During the nineteenth century, what had been British hostility toward French art shifted toward acceptance and even enthusiasm, a change that transformed British art. This book charts the impact of French culture on British art and, to a lesser extent, the influence of British art in France during the nineteenth century. Thoroughly original, it is the first full overview of artistic and cultural relations between the two most important European nations of the period.

Extending its reach beyond Romanticism and Impressionism, the book offers an encyclopedic account of all aspects of the British reception of French art in the nineteenth century. It demonstrates in detail how the rapprochement between French and British art over the course of the century effected fundamental and lasting change throughout the British art world. This is an essential volume for anyone with an interest in the art of Britain and France and in the political, social, economic, and cultural contexts in which art is created.

Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art