Art in Bourgeois Society, 1790-1850

This collection reasserts the importance of class analysis to a critical art history by studying artistic practices in the key phase of bourgeois history from 1790-1850. A group of specialist scholars examine related developments in Britain, France, Germany, and the United States. Themes covered include exhibitions, art criticism, patronage, taste, and the political resonances of specific artworks. Each section of the book has an introduction sketching bourgeois class formation in the society concerned, and reviewing the historical literature about it.