The Culture and Art of Death in 19th Century AmericaNineteenth-century Victorian-era mourning rituals--long and elaborate public funerals, the wearing of lavishly somber mourning clothes, and families posing for portraits with deceased loved ones--are often depicted as bizarre or scary. But behind many such customs were rational or spiritual meanings. This book offers an in-depth explanation at how death affected American society and the creative ways in which people responded to it. The author discusses such topics as mediums as performance artists and postmortem painters and photographers, and draws a connection between death and the emergence of three-dimensional media. |
Contents
Preface | |
1 The Victorian Age | |
2 Psychic Artists Performance Art and Death | |
3 Traditional Artist and Death | |
4 Mourning Garb | |
5 Illustrious Widows Influence on Art and Design | |
6 Memorial Jewelry | |
7 Artists Working in Hair | |
8 Photography and Death | |
9 Art and the Corpse | |
Epilogue | |
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19th century abstract art afterlife American ancient artists became believed body Boston Brady Brady’s British brooch burial buried called carved carvers Charles church churchyard color communication continued corpse created crepe daguerreotype dead death death’s head deceased decorated died dress Empress Eugénie England English fabric Forbes Fox sisters France French funeral garden cemeteries Gauguin George Godey’s gold gravestones graveyards Green-Wood Cemetery hair jewelry hairwork Harry Houdini Houdini husband ideas images invention jewelers jewelry John Keckley King Lady Lady’s Leadbeater Lincoln Linden-Ward living London loved magazine marble Marie Antoinette Mary Mary Todd Lincoln medium memorial Mesmer monuments Mount Auburn Cemetery mourning clothes Mumler one’s painted popular portrait Princess Queen Victoria religion rings royal sculpture séances Society soul spirit photographs spiritualist statue stone stonecutters studio style symbol Theosophical Theosophical Society trance United Victorian Washington wear widow wife William woman women wore wrote