A study of George Wilson’s eighteenth-century narrative fans as prints and mobile conduct instructors

Harrison, Rosanna Lucy Doris Colchester (2019). A study of George Wilson’s eighteenth-century narrative fans as prints and mobile conduct instructors. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis focuses on the engraved narrative fans made by the English fan maker George Wilson (active before 1795 to after 1801). Wilson’s fans form part of the extensive collection belonging to Lady Charlotte Elizabeth Schreiber (1812-1895) held at the British Museum. The thesis challenges the hitherto overlooked status of printed fans in art history and fan history by revealing the ways in which their study enriches current understanding of eighteenth-century print culture. It does so by establishing the fan shop as an important contributor to the range of visual material circulating in London. It demonstrates how closely Wilson’s fans were aligned with popular print narratives. Besides prints, it further shows how closely fans were linked to conduct literature through their pictorial engagement with virtuous and satirical tropes and motifs. It argues that Wilson’s fans provide an innovative form of spectatorship and readership on which textual and visual sources relating to behaviours were experienced in the public sphere, aiding different sensory ways in which a female owner could learn about, and understand, conduct. Thus, it concludes that Wilson’s fans reveal insights into eighteenth-century print processes, the function and circulation of artworks, and themselves created novel forms of social conduct.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):