When the story of modern art is told, British artists are mentioned infrequently or not at all. In this book, distinguished art historians attempt to explain the marginal position of British modern art by examining the development of the London art world--its institutions and individual artists--over the past two centuries.
Chapters discuss artists as diverse as William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, W.P. Frith, Walter Sickert, and Henry Moore and also describe academies, public exhibitions, and commercial galleries throughout the era. Introduced by David Solkin, the volume consists of...

More than two hundred years ago, Russian Empress Catherine the Great and some of her courtiers developed a taste for British art and collected some spectacular items including paintings, drawings, sculpture, silver, and Wedgwood ceramics. This sumptuously illustrated book tells the story of the acquisition of these treasures and of the cultural relations between Britain and Russia in the eighteenth century.
Distinguished critic John Russell provides the introduction for this book, and eminent British and Russian scholars offer chapters on such topics as British gardeners and the vogue of...