A British Symbolist in Pre-Raphaelite circles : Edward Robert Hughes RWS

Osborne, Victoria Jean (2010). A British Symbolist in Pre-Raphaelite circles : Edward Robert Hughes RWS. University of Birmingham. M.Phil.

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Abstract

The thesis reconsiders key aspects of the work of the British artist Edward Robert Hughes RWS (1851-1914). A nephew of the Pre-Raphaelite painter Arthur Hughes (1832-1915), Hughes made a career as a portraitist and draughtsman and as an exhibiting watercolourist, specialising in highly-finished compositions of literary and allegorical subjects. The first chapter situates the artist in the context of the late Victorian and Edwardian art world, and particularly in relation to the wider Pre-Raphaelite circle. It summarises the key relationships enjoyed by Hughes within contemporary artistic networks, investigating the extent to which these connections helped to shape his career and affected the ways in which his work was critically received. The second chapter discusses Hughes’s use of drawing as a medium. It examines Hughes’s drawn work in the context of Victorian exhibiting practice, casting light not only on his career as a draughtsman but on the changing status of drawings as exhibition pieces in the second half of the nineteenth century. The final chapter considers the extent to which Hughes can be characterised as a Symbolist artist. It relates his later work to Symbolist theory and practice, and investigates Hughes’s personal and professional links with Symbolism as an international movement.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Masters by Research > M.Phil.)

Award Type:

Masters by Research > M.Phil.

Supervisor(s):