Better Than the Real Thing: Processed Reality in Victorian Art and Fiction
This paper investigates the paradoxical and composite nature of realist photography and fiction. In the 1850s, strategies of aggregation were part of the regular compositional practice of Victorian painters, from the Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt to William Powell Frith. The artistic re-composi...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2019-06-01
|
| Series: | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/5102 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832581262760476672 |
|---|---|
| author | Béatrice Laurent |
| author_facet | Béatrice Laurent |
| author_sort | Béatrice Laurent |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper investigates the paradoxical and composite nature of realist photography and fiction. In the 1850s, strategies of aggregation were part of the regular compositional practice of Victorian painters, from the Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt to William Powell Frith. The artistic re-composition of reality was taken on board by early photographers such as Henry Peach Robinson. Various forms of aggregation, including juxtaposition and superimposition were used to create images that looked ‘real’. Thus, filtered and fictionalised reality came to replace the ocular experience in the interaction between the individual subject and the outside world, to the extent that novelists were impacted by this procedure. The article navigates from the visual arts to fiction and vice-versa to show that the same artistic strategies were at work in both worlds, and how fiction influenced visual artists and conversely how the visual arts were a source of inspiration for Victorian novelists. The argument includes considerations on the impact of scientific instruments as well, particularly optical instruments. The result is that one can see how complex and contrived realism was in its effort to produce verisimilitude. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c1d61c714b8e4a068020cdd6b245c4e3 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 0220-5610 2271-6149 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2019-06-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens |
| spelling | doaj-art-c1d61c714b8e4a068020cdd6b245c4e32025-01-30T10:22:20ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeCahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens0220-56102271-61492019-06-018910.4000/cve.5102Better Than the Real Thing: Processed Reality in Victorian Art and FictionBéatrice LaurentThis paper investigates the paradoxical and composite nature of realist photography and fiction. In the 1850s, strategies of aggregation were part of the regular compositional practice of Victorian painters, from the Pre-Raphaelite William Holman Hunt to William Powell Frith. The artistic re-composition of reality was taken on board by early photographers such as Henry Peach Robinson. Various forms of aggregation, including juxtaposition and superimposition were used to create images that looked ‘real’. Thus, filtered and fictionalised reality came to replace the ocular experience in the interaction between the individual subject and the outside world, to the extent that novelists were impacted by this procedure. The article navigates from the visual arts to fiction and vice-versa to show that the same artistic strategies were at work in both worlds, and how fiction influenced visual artists and conversely how the visual arts were a source of inspiration for Victorian novelists. The argument includes considerations on the impact of scientific instruments as well, particularly optical instruments. The result is that one can see how complex and contrived realism was in its effort to produce verisimilitude.https://journals.openedition.org/cve/5102realismfictionpaintingartphotographycomposition |
| spellingShingle | Béatrice Laurent Better Than the Real Thing: Processed Reality in Victorian Art and Fiction Cahiers Victoriens et Edouardiens realism fiction painting art photography composition |
| title | Better Than the Real Thing: Processed Reality in Victorian Art and Fiction |
| title_full | Better Than the Real Thing: Processed Reality in Victorian Art and Fiction |
| title_fullStr | Better Than the Real Thing: Processed Reality in Victorian Art and Fiction |
| title_full_unstemmed | Better Than the Real Thing: Processed Reality in Victorian Art and Fiction |
| title_short | Better Than the Real Thing: Processed Reality in Victorian Art and Fiction |
| title_sort | better than the real thing processed reality in victorian art and fiction |
| topic | realism fiction painting art photography composition |
| url | https://journals.openedition.org/cve/5102 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT beatricelaurent betterthantherealthingprocessedrealityinvictorianartandfiction |