JEREMY Paxman’s book of the BBC TV series is a thoroughly readable tour of Victorian paintings and the society that created them.
The Newsnight presenter argues that collectively the paintings of the era are undervalued and our attitudes to them need reassessing.
At the time, many works provoked a level of popular interest unheard of today with tens of thousands flocking to galleries to see new works, and individual paintings needing police guards.
Some artists, like their literary equivalents, captured the poverty and misery of those left behind by industrial change. Others found inspiration in the positive, such as the new leisure pursuits open to the middle class.
For many of the works it is their social context rather than their aesthetic qualities that makes them interesting, and Paxman is a compelling narrator of those stories.
The paintings themselves are presented in immaculate quality. The only slight criticism is not all of those mentioned feature.
Jack Doyle
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