Wako, Miho (2012) Figured in lively paint : Eastern decorative art, English aestheticism, and consumer culture 1862-1900. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

My thesis aims to explore how John Ruskin's idea of the workman's "freedom of
thought" was disseminated to late Victorian female consumer culture, through the
transformation of its ideal from Gothic architecture into Eastern decorative art. By
examining both elite and popular Aesthetic texts, I will argue that references to
Eastern art are not only about the issue of style, but also involve theoretical
interests about how to integrate art, consumption, women and the home.
In chapter one, I examine Ruskin's conception of workmen's free thought,
and how the architect William Godwin adapted it by transferring his ideal
example of it from Gothic to Eastern architecture. In chapter two, I discuss how
manual books by Mary Eliza Haweis acknowledged the authority of wealthy
middle-class women's consumption by using Ruskin's ideas alongside Eastern
dress examples. In chapters three and four, I examine the Art at Home series, an
affordable set of household manuals, to see how they acknowledged less wealthy
middle-class women's capacity to be effective house decorators by raising the
status of inexpensive Eastern art. Chapter five analyses the catalogues of Liberty's,
an Oriental goods shop, and examines how they presented the principles of
Eastern art as their own. In chapter six, I discuss The Woman's World, edited by
Oscar Wilde, to show how the perspective of Eastern art can crystallise the
definitions of female artists by both elite and popular Aesthetes. In chapter seven,
I will examine the representation of Eastern art in Vernon Lee's Miss Brown, and
show how her text is a critical response to the definition of female artists in elite
and popular Aestheticism.
By focusing on these various approaches to Eastern art, we can see that
Aestheticism was engaged in a process of critiquing and customising Ruskin's
ideas in order to acknowledge the artistry and autonomy of consumers.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > N Visual arts (General) For photography, see TR
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Ruskin, John, 1819-1900 -- Criticism and interpretation, Art, East Asian, Art -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century, Women and the arts -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century, Art for art's sake (Movement)
Official Date:	February 2012
Dates:	Date Event February 2012 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Francis, Emma ; Hatt, Michael
Sponsors:	Tōkyō Daigaku ; Japan. Monbu Kagakusho [Japan. Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology] (MK)
Extent:	ix, 378 leaves
Language:	eng

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