Books by Colleen Denney

Lena Connell was one of a new breed of young professional women who took up photography at the turn of the 20th century. This book examines Connell's artistic career within the Edwardian suffrage movement, and discusses her body of portraits within the British suffrage movement's propagandistic efforts.

In this well-illustrated text, Dr. Denney asserts that the artists who image Diana, Princess of Wales, have framed her according to a cultural memory based on traditions of royal portraiture and according to twentieth-century reassertions (that is, reframings) of the debate over feminism and femininity in visual culture. Art historians and literary critics have examined the visual culture of Queen Victoria, Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth II, and more recently, images of women in the court of Charles II, but no one has addressed, as the author does here, the impact of imaging Diana, Princess of Wales, at a time in British culture when feminism and femininity collide. Dr. Denney critiques art historical traditions of portraiture in order to argue that a princess must perform a constructed role of femininity, one that corresponds to Victorian codes of royal protocol, visual practice, and behavior. The book encompasses themes of marriage, motherhood, philanthropy, royal dress, and autobiography.

Exploring the concept of portrait as memoir, this book examines the images and lives of four prominent Victorian women - Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Dilke, Millicent Garrett Fawcett, and Sarah Grand - who steered their way through scandal to forge unique identities.