J.M.W. Turner, John Everett Millais, Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, James Tissot, and William Holman Hunt are among the Victorian painters whose work is showcased in this elegant volume, which accompanies an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington. Illustrated and discussed are not only characteristically Victorian narrative and genre paintings but also works that reflect international developments such as the European symbolist movement.

From the medieval tendencies of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and other Pre-Raphaelites to the classicism of Frederic Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tadema, Victorian painting encompassed a broad range of subjects and styles.