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Art and action : painting for social change in Victorian England / Chloe Ward.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Ward, Chloe (Chloe M.), author.
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Art and society--England--History--19th century.
- Art and society.
- Painting--Social aspects--England.
- Painting.
- Painting, English--19th century--Themes, motives.
- Painting, English.
- Social problems--England--History--19th century.
- Social problems.
- Art and society--History.
- Painting--Social aspects.
- Painting, English--Themes, motives.
- Social problems--History.
- England.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource : illustrations
- illustration
- Other Title:
- Painting for social change in Victorian England
- Place of Publication:
- Oxford ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2026]
- Summary:
- What is the purpose of art? In the middle of the nineteenth century, English artists and art writers argued that painting was a powerful, untapped vehicle of social reform. Art had the ability, indeed, the responsibility, to provoke real change to improve lives in the face of rapid industrialisation, increasingly visible poverty, and political unrest. The belief that painting should have a social and ethical motive became widespread in the Victorian period, yet it has not been thoroughly examined in subsequent scholarship. 'Art and Action' reconstructs this forgotten discourse, showing how the idea of art as social reform shaped beliefs about art's purpose, inspired new strategies of political engagement, and laid the groundwork for the aesthetic revolution of the twentieth century.
- Contents:
- Introduction: the political economy of art: social action, private initiative, public discourse
- The common language of feeling: governmental illustration and Richard Redgrave’s Sempstress
- The condition of England question: Thomas Carlyle and the art of G. F. Watts
- The nationalisation of luxury: culture as philanthropy in the Whitechapel exhibitions
- The ethical picturesque: critical responses to Luke Fildes’s Casuals
- Conclusion: the invention of empathy: uniting morality and modernism in the experiments of Vernon Lee.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- Description based on online resource; title from digital title page (Oxford Academic, viewed on September 11, 2026).
- Other Format:
- Print version : Ward, Chloe (Chloe M.), Art and action.
- ISBN:
- 9780198992820
- 0198992823
- OCLC:
- 1602281156
- Publisher Number:
- CIPO000412044
- Access Restriction:
- Restricted for use by site license
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