3. Transatlantic Autograph Replicas and the Uplifting of American Culture

Codell, Julie F.

doi:10.1515/9781474424868-005

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“…Despite the temporal fluidities generated by studio practices, trajectories of these works demonstrate a curious homogeneity of taste across continents as replicas' subjects commissioned by British industrialists were avidly sought by collectors in other countries who shared a taste for Pre-Raphaelite and aestheticist art. 41 As Sarah Burns points out, the repetitive nature of aesthetic pictures created a branded style that could be reproduced for patrons, such that these works represented collectors' intertwined aesthetic and social identities and interactions. 42 Multiple versions of the same subjects populate American museums: for example, two versions of Burne-Jones's Chant d'Amour are in New York (purchased 1947) and Boston (donor purchased, 1887; donated, 1906).…”

Section: Mapping Trajectories and The Cultural Atlanticmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multiple Versions, Multiple Markets, Multiple Meanings: Worldwide Trade in British Autograph Replicas

Codell¹

2022

Art History

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In this essay I explore relationships between Victorian artists' prolific production of autograph replicas and the wide global demand for these replicas. Autograph replicas, defined by Victorian artists as variations on a subject through changes in size, medium or image from a first version, were largely commissioned by patrons. This market was later driven by foreign collectors who avidly sought autograph replicas, believed to be original works, not copies, to raise their own nations' cultural image in the world. The functions and demands for autograph replicas have unique historical and cultural contexts, including conflicts between artists and patrons. I describe artists' surreptitious studio practices producing these works and the unique effect autograph replicas had on collecting and on art history in the context of this special issue's rethinking of British art and the global. Autograph replicas challenged boundaries between original and copy and disrupted art‐historical notions of chronology, originality, canonicity, and market intervention.

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Section: Mapping Trajectories and The Cultural Atlanticmentioning

confidence: 99%