Skip to search boxSkip to navigationSkip to main content

Dress and drapery: female self-fashioning in muslin, 1780-1850

Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Chapter Peer-review

Open access

Abstract

This chapter examines how the new figure of the female periodical illustrator intersected with mid-century debates over the lack of employment for middle-class women, the nature of the female artist and the hierarchies of an industrialising image trade. It presents how the illustrator's cultural status in relation to the other practitioners was frequently articulated in reference to sexual politics in ways that both opposed and enabled the idea of women drawing on wood. The chapter reveals Florence and Adelaide Claxton as a case study, looking at the significance of graphic illustration in their careers and the niche they established within the periodical press for humorous social scenes. The tendency for art historians to concentrate on 'sixties school' illustration has eclipsed the contemporary popularity and currency of Florence and Adelaide Claxton's work. Florence and Adelaide Claxton's profiles as popular illustrators of social subjects in the 1860s positioned them on the ephemeral margins of the fine art establishment.

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding Chapter Peer-review

Original language

English

Publication milestones

  • Published - 13/05/2016

Publication status

Published - 13/05/2016

Publisher

Routledge, United States, United Kingdom

ISBN (Print)

9780230230637

External Publication IDs

  • handle.net: 10547/224771

Host publication title

Crafting the Woman Professional in the Long Nineteenth Century

Access to documents