This ground-breaking book presents a critical study of pictorial narrative in nineteenth-century European painting. Covering works from France, Germany, Britain, Italy and elsewhere, it traces the ways in which immensely popular artists like Jean-Leon Gerome, Karl von Piloty and William Quiller Orchardson used unique visual strategies to tell thrilling and engaging stories. Regardless of genre, content or national context, these paintings share a fundamental modern narrative mode. Unlike traditional art, they do not rely on textual sources; nor do they tell stories through the human body alone. Instead, they experiment with objects, spaces, cause-and-effect relations and open-ended ambiguity, prompting viewers and reviewers to read for clues in order to weave their own elaborate tales.

About the Author
Nina Lubbren is Associate Professor of Art History and Film at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge.

Reviews

'Narrative Painting in Nineteenth-Century Europe provides a new lens through which to appreciatively view works that might not have previously seemed worthy of close analysis. It reveals the impressive ingenuity with which artists and critics of the second half of the nineteenth century sought to bring pleasure to viewers and readers hungering for engaging stories. Given that pleasure is not prominent in the earnest academic discourse of the early twenty-first century, it is refreshing to see its pursuit treated as a legitimate topic of research. This is one more reason to be grateful for Nina Lubbren's well-crafted book.'
Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, Volume 22, Issue 2 | Autumn 2023, Jonathan P. Ribner

'The real achievement of Lubbren's study, allows us to see narrative painting with fresh eyes, while avoiding the tendentious special pleading that so often accompanies re-readings of neglected art from the period. Thanks to her research, we can now begin to tell a new story about an important, and unjustly overlooked, aspect of nineteenth-century European painting'
The Burlington Magazine

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Book Information
ISBN 9781526168573
Author Nina Lubbren
Format Hardback
Page Count 240
Imprint Manchester University Press
Publisher Manchester University Press
Weight(grams) 762g
Dimensions(mm) 240mm * 170mm * 21mm