Art and the Victorian middle class

the long version

This is the first study of middle-class collection practices in nineteenth-century England. It examines the Victorian art world from the perspective of the businessmen whose successes during the Industrial Revolution caused them to turn to art as a means of carving out an identity of their own that was distinct from the leisured existence of the aristocracy and gentry. Macleod's analysis of class, motivations, and patterns of consumption among patrons is supplemented by an indispensable appendix of collectors, making this an essential work of reference.