The Victorians’ fascination with artistic creation produced an impressive number of works in all genres, particularly in literature and the visual arts. The literary output ranges across poetry and drama, fiction and non-fiction. In this class we will read a selection of Victorian poems (Tennyson, the Brownings and the Rossettis), novels (Anthony Trollope and George Gissing), and one comedy (W. S. Gilbert). We will also look at illustrations and paintings that deal with related topics. While we will analyze different representations of the process of artistic creation, we will also examine how different literary genres shaped the representation of artistic endeavor. We will complete our interpretations of texts and artworks with criticism that will give us a better understanding of Victorian compositional strategies and their contextual meaning.