This fully illustrated study examines the construction of masculinity in culture based on an analysis of pictorial representations of the male in a wide range of contexts: social, historical, legal, literary, institutional, anthropological, educational, marital, imperial and aesthetic. Powerful images from the work of dozens of Victorian artists - from Leighton, Waterhouse, Burne-Jones and Alma-Tadema to Dicksee, Pettie, Watts, Woodville and Tuke to name a few - are used to illustrate the 5 key paradigms of masculinity: the classical hero, the gallant knight, the challenged paterfamilias, the valiant soldier and the male nude. Aspects of 20th-century theory such as rescue compulsion, male sexuality, the male gaze and racial ideas are also considered. The author concludes that maleness was, and is, learned and 19th-century ideas still influence the construction of manhood today; that social institutions are influenced by, and themselves use, artistic representation; that artistic images strongly influence ideas of gender; and that multi-disciplinary cultural study is the best way to examine the formation of gender ideologies.
Biography
Joseph A. Kestner
'A rich source of information and comment on less-known Victorian painters.’ TLS
'Useful insights into masculinity as a factor in nineteenth-century British culture.’ Oxford Art Journal
'Powerful and provocative text ... overall commanding caliber of thought and scholarship.’ Albion
'Kestner's book is an outstanding example of an interdisciplinary study equally expert in theory, literature and art.’ Victorian Periodicals Review
'This book...provides a useful survey of the recent literature on masculinites, and draws attention to what has been a neglected subject.’ Art History
'This thoughtful book, profusely illustrated in sharply defined black-and -white plates, will repay attention by students of both gender studies and Victorian art.’ Studies in English Literature 1500-1900
'Kestner’s book is enormously important. He offers a pioneering exploration of the range of masculinities represented in British painting from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s...Art, literary, and social historians as well as theorists will find Masculinities in Victorian Painting invaluable.’ Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies
