ARTH 263 Aspects of History of the Print: British Illustration and Graphic Arts of the 19th Century

• Mondays, 14:45-17:15 pm
• Course delivery: Online
• Instructor: Molly-Claire Gillett

This course will provide a series of case studies in British illustration and graphic arts of the long-19^th century, focusing on these cartoons, broadsheets, books, and print series as both products of their social, political and cultural context, and active participants in shaping these milieux. We will focus primarily on Britain, but its imperial presence in (among other areas) Canada, India and Ireland will expand the scope of study. Each week will follow the representation of a particular theme through a variety of print media. The course will begin in the late-18^th century, setting the scene for a dramatic rise in the production and availability of all types of print culture in Britain. We will examine satirical prints and political cartoons by artists such as James Gillray (1756-1815) and William Hogarth (1697-1764), and consider how print culture served to widely disseminate ideas about class, race and gender, but could also become a space for subversion, critique, and play. Moving into the 19^th century, we will look at gift books, popular periodicals, and the cross-pollination of style in political cartoons and book illustration, the Punch cartoonist John Tenniel’s illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, for example. The 19^th century was a time of great flowering in children’s book illustration; along with Tenniel’s Alice in Wonderland we will discuss other illustrators such as Arthur Rackham, Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, whose illustrations influenced children’s fashion and conceptions of girlhood. Towards the end of the century, in a time of increasing anxiety surrounding the legitimacy and success of Britain’s aggressive imperialism, images of the ‘other’ in newspapers, periodicals, and even children’s book illustration provide a case study in how print culture can serve to propagate racism, hatred and fear. Punch magazine’s ‘Paddy’ cartoons, for example, and their American iteration, ‘Biddy’ cartoons, demonstrate how cultural stereotypes can intensify and crystallize in image. In the late-19^th century, giant of the Arts and Crafts movement William Morris bemoaned the poor quality of British book printing, and began the Kelmscott Press, inspiring several other printers to embark on similar ventures, all of which struggled with the tension between a desire for quality production and the knowledge of their works’ ultimate inaccessibility. Quick, cheap, and widely disseminated print culture was here to stay…at least until the turn of the next century.

The course will familiarize students with the British Empire as a historical and political context for 19^th-century print culture, techniques and technologies, and encourage critical thinking about visual representation in historical print media. Much of the material we will cover in class is available in a digital format, so class activities and assignments will prioritize engagement with primary sources.