Title: The visual and verbal sketch in British romanticism
First published: 1998
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.
Subjects: Art and literature, Artists' preparatory studies, British Drawing, Description (Rhetoric), Drawing, British, English language, English literature, History, History and criticism, Rhetoric, Romanticism, Visual perception in literature, English literature, history and criticism, 19th century, English language, rhetoric, Romanticism, great britain
Places: Great Britain
Time periods: 19th century
LC classification: PR468.A76 S53 1998