0:21:09.516 --> 0:21:12.356 When he writes his memoirs, he doesn't say a word 0:21:12.396 --> 0:21:15.476 about her, his own wife, one of the most famous 0:21:15.636 --> 0:21:16.756 artists in England. 0:21:17.196 --> 0:21:20.996 His autobiography four hundred and fifty five pages, she's not 0:21:21.116 --> 0:21:24.516 mentioned in the index he mentions that he was married, 0:21:24.716 --> 0:21:27.796 he mentions that he did have children, and that's it. 0:21:28.876 --> 0:21:31.796 And when she writes her memoirs, she acts as if 0:21:31.796 --> 0:21:34.436 the whole incident with her near election to the Royal 0:21:34.436 --> 0:21:38.516 Academy never happened. Today people would write an entire book 0:21:38.556 --> 0:21:41.996 about it. But she's been defeated and she knows it. 0:21:42.996 --> 0:21:46.436 Here's all she says. As it turned out in eighteen 0:21:46.476 --> 0:21:49.916 seventy nine, I lost my election by two votes. Only 0:21:50.516 --> 0:21:54.076 since then, I think the door has been closed. And 0:21:54.156 --> 0:21:58.716 wisely that's the part that always gets me. And wisely 0:21:59.476 --> 0:22:10.076 she's given up. Remember how I'm mentioned that when I 0:22:10.156 --> 0:22:12.716 saw a roll call, the first thing I thought about 0:22:12.756 --> 0:22:16.876 was Julia Gillard, the former Prime Minister of Australia. That's 0:22:16.916 --> 0:22:21.516 because it's the same story. Gillard's election was a milestone 0:22:21.556 --> 0:22:24.156 in Australian history, the same way it would be for 0:22:24.196 --> 0:22:28.276 any country. Australia had been an independent nation for more 0:22:28.316 --> 0:22:32.196 than a century, one hundred and ten years of uninterrupted 0:22:32.276 --> 0:22:35.396 male rule, and that came to an end in twenty 0:22:35.436 --> 0:22:42.676 ten with this funny whip, smart tough woman. In former 0:22:42.756 --> 0:22:46.516 British colonies like Australia, the representative of the British crown 0:22:46.596 --> 0:22:49.516 is called the Governor General, and the Governor General is 0:22:49.556 --> 0:22:52.516 the person who swears in the new Prime minister. When 0:22:52.556 --> 0:22:54.876 Gillard stands up to take the oath of office, it's 0:22:54.916 --> 0:22:56.316 a doubly incredible moment. 0:22:56.876 --> 0:22:59.756 What made it loom large for me that day is 0:22:59.996 --> 0:23:02.916 our governor General at that time was the first woman 0:23:02.956 --> 0:23:04.636 to ever serve as Governor General. 0:23:04.836 --> 0:23:06.996 This is Julia Gillard telling the story. 0:23:06.916 --> 0:23:10.836 And I could see in her and in her eyes, 0:23:11.276 --> 0:23:16.916 you know, this incredible shock or delight that she was 0:23:16.996 --> 0:23:19.476 going to be the person to swear in the first 0:23:19.676 --> 0:23:25.836 woman prime minister. I Silia Eileen Dillar Clelia firm and 0:23:25.996 --> 0:23:30.156 declared that I will well and truly said the Commonwealth 0:23:30.196 --> 0:23:33.356 of Australia. And you know, she subsequently said to me, look, 0:23:33.596 --> 0:23:35.436 I didn't think i'd live to see it. I didn't 0:23:35.476 --> 0:23:37.396 think i'd live to see the day our nation had 0:23:37.396 --> 0:23:38.636 a female prime minister. 0:23:39.076 --> 0:23:42.356 It's a big deal. And Gillard, like many at the time, 0:23:42.836 --> 0:23:47.436 thinks that Australia has undergone a permanent transformation. And she 0:23:47.556 --> 0:23:50.516 also thinks that after the novelty of her election passes, 0:23:50.956 --> 0:23:54.196 she'll just be Prime Minister. Gillard, the fact of her 0:23:54.276 --> 0:23:57.556 gender will become unremarkable, the way the fact of a 0:23:57.556 --> 0:24:00.036 baseball player's race is now unremarkable. 0:24:00.836 --> 0:24:03.716 If you'd asked me then that all would have played 0:24:03.756 --> 0:24:06.236 itself out in the first few months. And then I thought, 0:24:06.316 --> 0:24:09.756 sort of the political cycleod go back to normal. And 0:24:10.116 --> 0:24:13.956 I made that judgment call spectacularly wrong. 0:24:14.356 --> 0:24:17.636 When was the first moment that you realized you were wrong? 0:24:18.476 --> 0:24:20.756 Oh, look, I don't think it was a you know, 0:24:20.796 --> 0:24:24.356 it wasn't the thud of a penny dropping in my brain. 0:24:25.396 --> 0:24:30.436 But it just became clearer and clearer, particularly by the 0:24:30.516 --> 0:24:34.476 time we were in the government's second year and we 0:24:34.476 --> 0:24:39.756 were putting a price on carbon and the campaigning against 0:24:39.796 --> 0:24:43.516 that by the opposition and in the community was getting 0:24:44.476 --> 0:24:48.236 hotter and shriller. It was in the course of that 0:24:48.356 --> 0:24:51.756 the gendered stuff really started to show. 0:24:52.276 --> 0:24:53.116 Things got ugly. 0:24:53.996 --> 0:25:01.476 You're the people elected this money, soch get right down. 0:25:04.116 --> 0:25:08.036 Her opponents would circulate lude sexual cartoons of her. She 0:25:08.076 --> 0:25:10.916 would be referred to in the newspapers as Julia, as 0:25:10.956 --> 0:25:13.236 if she was a reality TV star and not the 0:25:13.276 --> 0:25:16.436 head of state. The media would constantly refer to the 0:25:16.436 --> 0:25:19.996 outfit she wore, or how much cleavage she showed, or 0:25:19.996 --> 0:25:22.876 the tone of her voice. The CEO of a major 0:25:22.916 --> 0:25:28.596 Australian company publicly called her an unproductive old cow. One 0:25:28.636 --> 0:25:32.716 restaurant offered on its menu Julia Gillard Kentucky fried quail, 0:25:33.236 --> 0:25:36.916 small brass, huge thighs and a big red box. Was 0:25:36.956 --> 0:25:41.876 there any particular moment or thing said that that hurts 0:25:41.916 --> 0:25:42.516