The Pre-Raphaelite camera : aspects of Victorian photography / Michael Bartram

Bartram, Michael

ISBN 10: 0297786733 / ISBN 13: 9780297786733

Published by London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1985

About this Item

Fine cloth copy in a near fine, very slightly edge-nicked and dust-dulled dust wrapper, now mylar-sleeved. Remains particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and sharp-cornered. Physical description; 200 pages : illustrations ; 30 cm. Notes; Includes bibliographical references (page 197) and index. Subjects; Cameron, Julia Margaret (1815-1879). Photography, Artistic History. Pre-Raphaelitism Great Britain. Photography History England. Photography Great Britain History. Photography Great Britain. Artists and models in art. Photography, Artistic 19th century. Photography, Artistic History. Photography England History. Pre-Raphaelites. Photography history. Portraits. Photography. Photography Great Britain History 19th century. Pre-Raphaelitism. Photography, Artistic. Art and photography. Photography 19th century Great Britain. Photography, British 19th century. Pre-Raphaelitism. Photography - [19th Century - United Kingdom]. Painting - [19th Century - United Kingdom]. English photography Photography British Isles 19th century. Pre-Raphaelitism. Pre-Raphaelites. Photography, British - 19th century. Photography, Victorian. Genre; History. 1 Kg.

Seller Inventory # 284701

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Pre-Raphaelite camera : aspects of Victorian photography / Michael Bartram
• Publisher: London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson
• Publication Date: 1985
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0297786733
• ISBN 13: 9780297786733
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Weight: 1 kilogram

About this title

Synopsis

Truth to nature, declared the Pre-Raphaelite painters, is the essence of art- to render the "distinct character" of every "flower, rock and cloud." But by the 1850s the new medium of photography was gaining ground and threatening to outstrip the Pre-Raphaelites in their artistic ideal. Each side viewed the other with intense suspicion. The Pre-Raphaelites proclaimed that "there is much in photography that is false," while the photographers hoped that "the Pre-Raphaelites will in despair give up their mere imitation and aim at higher principles of art." Yet such heated exchanges could not mask the many fascinating connections and interdependence between these rival arts.

The Pre-Raphaelite Camera explores all facets of this intriguing relationship, looking at both the Pre-Raphaelite use of the camera and, in particular, Pre-Raphaelite influence on the photography of the era. The text reveals that Ford Madox Brown spent time employed in a portrait studio; Millais relied heavily on photography for portraits and landscapes backgrounds, while Atkinson Grimshaw is known to have painted, secretly, over photographs. Of greater significance was the impact of the Pre-Raphaelite spirit on both the subject matter and approach of Victorian photography. The landscapes of such early masters of photography as Henry White and Roger Fenton are markedly similar in composition to paintings by Ford Madox Brown and John Everett Millais. Francis Frith's images echo works by Holman Hunt: Frith's Crocodile on a Sandbank is a kind of irreverent photographic aside to Hunt's portentous The Scapegoat. The Pre-Raphaelite femme fatale, created by Rossetti's fervid imagination, gave rise to a look for women which photographers, in particular Julia Margaret Cameron, exalted.

British art historian Michael Bartram, a specialist in the Victorian period, offers his challenging new interpretation in a text as entertaining as it is insightful. Many of the 178 photographs are here reproduced for the first time. In this splendid intermingling of photographs and Pre-Raphaelite paintings, the essence of both art forms is unveiled.