The popular Victorian image of the ideal women or wife came to be known as "the Angel in the House". She was submissive, self-sacrificing, pious, and above all pure and devoted to her husband and children. 

If a woman departed from the social norm of marriage, motherhood and domestic life and had sex outside the confines of marriage she became known as a ‘fallen’ woman exposing herself to a series of consequences including prostitution, disease and an early death.

In this illustrated talk, Tate Guide Jennifer Toynbee-Holmes will take a look at Victorian narrative paintings and literary illustrations that vividly portray these distinctive types of women giving us a unique insight into Victorian sexual morality and their double standards.