Supplementary materials for the PHD thesis "The work of William Giles (1830-1913): his paintings and photography"

<i>This dataset comprises the files contained on a CD-ROM which was attached to the thesis when it was submitted in 2013. It was uploaded to ORDO in 2026 for preservation purposes. The thesis can be accessed via ORO: </i>The work of William Giles (1830-1913): his paintings and photographyContained within the zip file is a catalogue of 571 watercolours, sketches and photographic prints. While the catalogue may no longer be searchable without technical expertise, the images are still available upon download.Thesis abstractWilliam Giles (1830-1913) was an amateur artist and photographer who went to Rome in 1852 to train for the Catholic priesthood, and never left. He became Vice-Rector then Rector of the Venerable English College in Rome, a post he held until his death in 1913. The thesis reconstructs the milieu in which Giles grew up and how it shaped him and his art, with particular reference to his cousin artist Samuel Palmer (1805-1881), who, I suggest, taught Giles. Palmer and another member of the brotherhood of the Ancients, John Giles (Giles' uncle) were influential in instilling in Giles what I call his 'meta-Rome': that is Giles' experience of Rome before he actually arrived there - and an influence on him once he did. The thesis then puts Giles in the context of the tumultuous political climate of threats to the temporal power of the Pope and the Risorgimento through the history of early photography in Rome, and how Giles engaged with both the city and photography as an artist and a priest.<br><br>Giles' artistic routes were informed by the picturesque aesthetic as it had evolved in the later nineteenth century. It is proposed that Giles' work served not only as a 'certificate of presence' in the landscape, reinforcing a sense of ownership that was always problematic, but was also a reflection of his deeply spiritual attachment to the landscape. This is revealed in his art through the 'sacred pastoral', an over-layering of the classical pastoral that had been a characteristic of depictions of the Campagna since its representation in Claude Lorrain's paintings. Finally, the thesis addresses Giles' legacy, including the negative impact of his art on his reputation in the history of the English College over the past one hundred years.<br>