Two artists painted panoramas full of miniature stories, which assembled into broad summaries of contemporary society: Frith and Ford Madox Brown.
Brown
Two new narrative themes that became distinctive in the mid-19th century were contemporary English poetry, and the legends of King Arthur.
From Rubens’ double-portrait with Isabella Brant, and Rembrandt’s with Saskia, to Paul Signac’s wife with a parasol and Ferdinand Hodler’s wife Berthe Jacques.
As the tragedy moves relentlessly to the deaths of most of its characters, paintings by William Blake, Ford Madox Brown, and Benjamin West tells its story.
First of two parts telling the classic story of the jealousy of sisters, plots, betrayal, and the troubles of old age, with plenty of fine paintings.
If you remember one Shakespeare play well, it’s Romeo and Juliet, shown here in paintings of the balcony scene, and the couple’s tragic deaths.
Well known from language, the scarlet woman should be easy to read in paintings. But all that is scarlet isn’t who you’d expect.
Crammed into this crowded street scene in one of London’s leafy suburbs is a detailed account of the breadth and depth of contemporary Victorian society.
Come leaf-peeping with painters from Samuel Palmer in the Weald of Kent, to Julian Alden Weir’s autumn rain.
In just a few years of painting, he made two of the major Pre-Raphaelite landscapes, but died of dysentery in Cairo at the age of only 35.