The visual and verbal sketch in British romanticism
By: Richard C. Sha.
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Philadelphia, PA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 277
Subjects: English literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Art and literature -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century.; Description (Rhetoric) -- History -- 19th century.; Artists' preparatory studies -- Great Britain.; English language -- 19th century -- Rhetoric.; Visual perception in literature.; Romanticism -- Great Britain.; Drawing, British.
Description: With their broken lines and hasty brushwork, sketches acquired enormous ideological and aesthetic power during the Romantic period in England. Whether publicly displayed or serving as the basis of a written genre, these rough drawings played a central role in the cultural ferment of the age by persuading audiences that less is more.

The Visual and Verbal Sketch in British Romanticism investigates the varied implications of sketching in late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century culture. Calling on a wide range of literary and visual genres, Richard C. Sha examines the shifting economic and aesthetic value of the sketch in sources ranging from auction catalogs and sketching manuals to novels that employed scenes of sketching and courtship.

He especially shows how sketching became a double-edged accomplishment for women when used to define "proper" femininity.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [251]-268) and index.