Victorian Painting [Paperback]

Judging from the two customer reviews, you either love it or hate it. I have a tweener view of Lambourne's tome. Having a keen interest in the Pre-Raphaelites, I wanted to learn more about Victorian art. I admit I chose this book because of it's size. However, I was pleasantly surprise by its content. I enjoyed his organization, for instead of going from artist to artist, he covered their subject matter and their important artists. It was a good review of the British art world of the Victorian era and some European/American artists who were influenced by the British. Lambourne was both academic and insightful. He seem knowledgeable of aspects of the artists' lives that are not usually in an academic work. The reproductions were great but I was disappointed that some were so small. However, I can understand the design trade off vs. cost of the book. So if you're looking for an extensive survey of Victoria period art at an affordable price, this is your book.

Two of the best books about general Victorian paintings are Lionel Lambourne's and Christopher Woods'. Although both book discuss the same broad subject of Victorian art, they do not seem to overlap each other but instead seem to reinforce each other, filling in gaps where one left off. Don't be afraid to own both books. Both books are packed with beautiful images and interesting notes about so many Victorian painters. Lambourne's book is almost twice as heavy as Wood's but the image resolution is smaller but he seems to give a better account of the events surrounding the paintings. The topics of both books are very well ordered (historical events, animals, nudes, outdoor etc)

In an environment over-saturated with the mediocrity of Modern Art, Victorian art is ever increasing in importance, and no serious lover of paintings should ever be without both books.

Although it has been much maligned by critics and art historians, the Victorian period was actually a rich and dynamic era in the arts. Modern art historians have been brought up with the notion that the concept of a narrative in a painting - essentially a painting that tells a story - is either mere illustration or "kitsch." Once this view of painting became the conventional wisdom early in the last century, Victorian Art, so much of which was narrative, was relegated to the basements of museums and even became an object of ridicule. In art history classes around the world, paintings of the Victorian era, whether by Leighton in England or Bouguereau in France, were used as a foil for the Impressionists and early Modern movements. The Victorian era was a sentimental time and there is a fine line between a romantic sentimentality and being overly sweet or saccharine and there were many times when Victorian painters vaulted over that line. However, like any other art form, you only become an effective and intelligent critic of a genre or period when you know it well. And, if your art history courses have taught you to dismiss it out of hand, you will simply be pathologically unable to make intelligent distinctions or draw proper conclusions.

Lionel Lambourne's book is a comprehensive survey of Victorian Art. It is a massive volume that is beautifully illustrated with exceptionally good plates. All too many art books suffer from poor color, clearly drawn from poor transparencies or scans, but this book doesn't stint on the number or quality of the illustrations, so it will be popular with those who simply want to enjoy the images as well as those who have the time to read the text. The author, who is the head of the paintings department at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, clearly knows his subject well and he has broken the long Victorian era down into logical chapters, beginning with a survey of the "Victorian Art Establishment" and then diving the Victorian period by subject and movement rather than simple chronology. He covers all the major movements such as "The Frailer Sex and the Fallen Woman," "The Pre-Raphaelites," "Aesthetes and Symbolists," and "Childhood and Sentiment."

The book is not devoted solely to the artists who lived in Great Britain but also includes painters from the British colonies and former colonies in order to show the connections between their art and that of England. Without descending into the jargon that is too frequently relied upon by art historians, Lambourne is scholarly, providing insight into the influences and motivations of the Victorian artists and then explaining why Whsitler and the Aesthetes rebelled against the prevailing style. Victorian painting has remained popular with artists and a segment of the public precisely because of some of the qualities that repell many art historians - the high level of craftsmanship, sentimentality, the narrative drive so common to the era and the moral element that is part of many paintings from the epoch - but in recent years, more and more exhibitions have been mounted and new books seem to come out each fortnight. Now that Victorian Art has regained some of its lost luster and popularity, it deserves to have an elegant book like Lionel Lambourne's "Victorian Painting" that gives readers an overview of a rich artistic epoch.