The nineteenth century's creation of different optical devices such as the camera obscura, the kaleidoscope and the thaumatrope signifies a change in the perception of vision at the time. The aim of this dissertation is to examine the work of four artists with reference to nineteenth century concerns surrounding vision. The scope for this examination is limited to the painted portraiture of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and John Singer Sargent and photographic portraiture of Julia Margaret Cameron and Félix Nadar Tournachon. Rossetti and Cameron represent two Victorian artists whose vision is turned inward to the imagination, with feelings of nostalgia and sentimentalism evoked in their portraits. This dissertation argues that the act of turning the eye inwards to the imagination is at the root of the flattering quality of these two artists' portraits. A further argument is that the sustained use of literary reference is the catalyst to the inward vision seen in these two Victorian artists' work. I examine Dante Gabriel Rossetti‟s later phase of idealised and "flattering" portraits of women in relation to the sonnets that Rossetti began to physically attach to either the frame or canvas of the portrait. The use of literary reference as catalyst to the inward vision is discussed namely through Julia Margaret Cameron‟s photographic portraits based on Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Enoch Arden. Cameron's allegorical and often mythological portraits of women are then analysed in order to establish the "flattering" quality of her portraits. With regards to the two artists who have been termed "faithful", an examination of their more outward vision and focus on the exterior realities is discussed. An exposition surrounding Félix Nadar Tournachon's "faithful" photographic portraits of nineteenth-century celebrities follows the discussion on Cameron. In order to further enquire into the notion of nineteenthcentury celebrities, an examination of John Singer Sargent follows. With the idea of Sargent being torn between the faithful and the flattering, I examine his more faithful Portrait of Madame X in relation to his later flattering celebrity portraits painted in the Grand Manner. In conclusion it will be suggested that Victorian and French ideas of vision and representation differed, exemplified by these four artists. These two very different perceptions of vision, one inward and the other outward, is the root of my distinction between the "faithful" and the "flattering" as manifested in portraiture.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uct/oai:localhost:11427/13996 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Van der Hoek, Jessica |
| Contributors | Tietze, Anna |
| Publisher | University of Cape Town, Faculty of Humanities, Michaelis School of Fine Art |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Master Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | application/pdf |
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