The Babylonian Marriage Market

Edwin Long’s large painting depicts women in Babylon being sold as wives. Despite its ancient setting, it was inspired by debates surrounding Victorian women. In 1870 the Married Women’s Property Act was passed giving married women a legal status for the first time. Before this, on entering wedlock, a woman’s legal status ceased to exist. The new law, however, restricted how much of their earnings and inheritance married women could keep. Some campaigners felt that contemporary women, like those in the painting, were still no more than the possessions of their husbands. Throughout the 1870s, when this picture was painted, public debate about married women’s rights continued. These discussions led to the act being amended in 1882.

The painting was a fitting purchase for Holloway, as founder of a women’s College to have made. It acted as a reminder that in providing women with a university-level education, Royal Holloway gave them the chance to avoid the 19th-century marriage market by supporting themselves with a profession.

Bought by Thomas Holloway, 1882.