Pictorial frontispiece, by J. Noel Paton

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Pictorial frontispiece

J. Noel Paton

1863

Wood engraving by an unknown engraver

3¾ inches diameter

Charles Kingsley’s The Water Babies, frontispiece

This circular design embodies Kingsley’s imagery of the sea-borne water-babies, nurtured by a watery Madonna. [Commentary continues below.]

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke. [Click on image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

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Paton’s style mediates between Flaxman’s outlines and Pre-Raphaelite detail. The motherly figure’s hair, moving in the stream, is a riff on Rossetti’s fascination with women’s coiffure. The overall effect is weird and dream-like, uniting idealized neo-classical figures with grotesque detail in the form of imaginary fish. The physical presentation as a tondo, adds to the notion of poetic insight, as if the scene were momentarily glimpsed in a glass, an impression accentuated by the use of tinting.

Links to related material

Bibliography

Kingsley, Charles. The Water-Babies. London: Macmillan, 1863.

Created 9 April 2022