Recommended Reading: Victorian Painting by Lionel Lambourne

Queen Victoria by Franz X. Winterhalter

At 500 pages, this book may seem ponderous, however, when you open it, you find page-after-page of stunningly reproduced paintings. The author, Lionel Lambourne, has accurately and sensitively chronicled the different phases, styles and genres of Victorian painting and has painstakingly chosen the absolute best examples of the work of the greatest artists of the period.

Some of the categories covered in this stunning book are: "The Victorian Art Establishment," "The Fresco Revival," "The Panorama," "Childhood and Sentiment," "Fairy Painting," "Sporting and Animal Painting," "The Pre-Raphaelites," "The Frailer Sex and Fallen Woman," "Aesthetes and Symbolists," and "Impressionism in Britain."

I would recommend adding this book to your collection.  Turning the pages is almost as good as a tour of the world’s finest museums.