This thesis asks whether there existed a unified view of the Arctic during the time period connected to the high point of British endeavour to find a Northwest Passage, from the first expeditions of the nineteenth-century in 1818 to the return of the last Franklin search party in 1859, forty-one years later. Using this time frame as its marker, the focus of the thesis is primarily on British representations of Arctic landscapes, exploration and Inuit peoples. Through careful empirical analysis of a variety of media, including professional painting, on-the-spot sketches, prints and popular exhibitions, it examines from an art historical viewpoint the historical, political, social and aesthetic contexts in which Arctic representations occurred.

Modernism is a plurality, not a singular concept. This project explores examples of Art Nouveau nudes to describe the particular expressions of the modern through varied and complicated allegorical bodies. The female nude as a nexus for ideals of gender, art, and beauty, is informed by and constructs the understanding of these ideals within society. Art Nouveau thus employed the nude to represent complex manifestations of modernity. Three diverse cases provide the subjects of each chapter. All explore modernism through objects and interiors, in public and private environments, and each connects the decorative arts with accounts of European modernism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The modernist movement, in these decades, is still predominantly understood through painting. This project draws its case studies from Paris, Glasgow, and Vienna, each a distinct cultural arena during the 1890s and 1900s: the sculptural furniture of François Rupert Carabin (1862-1932); the metalwork of Margaret Macdonald (1865-1933) and her sister Frances Macdonald (1873-1921); and the graphic motifs of Ver Sacrum, created by the artists of the first Vienna Secession (1897-1905). In conception and expression, these nudes articulated the diverse representational practices of different modernisms. They each embody drastically different histories, aesthetics, and social expressions. Their varied modernisms expose the prominent nationalism of Art Nouveau. Examination of these three very different cases expands and complicates current understandings of the nude, allegory, and the modern.

Since the early nineteenth-century when Americans began recording their short history in earnest, European explorers have held a central role in the nation's historical narrative, standing alongside the Founding Fathers as symbols of American ingenuity, determination, and fortitude. The nineteenth century also saw an explosion in the number of representations of first contacts between native populations and European and Euro-American explorers. These works range from fine art examples to illustrations in the popular media and were produced by artists across the artistic spectrum. Despite the popularity of the First Contact subject and its longevity within American art history, the importance of these images has, as of yet, been unexplored. This dissertation examines First Contact images created in America during the nineteenth and early twentieth-century by artists Robert Walter Weir, George Catlin, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, and Charles M. Russell. I argue that the subject's popularity can be attributed not just to their importance as depictions of epic moments of transition in national and cultural history, but to the openness, or the mutability, of the subject itself. The first meeting of two people is an event of great possibility and potential, but, as this extended examination of the subject demonstrates, it can also be transformed to communicate vastly different messages at different moments in history. As Americans simultaneously struggled to create a past, understand the present, and visualize the future, the First Contact subject, with its focus on the ambiguous meeting of two cultures, allowed a site in which to grapple with central questions and anxieties of the period, even as it depicted the past. They are thus complicated paintings that speak not to the facts of contact, but to the purposes served by these constructions and corrupted histories. Reading these First Contact paintings can help to illuminate a nineteenth-century understanding of history and also begin to elucidate the troubled legacy of Native/white relations since Columbus first encountered the New World.

This thesis seeks to examine the nineteenth-century art collections and architectural style of the original buildings at the University of Sydney in order to demonstrate ways in which visual material may be employed to shape public perception of an institution. I shall argue that the architectural style of the original university buildings was specifically chosen with particular aims which extended beyond the mere establishment of a tertiary institution for the colony. I will also argue that the style shaped the character of the institution, contributed to the maintenance of law and order in the colony, linked the colony more firmly than hitherto to the mother country and provided social benefits for the founders of the institution. The instant history and character thus imposed upon the institution was reinforced by the assembly of a portrait collection in emulation of other collections of portraits at leading institutions of the colony and the mother country, including the Oxbridge universities. Once the building proclaimed that the institution was comparable with the great universities of the world, the subjects of the portraits at the university could be placed in the class of founders of a great historical institution, thus at the same time enhancing the reputation of the institution and the individuals. The construction of an indentity through visual images was extended by the benefactions of Sir Charles Nicholson, the principal donor of works of art to the university in the nineteenth century. I argue that his intentions in relation to his collections were didactic but were also concerned with the entrenchment of the imperial hegemony over the colony, and again with the enhancement of his personal repuatation. This analysis shows how, by a complex of personal ambition and aspiration for the colony, the style of the buildings and the art collections formed were used to establish the colony as civilized and the new university as a bastion of English tradition.

This thesis seeks to examine the nineteenth-century art collections and architectural style of the original buildings at the University of Sydney in order to demonstrate ways in which visual material may be employed to shape public perception of an institution. I shall argue that the architectural style of the original university buildings was specifically chosen with particular aims which extended beyond the mere establishment of a tertiary institution for the colony. I will also argue that the style shaped the character of the institution, contributed to the maintenance of law and order in the colony, linked the colony more firmly than hitherto to the mother country and provided social benefits for the founders of the institution. The instant history and character thus imposed upon the institution was reinforced by the assembly of a portrait collection in emulation of other collections of portraits at leading institutions of the colony and the mother country, including the Oxbridge universities. Once the building proclaimed that the institution was comparable with the great universities of the world, the subjects of the portraits at the university could be placed in the class of founders of a great historical institution, thus at the same time enhancing the reputation of the institution and the individuals. The construction of an indentity through visual images was extended by the benefactions of Sir Charles Nicholson, the principal donor of works of art to the university in the nineteenth century. I argue that his intentions in relation to his collections were didactic but were also concerned with the entrenchment of the imperial hegemony over the colony, and again with the enhancement of his personal repuatation. This analysis shows how, by a complex of personal ambition and aspiration for the colony, the style of the buildings and the art collections formed were used to establish the colony as civilized and the new university as a bastion of English tradition.

Caroline Bonaparte Murat created an identity for herself through the art that she collected during the time of her reign as queen of Naples as directed by her brother, Napoleon, from 1808-1814. Through the art that she both commissioned and purchased, she developed an identity as powerful politically, nurturing, educated, fashionable, and Italianate. Through this patronage, Caroline became influential on stylish, female patronage in both Italy and France. Caroline purchased and commissioned works from artists such as Jean-August-Domonique Ingres, François Gérard, Elizabeth Vigée LeBrun, Antonio Canova and other lesser-known artists of the nineteenth century. Many of these works varied in style and content, but all helped in creating an ideal identity for Caroline. In all of the works she is portrayed as a powerful woman. She is either powerful by her settings (in the drawing room, or with Vesuvius in the background), her vast knowledge in the arts and fashion, her motherhood, her sensuality, or the way in which she is positioned and how she is staring back at the viewer within the works. The creation of this identity was uniquely Caroline's, mimicking Marie de Medici, Marie Antoinette and Josephine and Napoleon Bonaparte, while adding her own tastes and agendas to the creation. Through this identity she proved herself to be as equally French as Italianate through dress and surroundings. She even created a hybrid of fashion, wedding the styles together, by adding black velvet and lace to a simple empire-waisted silhouette. Caroline proved herself as politician, mother, educated and refined woman, pioneer in fashion, and Queen through the art that she purchased and commissioned.

Cette recherche a pour objectif de faire émerger l’essence d’Ophélie, au sein de la poésie et de la vie d’Emily Dickinson. Fondés sur une étude comparative d’Emily Dickinson et des représentations d’Ophélie, ces travaux mettent en exergue l’influence indéniable qu’a eue ce personnage dit ‘mineur’ sur la poésie et l’imaginaire du poète, ainsi que son rôle ‘majeur’ sur elle et sur son art. Jean-Luc Nancy explique qu’il existe un point où l’image non-figurative peut elle aussi exister. Il s’agit du point où image et texte fusionnent, où les frontières se brouillent : On parle alors d’un sens à l’essence. Il s’exprime ici dans la force qu’a Emily Dickinson de faire apparaître Ophélie, mais sans jamais l’actualiser entièrement. Cette capacité est propre au poète, comme le définit Emerson. C’est aussi la multiplicité qu’offre Shakespeare au personnage d’Ophélie, cette même symbolique ophélienne, créée grâce aux multiples superpositions de calques qui se retrouvent à travers ses différentes représentations et les exploitations diverses de son iconographie. En se fondant fidèlement sur la doctrine originaire d’Horace « Ut Pictura Poesis erit », Ophélie prend vie dans la poésie d’Emily Dickinson. Cette doctrine rapporte les arts du langage à ceux de l’image, et souligne qu’une poésie muette (la peinture) est comme une peinture parlante (art poétique). Le poète enrichit ainsi le statut de peintre en élargissant sa palette de définition. L’importance d’Ophélie, dans la structure artistique d’Emily Dickinson, est mise en évidence, telle une armature silencieuse à sa composition poétique. C’est pourquoi on ne peut parler d’imitation mais d’influence, qui se fonde sur le concept de Différenciation, de lignes de fuite, de cartographie et enfin de Devenir-mineur vers la création de l’unique. C’est en effet par la soustraction et non l’addition que se crée l’individualité, telle la définition même du rhizome donnée par Gilles Deleuze. Une sorte de beau et une certaine souveraineté de la vérité peuvent alors s’en dégager comme le définit Keats, ce qui évoque la quête centrale de circonférence du poète. Cette thèse s’appuie sur les points cardinaux qui permettent de suivre Emily Dickinson le long de son parcours circonférentiel de vie et sa quête de son Nord-Ophélien. Selon les définitions de la notion de Concept chez Hume, Hegel et Deleuze, la mise en lumière du Concept Ophélien chez Dickinson sera possible. Pour cela, le poète répond à quatre critères : avoir une base de mimesis avec Ophélie – ce qui correspond à l’Est ; avoir la capacité d’en produire des créations ophéliennes – localisées au Sud ; aboutir à une innovation évolutive de son art – positionnée à l’Ouest ; et enfin, atteindre l’immortalité – située au Nord. Au final, cela permettra de définir chez Emily Dickinson le Devenir-Carte Ophélien et son exploitation du Concept Ophélien. / The Essence of Ophelia within the poetry and life of the poet is unveiled, based on a comparative study of Emily Dickinson and the diverse uses of Ophelia throughout time. This allows to put into evidence the undeniable influence of this so-called ‘minor’ character on Emily Dickinson’s imagination, and her ‘major’ role on the poet and her art. Jean-Luc Nancy explains that there is a point where text and image fuse, where their borders blur and it results in a creation of a non-figurative image – which thus relies solely on individuals’ senses. Ophelia’s symbolism has an abundant amount of layers which allows innumerable interpretations, embellished by The Poet (as defined by Emerson). By leaning faithfully on Horace’s doctrine “Ut Pictura Poesis erit”, Ophelia comes to life in the poetry of Dickinson. Horace’s goals was to place the art of language on the same level as visual arts, thus the idea that a mute poetry (painting) is such as a vocal painting (poetry). This doctrine modifies the status of image and widens the painter’s palette. Consequently, Ophelia will be such as a silent foundation to Emily Dickinson’s poetry, where there is no imitation but solely an artistic influence with the notion of Differentiation, lines of flight, mapping and becoming-Minor which leads to the creation of the unique. According to Keats, it can equivocate to a sovereign truth, central quest of Dickinson’s circumferential journey. This dissertation leans on cardinal points to follow Emily Dickinson along her circumferential journey and her quest of the Ophelian North. Based on the definition of Concept by Hume, Hegel and Deleuze, the Ophelian Concept of Emily Dickinson will be brought forward. In order for that to be possible, the poet will match four criteria: have a mimesis base with Ophelia – which is found in the East, be able to create from that – located in the South, then have it lead to an innovative artistic response – positioned in the West, and finally, that immortality be attained – established in the North. This will allow a definition of Emily Dickinson’s Ophelian Becoming-map and her use of the Ophelian Concept.

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The rise of landscape painting as a dominant genre in nineteenth century France was closely tied to the ongoing debate between Art and Nature. This conflict permeates the writings of poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire. While Baudelaire scholarship has maintained the idea of the poet as a strict anti-naturalist and proponent of the artificial, this paper offers a revision of Baudelaire's relation to nature through a close reading across his critical and poetic texts. The Paris Salon reviews of 1845, 1846 and 1859, as well as Baudelaire's Journaux Intimes , Paradis Artificiels and two poems that deal directly with the subject of landscape, are examined. The aim of this essay is to provoke new insights into the poet's complex attitudes toward nature and the art of landscape painting in France during the middle years of the nineteenth century. / Art History

In this thesis I provide analysis of several nineteenth-century artworks in order to elucidate the connections between place and identity as expressed in visual representations of Paris. I utilize Bakhtin's idea of the dialogical as a means of identifying multiple subject positions that might be accessed by particular individuals who live in socially constructed spaces specific to fin-de-siècle Paris. I discuss the construction of three performed identities unique to nineteenth-century Paris: the Flâneur, the bohemian, and the primitivist. In each chapter I will parse out the social construction of the spaces where these identities existed and were performed, and link those identities to their discursive functions as particular models of Parisian life. I will discuss the relationship of each representation of identity to Henri Lefebvre's concept of socially-produced space through analysis of the stylistic and compositional choices made by the artist. The visual artworks I discuss include Edouard Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergère, Vincent van Gogh's The Outskirts of Paris, Night Café, and Café Terrace at Night, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's Jane Avril and Divan Japonais.