Alfred Gilbert's Aestheticism presents the first sustained re-evaluation of the life and work of one of the most acclaimed sculptors of the late-Victorian period. Drawing on important new archival sources, this ground-breaking study challenges the customary assumption that Aestheticism was primarily a literary, painterly or architectural phenomena. Jason Edwards reveals both the diverse ways in which Gilbert's sculptures operated within the context of Aestheticism and also how these works provided a unique and provocative commentary on the history of masculine friendship and eroticism in the period leading up to and beyond the Wilde trials in 1895. Detailed readings are offered of the relationship of Gilbert's work to essays by Pater and Swinburne, poems, plays, and novels by Wilde and W. S. Gilbert, and paintings by Burne-Jones, Leighton, Rossetti, Solomon, Whistler, and Watts. With over 90 illustrations, including key contemporary photographs showing Gilbert's works in their original contexts, this book makes a major contribution to the field of Victorian sculpture studies.

Alfred Gilbert's Aestheticism presents the first sustained re-evaluation of the life and work of one of the most acclaimed sculptors of the late-Victorian period. Drawing on important new archival sources, this ground-breaking study challenges the customary assumption that Aestheticism was primarily a literary, painterly or architectural phenomena. Jason Edwards reveals both the diverse ways in which Gilbert's sculptures operated within the context of Aestheticism and also how these works provided a unique and provocative commentary on the history of masculine friendship and eroticism in the period leading up to and beyond the Wilde trials in 1895. Detailed readings are offered of the relationship of Gilbert's work to essays by Pater and Swinburne, poems, plays, and novels by Wilde and W. S. Gilbert, and paintings by Burne-Jones, Leighton, Rossetti, Solomon, Whistler, and Watts. With over 90 illustrations, including key contemporary photographs showing Gilbert's works in their original contexts, this book makes a major contribution to the field of Victorian sculpture studies.

Charting the period that extends from the 1860s to the 1940s, this volume offers fresh perspectives on Aestheticism and Modernism. By acknowledging that both movements had a passion for the ‘new’, it goes beyond the alleged divide between Modernism and its predecessors. Rather than reading the modernist credo, ‘Make it New!’, as a desire to break away from the past, the authors of this book suggest reading it as a continuation and a reappropriation of the spirit of the ‘New’ that characterizes Aestheticism. Basing their arguments on recent reassessments of Aestheticism and Modernism and their articulation, contributors take up the challenge of interrogating the connections, continuities, and intersections between the two movements, thus revealing the working processes of cultural and aesthetic change so as to reassess the value of the new for each. Attending to well-known writers such as Waugh, Woolf, Richardson, Eliot, Pound, Ford, Symons, Wilde, and Hopkins, as well as to hitherto neglected figures such as Lucas Malet, L.S. Gibbon, Leonard Woolf, or George Egerton, they revise assumptions about Aestheticism and Modernism and their very definitions. This collection brings together international scholars specializing in Aestheticism or Modernism who push their analyses beyond their strict period of expertise and take both movements into account through exciting approaches that borrow from aesthetics, philosophy, or economics. The volume proposes a corrective to the traditional narratives of the history of Aestheticism and Modernism, revitalizing definitions of these movements and revealing new directions in aestheticist and modernist studies.

Examining colonial art through the lens of transculturation, the essays in this collection assess painting, sculpture, photography, illustration and architecture from 1770 to 1930 to map these art works' complex and unresolved meanings illuminated by the concept of transculturation. Authors explore works in which transculturation itself was being defined, formed, negotiated, and represented in the British Empire and in countries subject to British influence (the Congo Free State, Japan, Turkey) through cross-cultural encounters of two kinds: works created in the colonies subject over time to colonial and to postcolonial spectators' receptions, and copies or multiples of works that traveled across space located in several colonies or between a colony and the metropole, thus subject to multiple cultural interpretations.

The expression 'the Zola of Sculpture' was coined in the circles of the Royal Academy in the 1880s as a term of abuse. Rodin: 'The Zola of Sculpture' reveals how the appraisal of Rodin in British culture was shaped by controversies around the literary models of Zola and Baudelaire, in a period when negative notions about French culture were being progressively transformed into positive expressions of modern sculpture. Embedded within this collaborative book is the editor's proposition that Rodin came to play an important role in the cultural politics of the Entente Cordiale at a critical juncture of European history. Encompassing new scholarship in several disciplines, drawn from both sides of the Channel, Rodin: 'The Zola of Sculpture' offers the first in-depth account of Rodin's career in Britain in the period 1880-1914 and weaves this historical trajectory into a complex investigation of the interactions between French and British cultures. The authors examine the cultural agencies in which conceptions of Rodin's practice played a defining role, dealing in turn with artists' professional associations, art criticism, private and public collectors and the education of women sculptors.

All those concerned with goldsmithing, silversmithing, rare metal objects, or metal scientific instruments, or their repair or restoration will be delighted to find this bible of their craft available again in a new edition. And those interested in such work as one of the most rewarding of all avocational arts can hardly find a better guide. For this is the professional's handbook — the standard text on the subject. The author, who, among his other achievements, was responsible for reconstruction work on the Sutton Hoo treasure in the British Museum (and was awarded the Order of the British Empire for his work), treats every aspect of the craft in detail, from basic tools to casting and enameling in separate sections. After discussing materials and tools, he provides a treatment of soldering in rare metals that is more extensive, more thorough, and richer in practical advice than can be found elsewhere. He continues into filigree work, the setting of stones, raising and shaping, spinning, repoussé work, wire twisting, hinges and joints, inlaying and overlaying, niello, alloys and stratified fabrics, enameling (including cloisonné, plique-à-jour, champlevé, bassetaille, encrusted and painted enamels), metal casting, construction, setting out, polishing and coloring, design, and assaying and hallmarking. Wherever possible, he analyzes examples of fine craftsmanship, ancient and modern, to illustrate practical aspects of the process he is explaining. Helpful hints are included on shop set-up and safety. The vastness of the author's experience in the actual work, with his authoritative knowledge of the entire field, ensures that readers of Metalwork and Enamelling are being advised and guided by a renowned expert. Over 300 figures and photographs amplify the discussion of tools, materials, and construction. Tables and standards useful to the craftsman (melting points and weights of metals, for example) are included. Notes to the photographic plates describe the objects in detail — magnificent examples of craftsmanship throughout the ages. Both complete and concise, this book belongs close to every rare metals workshop, laboratory, museum shop, and craft center.

A guide to sculpture from around the world, including chapters on New York 1880-1902, the thirty years war, the tomb of Oscar Wilde, the Hudson memorial and much more. Sir Jacob Epstein, (1880-1959) was an American-born British sculptor who helped pioneer modern sculpture. He was born in the States, and moved over to Europe in 1902, and became a British citizen in 1911. He regularly produced controversial works which challenged taboos on what was appropriate subject matter for public art.