The idea that illustrations are problematic because they misrepresent the text is likely among the most common discussions about illustrations. We find the first occurrence of this idea in a letter by Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Coindet, dated December 7, 1760. Rousseau’s expression of concern over inaccurate illustrations in the letter to Coindet has been highlighted by Benoît Tane. Tane remarks:
Les commentaires de Rousseau sur la ‘défiguration’ de Julie dans les estampes de son roman ne peuvent que faire penser à la hantise de la défiguration physique qui menace les personnages dans cette œuvre mais aussi plus largement à la crainte qu’avait l’auteur lui-même que ses ennemis ne dénaturent sa pensée et ses actes.
The concern over inaccurate illustrations appears to gain particular relevance in the historical literature of the early nineteenth century. Walter Scott, at least, questioned illustrators’ ability to produce images with adequate historical accuracy (Pantazzi 588–89).
The argument that illustrations unduly privilege or accentuate beauty, which we see first appear in the mid-nineteenth century, may be regarded as a special type of the more general concern that illustrations contradict the text.
Works Cited
Pantazzi, Sibylle. “Author and Illustrator: Images in Confrontation.” A History of Book Illustration: 29 Points of View, edited by William A. Katz, Scarecrow Press, 1994, pp. 585-600,
Tane, Benoît. “Le livre illustré au xviiie siècle. L’œuvre au risque de sa défiguration.” L’esthétique du livre, edited by Alain Milon and Marc Perelman, Presses universitaires de Paris Nanterre, 2013, pp. 315–31. https://books.openedition.org/pupo/1903#bodyftn33
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