TY  - BOOK
AU  - Amélie Dochy
PY  - 2025
CY  - Oxford, United Kingdom
PB  - Peter Lang Verlag
SN  - 9781803748214
TI  - A Scot in Victorian Ireland
T2  - Erskine Nicol’s Paintings of Irishness, from Cliché to Compassion
DO  - 10.3726/b22437
UR  - https://www.peterlang.com/document/1502748
N2  - Scottish painter Erskine Nicol (1825–1904) produced more than 600 scenes of Irish life. This book investigates the reasons for their success in Edinburgh, London, Paris or New York, using concepts in cultural studies. Nicol adapted Victorian prejudices, as well as anti-Irish clichés, in his pictures of Ireland. Thus, he painted caricatures suggesting that he complied with prevalent imperialist ideas. Yet, some of his canvasses are ambivalent, as they highlight the injustices generated by the British regulation of Ireland’s agricultural system. This questioning of British authority through painting, a highly codified artistic genre, was enabled by Nicol’s style, inspired by Dutch Old Masters, the Scottish School of Art and Social Realism. However, his realism was limited because such pictures were difficult to sell. So, this volume explores his motivations, to see if they came from his fondness for stereotypes, his compassion for the Irish or his commercial ambitions.
KW  - Victorian painting, Erskine Nicol, Narrative realism, genre painting, Scottish School, Irish painting, Irish history, nineteenth-century Ireland, Victorian Ireland, Great Famine, Anti-Irish prejudices, Clichés, Compassion, Victorian art market, Irish female subjects, Imperialism
LA  - English
ER  -