Memory and Desire

• Contents: Victims of fashion; Savant and populaire - Connoisseurship and popular taste in the art of the past; The power of appreciation; Haunts of ancient peace; Fashionable flic-flac; The spirit of storms; The end of naturalism; The renaissance of the imagination; A walk in the park; Some men and a picture; Memory and visuality; Memory and modernity; Bibliography; Index.

'... attractive and revealing book.' W. S. Rodner, Tidewater Community College, Choice 'This is a challenging book, rich in its detail...' Robert Radford, The Art Book 'Like all the best art historical writing [this] book is both challenging and informative. Indirectly too, for by helping us to understand the past, our appreciation of the present is immeasurably assisted.' Art Newsletter Online '... this is a work of great scholarship, beautifully illustrated and drawing on a huge range of sources. It also offers a refreshing and original angle on this period in British art history and I would thoroughly recommend it as an inspiring read.' Frances Fowle, University of Edinburgh, Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History 'McConkey's extraordinary study is very wide-ranging as he tries to recapture the 'mentality of the late nineteenth century artist and the art lover in Britain'. The examination of the multiple forces at work that triggered the imaginations of artists and the ambitions of collectors is outlined admirably in this text. The doors McConkey has left ajar offer many opportunities for scholars to explore further the cultural forces that created the variegated and vigorous visual culture of Edwardian Britain.' Albion '...an important study of visual culture in the late-Victorian and Edwardian periods.' Victorian Studies