‘Magic casements:’ fantasy in Victorian art

The contributions of nineteenth-century writers to the modern fantasy genre are well-established, but parallel developments in the visual arts are understudied. This interdisciplinary thesis introduces ‘fantasy’ as a descriptive term that can be applied to the history of Victorian art, enabling a synthetic understanding of fantasy as a multi-media genre. Rather than identify works as fantasies exclusively on the basis of their content, fantasy is here defined as a sensation – the profound sense of wonder and yearning inspired by an imaginary otherworld – one that may be provoked by literature or by art. Fantasy, thus defined, is associated with certain kinds of stories and imagery, but arises equally from cultural context and the imaginative investment of its audience as from a work’s content. In the Victorian period, mediaeval romances, classical mythology, folklore, allegories, ghost stories and fairy tales all inspired paintings that can be considered as fantasy. Works of Victorian fantasy, in literature and the arts, reflect the most deeply felt desires, aspirations, and ideals of their time, and are part of the cultural reaction to the changes wrought by industrialism and urbanisation. By collectively analysing these works as fantasies, this thesis sheds light on hitherto-overlooked thematic continuities within nineteenth-century painting and literature. The first chapter justifies the application of the term ‘fantasy’ to a subset of nineteenth-century artworks by drawing on nineteenth and twentieth-century literary criticism. The second chapter surveys techniques employed by artists to convincingly depict a fantastical subject, and the criteria by which their work was assessed. The final three chapters explore the different forms assumed by fantastic otherworlds in art: paintings inspired by Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, the legend of Galahad’s quest for the Holy Grail, and Greek myths of nature.