The World in Paint

“Corbett is one of very few scholars who are thinking deeply about the future direction of art history, and of even fewer who are doing so in the context of British art. This book has the potential to lead the way not only in its own field but also in art history as a discipline.” —Elizabeth Prettejohn, University of Plymouth

“Suitably, The World in Paint is a visual pleasure because generous illustrations support elegant prose illuminating the threatening promise of ideas expressed only in (and within) paint, describing them for example as ‘ghostly possibilities arising from the absence of strong claims elsewhere, shadows that drift in to occupy vacant cultural space.’ Unquestionably this is an important scholarly contribution to its field and will become a core text for students of English art of a long nineteenth century, a corrective to the hysterical division between the poles of Victoria and the Great War. It also stands as a vivid demonstration of what an unashamed reconnection with the damnably visual aspects of this visual art might come to look like.” —Rebecca Scragg, The Art Book

“At its best, it can deal clearly and thoughtfully with small pockets of the subject—the relationship between word and image, for instance, in Wilde's dealings with his illustrator, Charles Ricketts. Corbett's mission is laudable. Let us wish him well, and hope that as well as tackling the avisuality of social art history, he can shake off its ponderous semantic apparatus.” —Nicholas Wadley, Times Literary Supplement