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Towards a network analysis of art writers in Edwardian London: the Art Journal, Connoisseur and Burlington Magazine in 1903

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2016

Barbara Pezzini
Barbara Pezzini*
Affiliation:
The Burlington Magazine, 14-16 Duke’s Road, London, WC1H 9SZ, UK
*
Email: pezzini@burlington.org.uk
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Abstract

Network has become a much used term in modernist studies, but what is a network and what does it tell us about a periodical? A network is a series of connections, the study of which reveals not only the modes of production, readership and social and political niches of journals, but also the constituent elements of their aesthetic discourse. This article explores the biographical, commercial and institutional connections of three periodicals at the beginning of the 20th century – the Art Journal, Connoisseur and Burlington Magazine – within the year 1903. Their different approaches to art historical analysis are also examined, not as abstract philosophies unbounded by constraints of time or context, but interpreted as texts originating from a specific and shifting history, in which the relationship with the art market emerges as crucial.

Type
Research Article
Information
Art Libraries Journal , Volume 38 , Issue 1 , 2013 , pp. 12 - 19
Copyright
Copyright © The Art Libraries Society 2013

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References

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2. Murphy, James Stephen, ‘Looking at magazines: an argument for not reading,’ in the blog Magazine Modernisms, http://magmods.wordpress.com/.Google Scholar
3. Some further attention to the matter, especially for the Burlington and Connoisseur, can be found in Barbara Pezzini, ‘The Burlington Magazine, The Burlington Gazette and The Connoisseur. The art periodical and the market for Old-Master paintings in Edwardian London,’ Visual Resources, forthcoming 2013.Google Scholar
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It is difficult to find intact copies of The Connoisseur with their advertising supplements but advertisements of Henry Graves & Co. and Frank T. Sabin are in the front pages of The Connoisseur no. 1 (September 1901): s.p. Also photographed in [Anonymous], ‘75 years of advertisements,’ The Connoisseur no.191 (March 1976): 224–230.Google Scholar
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