Introduction

This chapter introduces the wider historical and cultural contexts of the Brontë family’s engagement with the arts, which include painting, drawing sculpture, music, literature, theatre, architecture, design and crafts. It demonstrates how this engagement permeated their creative work, leading to the development of an aesthetic sensibility which today is identified as recognisably ‘Brontëan’, an approach which privileges imaginative exploration and a heightened engagement with the workings of the interior life. The chapter demonstrates how the aesthetic discourses of the late-eighteenth and early-nineteenth centuries informed the Brontës’ understanding of their cultural moment, helping to shape their development as writers and artists, focusing on Branwell’s portrait of his sisters in the National Portrait Gallery, London. The chapter also offers critical assessments of the influence of the arts on the family’s creative work, as well as the important role played by art in the heritage and tourism industries associated with the Brontës’ lives and legacies. This chapter highlights the book’s unique contribution to existing scholarship in Brontë studies. The Introduction also presents an overview of subsequent chapters, demonstrating how each contributor’s discussion relates to the book’s overall rationale and design.