The Garden Of Armida 

John Collier painted "The Garden of Armida," a view of upper-class leisure, sometime between 1850 and 1934, the years of his life. The visual codes of wealth are on full display. The man's formal attire suggests he is a member of the British gentry. Surrounded by women in luxurious dresses in a lantern-lit garden, he seems to be enjoying a life of excess. But is he really? His face is far from joyous; he seems burdened by the women's attention. Collier, a product of the Victorian era, knew how to paint a picture of moral ambiguity. The narrative is influenced by earlier Pre-Raphaelite paintings that reference Classical literature, making it a very self-conscious work. To understand its meanings fully, we would want to research the institutions of art production and consumption that supported Collier's work.