In a reevaluation of that period in Victorian illustration known as 'The Sixties,' a distinguished group of international scholars consider the impact of illustration on the act of reading; its capacity to reflect, construct, critique and challenge its audience's values; its response to older graphic traditions; and its assimilation of foreign influences. While focused on the years 1855 to 1875, the essays take up issues related to the earlier part of the nineteenth century and look forward to subsequent developments in illustration. The contributors examine significant figures such as Ford Madox Brown, Frederick Sandys, John Everett Millais, George John Pinwell, and Hablot Knight Browne in connection with the illustrated magazine, the mid-Victorian gift book, and changing visual responses to the novels of Dickens. Engaging with a number of theories and critical debates, the collection offers a detailed and provocative analysis of the nature of illustration: its production, consumption, and place within the broader contexts of mid-Victorian culture.

Though well-known as the author of Trilby and the creator of Svengali, the writer-artist George Du Maurier had many other accomplishments that are less familiar to modern audiences. This collection traces Du Maurier’s role as a participant in the wider cultural life of his time, restoring him to his proper status as a major Victorian figure. Divided into sections, the volume considers Du Maurier as an artist, illustrator and novelist who helped to form some of the key ideas of his time. The contributors place his life and work in the context of his treatment of Judaism and Jewishness; his fascination with urbanization, Victorian science, technology and clairvoyance; his friendships and influences; and his impact on notions of consumerism and taste. As an illustrator, Du Maurier collaborated with Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Gaskell and sensational writers such as M. E. Braddon and the author of The Notting Hill Mystery. These partnerships, along with his reflections on the art of illustration, are considered in detail. Impossible to categorize, Du Maurier was an Anglo-Frenchman with cultural linkages in France, England, and America; a social commentator with an interest in The New Woman; a Punch humourist; and a friend of Henry James, with whom he shared a particular interest in the writing of domesticity and domestic settings. Closing with a consideration of Du Maurier’s after-life, notably the treatment of his work in film, this collection highlights his diverse achievements and makes a case for his enduring significance.

The wood engravers’ self-portrait tells the story of the image-making firm Dalziel Brothers, investigating and interpreting a unique archive from the British Museum. The study takes a creative-critical approach to illustration, alongside detailed investigation of print techniques and history. Five siblings ran the wood engraving firm Dalziel Brothers: George, Edward, Margaret, John and Thomas Dalziel. Prospering through five decades of work, Dalziel became the major capitalist image makers of Victorian Britain. This book, based on AHRC-funded research, outlines the achievements of these remarkable siblings and uncovers the histories of some of the 36 unknown artisan employees that worked alongside them. Dalziel Brothers made works of global importance: illustrations to Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, novels by Charles Dickens, and landmark Pre-Raphaelite prints, as well as other, brilliant works that are published here for the first time since their initial creation.

The Victorian illustrated book came into being, flourished, and evolved during the long nineteenth century. While existing scholarship on Victorian illustrators largely centers on the realist artists of the "Sixties," this volume examines the entire lifetime of the Victorian illustrated book. Catherine Golden offers a new framework for viewing the arc of this vibrant genre, arguing that it arose from and continually built on the creative vision of the caricature-style illustrators of the 1830s. She surveys the fluidity of illustration styles across serial installments, British and American periodicals, adult and children’s literature, and--more recently--graphic novels. Serials to Graphic Novels examines widely recognized illustrated texts, such as The Pickwick Papers, Oliver Twist, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Rabbit, and Trilby. Golden explores factors that contributed to the early popularity of the illustrated book—the growth of commodity culture, a rise in literacy, new printing technologies—and that ultimately created a mass market for illustrated fiction. Golden identifies present-day visual adaptations of the works of Austen, Dickens, and Trollope as well as original Neo-Victorian graphic novels like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and Victorian-themed novels like Batman: Noël as the heirs to the Victorian illustrated book. With these adaptations and additions, the Victorian canon has been refashioned and repurposed visually for new generations of readers.

This book examines illustrations created to accompany fictions written by several of the most popular authors published in Britain and America between 1885 and 1920. By studying the lavish illustrations that complemented not only initial serializations, but also subsequent publications of fictions by H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard Kipling, James De Mille, Robert Louis Stevenson, and H. G. Wells, the book demonstrates the significance of images to the fin de siècle romance form. In order to make fantastic plots seem possible, graphic artists worked hand in hand with authors to not only fill gaps in audience understanding, but also expand and deepen the meaning of these marvels. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture, illustration studies, British and American history, and British and American literature.

A contemporary synthesis of the philosophical, theoretical and practical methodologies of illustration and its future development Illustration is contextualized visual communication; its purpose is to serve society by influencing the many aspects of its cultural infrastructure; it dispenses knowledge and education, it commentates and delivers journalistic opinion, it persuades, advertises and promotes, it entertains and provides for all forms of narrative fiction. A Companion to Illustration explores the definition of illustration through cognition and research and its impact on culture. It explores illustration’s boundaries and its archetypal distinction, the inflected forms of its parameters, its professional, contextual, educational and creative applications. This unique reference volume offers insights into the expanding global intellectual conversation on illustration through a compendium of readings by an international roster of scholars, academics and practitioners of illustration and visual communication. Encompassing a wide range of thematic dialogues, the Companion offers twenty-five chapters of original theses, examining the character and making of imagery, illustration education and research, and contemporary and post-contemporary context and practice. Topics including conceptual strategies for the contemporary illustrator, the epistemic potential of active imagination in science, developing creativity in a polymathic environment, and the presentation of new insights on the intellectual and practical methodologies of illustration. Evaluates innovative theoretical and contextual teaching and learning strategies Considers the influence of illustration through cognition, research and cultural hypotheses Discusses the illustrator as author, intellectual and multi-disciplinarian Explores state-of-the-art research and contemporary trends in illustration Examines the philosophical, theoretical and practical framework of the discipline A Companion to Illustration is a valuable resource for students, scholars and professionals in disciplines including illustration, graphic and visual arts, visual communications, cultural and media and advertising studies, and art history.