The remarkable popularity of political likenesses in the Victorian period is the central theme of this book, which explores how politicians and publishers exploited new visual technology to appeal to a broad public. The first study of the role of commercial imagery in nineteenth-century politics, Politics personified shows how visual images projected a favourable public image of politics and politicians. Drawing on a vast and diverse range of sources, this book highlights how and why politics was visualised. Beginning with an examination of the visual culture of reform, the book goes on to study how Liberals, Conservatives and Radicals used portraiture to connect with supporters, the role of group portraiture, and representations of Victorian MPs. The final part of the book examines how major politicians, including Palmerston, Gladstone and Disraeli, interacted with mass commercial imagery. The book will appeal to a broad range of scholars and students across political, social and cultural history, art history and visual studies, cultural and media studies and literature.

Henry Miller is Lecturer in Nineteenth-Century British History at the University of Manchester

Introduction1. The visual culture of reform, 1830322. Party politics and portraiture, 1832463. Radical visual culture: from caricature to portraiture4. Reforming pantheons: political group portraiture and history painting5. Representing the representatives: MPs and portraiture6. Palmerston and his rivals7. Disraeli, Gladstone and the personification of party, 186880ConclusionSelect bibliographyIndex