"The most influential movement in Victorian painting was the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood....Their paintings of female figures as either ravishing 'femmes fatales' or dreamy heroines in historical dress are today instantly recognizable...These paintings conveyed both women's power and vulnerability in nineteenth-century culture" (Arnold LXV).
Along with being idealistic and placed upon a pedestal, women had a mystical and magical quality, in the perspective of the men. Their ways and manners were magical and unknown, and to understand a women, the man would need to set the typical ways aside and enter a new world. Her movements should be graceful and give the appearance of floating. Popular entertainment included extravagant balls, attendance at the opera and theater, as well as other appearances. When a woman attended such events, she was dressed in the finest and most decorated she could be so as to be a source of admiration and fantasy.
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