The Victorian Artist
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.
Bio
Julie Codell is an art history professor at ASU and an affiliate in film and Asian studies. She wrote "The Victorian Artist" and edited "Transculturation in British Art;" "Power and Resistance, Political Economy of Art;" "Genre, Gender, Race, & World Cinema;" and "Imperial Co-Histories." She also has co-edited several other books.
Praise for this book
The strength of Codell's book, besides it scope, is in its consistency of themes: … how biography formulates cultural identity; ... writings on and by women; ... issues of nationalism in the construction of British Art; the role of institutions; professionalism and its limitations. Use of theory is relevant, concise, and clear. In thinking anew about so many aspects of artistic culture in Britain ... contributes greatly to the expansion of our understanding of ... a fuller and more pluralistic understanding of the period.
Jason Rosenfeld Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies
