Philip Gilbert Hamerton: Victorian Art Critic (England)

This dissertation examines the writing of the Victorian art critic, Philip Gilbert Hamerton (1834-1894), within the context of other critics' writings, within the intellectual and artistic climate of this time, and within the newly developing profession of art critic. Hamerton, a prolific writer, was a key figure in the revival of etching whose criticism provides not only a barometer of Victorian taste but a means of understanding the then-evolving systems for the production and distribution of art. Central to this study are a consideration of issues as what moral values were held dear, how the artist's role was perceived in society, what ideas of decorum governed the selection of subject matter for painters and sculptors and whose role it was to educate a new art-buying public about what constitutes good art and what does not. This attempt to analyze the proposals and solutions put forward by Hamerton, in his time, is intended to shed light on the function of art criticism as practiced by both nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art History

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2014

Author dc:creator

• Czach, Marie

• Fine Arts

Identifier

(UMI)AAI8521749

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/71499