John Minton’s

Abstract

The paper examines the range in Minton’s approach at two levels. Firstly, it considers his dual strategies of Romanticism and Realism. Minton conflates topographical concerns with Neo-Romantic tendencies and draws on the landscape traditions of the sublime and picturesque, and the trope of the figure in the landscape. Secondly, the paper examines the images within a register of autonomy. Some images, operate autonomously, procuring primarily aesthetic responses; in contrast, others demand more literal intertextual readings; still, a further category of semi autonomous images are identified which subtly evoke elements of the text, without being hostage to Ross’s prose. These works in particular, I argue, invite the reader/viewer to re-assemble text and image so as to re-envision and re-imagine the Corsican Landscape. By examining text-image relationships, the place of landscape in post-war illustration, collaborative practice, and the relationship between fine art and illustration, the paper aims to contribute to forwarding the theorisation of illustration.