Romanticism and Illustration

Explores a vital aspect of British Romanticism, the role of illustration in Romantic-era literary texts and visual culture.

Ian Haywood (Edited by), Susan Matthews (Edited by), Mary L. Shannon (Edited by)

9781108425711, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 May 2019

338 pages, 58 b/w illus.
25.3 x 18 x 2 cm, 0.86 kg

'Romanticism and Illustration provides a valuable set of studies … helping us see more clearly the complex production and reception histories of Romantic-era illustrated books in Britain.' Andrew Stauffer, European Romantic Review

This collection of essays takes a fresh look at the important role of illustration in Romantic literature. The late eighteenth century saw an explosion of illustrated editions of literary classics and the emergence of a new culture of literary art, including the innovative literary galleries. The impact of these developments on the reading and viewing of literary texts is explored in a series of case studies covering poetry, historical texts, drama, painting, reproductive prints, magazines and ephemera. Romanticism and Illustration argues for a more detailed study of illustration which includes the context of a wider circulation of images across different media. The modern understanding of the word 'illustration' fails to convey the complex relationship between the artist, the engraver, the publisher, the text and the audience in Romantic Britain. In teasing out the implications of this dynamic cultural matrix, this book opens up a new field of Romantic studies.

Editors' Introduction
Part I. Illustrating Poetry: 1. The ends of illustration: explanation, critique, and the political imagination in Blake's title-pages for Genesis Peter Otto
2. With a master's hand and Prophet's fire: Blake, Gray, and the Bard Sophie Thomas
3. Seeing history: illustration, poetic drama, and the national past Dustin Frazier Wood
4. 'Fuseli's poetic eye': prints and impressions in Fuseli and Erasmus Darwin Martin Priestman
5. Henry Fuseli's accommodations: 'attempting the domestic' in the illustrations to Cowper Susan Matthews
6. Reading the romantic vignette: Stothard illustrates Bloomfield, Byron and Crabbe for the Royal Engagement Pocket Atlas Sandro Jung
7. Intimate distance: Thomas Stothard's and J. M. W. Turner's iIllustrations of Samuel Rogers's Italy Maureen McCue
Part II. The Business of Illustration: 8. Illustration, terror and female agency: Thomas Macklin's poets gallery in a revolutionary decade Ian Haywood
9. Maria Cosway's Hours: cosmopolitan and classical visual culture in Thomas Macklin's Poets Gallery Luisa Calè
10. Artists' street: Thomas Stothard, R. H. Cromek, and literary illustration on London's Newman Street Mary L. Shannon
11. The development of magazine illustration in Regency Britain – the example of Arliss's Pocket Magazine 1818–1833 Brian Maidment
Coda: romantic illustration and the privatization of history painting Martin Myrone.

Subject Areas: Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 [DSBF], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], History of art & design styles: c 1600 to c 1800 [ACQ]