Victorian Painting is a comprehensive survey of one of the most fertile and varied Bras in the history of painting. It embraces not just the United Kingdom but also the English-speaking countries linked to Britain by cultural ties of emigration and empire, such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Africa. Long regarded as a backwater of sentiment and outmoded academic convention, Victorian painting is now wholeheartedly in its owns. Unfettered by old prejudices, Lionel Lainbourne presents a vivid panorama of an age of unparalleled energy and creativity. Wealth, optimism, education and self-confidence created a huge demand for art, and a formidable array of original and lightly talented artists emerged to meet it. Producing works in a wide range of styles, subjects and media, many painters became celebrities, while the profession as a whole enjoyed unprecedented public esteem. The author tackles this protean subject by dividing it into themes which reflect its richness and variety. After the Introduction and an illuminating survey of the Victorian Art Establishment, long chapters are devoted to the major subjects of Mural fainting, Portraiture, Landscape and Genre, while further chapters deal with particular themes: Sporting and Animal Painting, Fairy fainting, Childhood, the Panorama, Cross-Sections of Society, Social Realism, Emigration and the Nude. The author also focuses on Women Artists and on the troubled relations between the sexes; on movement such as the Pre-Raphaelites, the Aesthetes and Symbolists, and the British Impressionists; and on painting in the United States and the British colonies. Written with a light touch, full of well-chosen and amusing anecdotes, and with over 600 colour illustrations, Victorian Painting is beautiful, entertaining and informative. It is also a valuable reference work, for in addition to many famous and well-loved images, it presents a wealth of fine work by lesser-known artists, and explores the byways as well as the highways of Victorian art. Taking a generous view of the subject and sharing his enthusiasm with the reader, Lionel Lainbourne captures the vitality and exuberance of a remarkable age.
