Paintings from the Reign of Victoria: The Royal Holloway Collection, London: 0 - Tapa dura

The catalogue of a touring exhibition which showcases sixty extraordinary paintings illustrating some of the highest achievements in figurative and landscape art of the nineteenth century. Acquired by Thomas Holloway to enhance the women’ s college he had founded in 1879, the collection includes many of the most visible and praised “ modern canvasses” in London in the 1880s. From scenes of contemporary life, as well as historical events, to landscapes, animal studies, and marine subjects, the exhibition illustrates the Victorian belief in art as the ultimate civilizing influence. Art was seen as a teaching tool with visual beauty as its medium, and Thomas Holloway sought out only the best examples, regardless of cost. Included are seminal works by artists such as Sir Edwin Landseer, William Powell Frith, Sir John Everett Millais, David Roberts, and Edwin Long.

Andrew Wilton is Visiting Research Fellow at the Tate Gallery, London

Dr. Christiana Payne is Senior Lecturer of Art at Oxford Brooks University

His Excellency Sir David Manning is the Ambassador of Great Britain to the United States and Honorary Patron of the Exhibition

Dr Diane Sachko Macleod, Department of Art and Art History, University of California Davis

Curator, The Royal Holloway Collection, and Guest Curator of the Exhibition

Professor Tim Barringer is the Paul Mellon Professor, Department of the History of Art, Yale University