Walter Pater, Imaginary Portraits

Elisa Bizzotto (Iuav University of Venice)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1887

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Story Collection

Resources

The expression “imaginary portrait” was coined by Walter Pater in 1878, when it appeared in a letter he sent to George Grove, editor of Macmillan's Magazine, to describe his original experiment in creative fiction, the short story “Imaginary Portraits 1. The Child in the House”. Hitherto Pater had published art criticism with Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873) – something of a success de scandal – as well as essays on literature, philosophy and mythology. In “The Child in the House” he reproduced the impressionistic approach of his criticism to create an autobiographically-based tale in which action is interiorised and dialogue nonexistent. Proustian ante l…

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2653 words

Citation: Bizzotto, Elisa. "Imaginary Portraits". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 October 2007 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9864, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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