A Guide to Eighteenth-Century Art

A Guide to Eighteenth-Century Art offers an introductory overview of the art, artists, and artistic movements of this exuberant period in European art, and the social, economic, philosophical, and political debates that helped shape them.

• Covers both artistic developments and critical approaches to the period by leading contemporary scholars

• Uses an innovative framework to emphasize the roles of tradition, modernity, and hierarchy in the production of artistic works of the period

• Reveals the practical issues connected with the production, sale, public and private display of art of the period

• Assesses eighteenth-century art’s contribution to what we now refer to as ‘modernity’

• Includes numerous illustrations, and is accompanied by online resources examining art produced outside Europe and its relationship with the West, along with other useful resources

List of Figures vi

Acknowledgments x

Companion Website xi

Introduction: Style, Society, Modernity 1

1 Institutional Hierarchies: Art and Craft 19

2 Genres and Contested Hierarchies 56

3 Markets, Publics, Expert Opinions 122

4 Taste, Criticism and Journalism 189

5 Seeking a Moral Order: The Choice between Virtue and Pleasure 205

Conclusion 239

References 240

Index 260

"There is plenty to inform both the serious academic and the general interested layman in this ground-breaking treatise as the text is readable and clear. For anyone with even a passing interest in the eighteenth century, this book will both enlighten and inform."
—Diana Dixon, Reference Reviews, Volume 31, Number 4, 2017 Linda Walsh is a former Senior Lecturer in Art History at the Open University. An established scholar of eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century art, Walsh is the author of numerous articles and chapters on topics that include Canova and neoclassical theory; paintings by David, Watteau, and Chardin; eighteenth-century academies; art criticism; and British landscape art.

A Guide to Eighteenth-Century Art offers an introductory overview of the art, artists, and artistic movements of this period, and the social, economic, philosophical, and political debates that helped shape them. It uses an innovative framework to highlight the roles of tradition, modernity, and hierarchy in the production of artistic works during this influential era.

The book spans a broad range of topics from the trade and craft of art; the hierarchy of genres; and the emerging public for artistic works; through to the relationship of art to wider cultural developments of the Enlightenment; art and morality, and much more. It also explores the relationship between western art and the growth of colonialism. In examining the art of the period, Walsh reflects the latest research and insights from contemporary scholars. Complete with numerous illustrations and supported by online resources, A Guide to Eighteenth-Century Art offers illuminating insights into the dramatic artistic achievements that transpired between the waning days of the Baroque and the Age of Revolution.