The Victorian Artist
Artists' Life Writings in Britain, c.1870–1910

This study examines the origins, development and explosion of biographical literature on artists in Britain between 1870 and 1910. It analyzes a variety of narrative modes, including gossip, anecdotes, and serialization, as well as the differences among genres (autobiographies, family biographies, biographical histories and dictionaries.) Julie Codell discerns the multiple, often conflicting identities that were ascribed to artists collectively, and as individuals. Her book serves as a timely sociological and cultural overview of the art world in Britain in the decades before World War I.

Reviews & endorsements

"...a North American pioneer of the critical study of Victorian art and culture....a valuable discussion of autobiographies of women artists...The strength of Codell's book, besides it scope, is in its consistenc of themes stressed throughout: how biography formulates cultural identity; full and naturalized recognition given to writings on and by women; the pervasiveness of issues of natinalism in the construction of British Art; the role of Institutions in guiding the period; professionalism and its limitations....Codell's use of theory is relevant, concise, and clear, never slowing the smooth pace of the book. It is persuasive and not intrusive....To read this book is to be helped in thinking anew about so many apects of artistic culture in Britain....contributes greatly to the expansion of our understanding of nineteenth-and early twentieth-century art. The foundation for a fuller and more pluralistic understanding of the period." Jason Rosefeld, Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies

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Product details

• Date Published: September 2012
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9781107407404
• length: 394 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 152 x 21 mm
• weight: 0.53kg
• availability: Available