The celebrated Victorian narrative painter William Powell Frith (1819 1909) was a born raconteur. His two-volume autobiography of 1887 ran to three editions in the same year. The third edition is reissued here, together with its supplementary volume of 1888. Frith was an ideal commentator on his age. He never lost his early interest in literary and historical subjects, and moved in the highest artistic and literary circles. Yet he also saw himself as a man of the people. His most famous works were his 'modern-life' panoramas, Ramsgate Sands (1854), Derby Day (1858) and The Railway Station...

First published in 1913, this highly illustrated two-volume work was intended to give as full an account as possible of the lives and works of painters, sculptors and engravers in Ireland from the earliest times to the nineteenth century. Until then, the history of Irish art had been largely neglected, so this project was an extensive undertaking for Walter George Strickland (1850 1928), who became Director of the National Gallery of Ireland. It took him two decades to compile, and involved accessing private collections, corresponding with experts, meeting with the artists' descendants, and...

Washington Allston (1779 1843) was considered by many at the time to be the greatest painter yet produced by the United States. After four years at Harvard, where he made an impression with his poetry, he went to London and became a pupil of the artist Benjamin West. On a tour of the continent, he met Samuel Taylor Coleridge in Rome, painted his portrait and became his firm friend. After a period at home, during which he married, Allston returned to London, and through Coleridge met Wordsworth, Southey, and the earl of Egremont, the great patron of artists, especially J. W. M. Turner. In this...