Art and the Victorian Middle Class. Money and the making of cultural identity

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  • Name Cultural assets collection & patronage
  • Name Consumption, consumerism & associated ethics

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Deals with the businessman as a collector of art in the Victorian period and his impact on Victorian artists, art and the art market. Covers motivations, patterns of consumption and 'taste and the consumption of culture. For business historians noted especially for extensive profiles of businessmen collectors [pp382-489] which cover 100+ individuals with each profile having sections - 'Occupation' / 'Biography' / 'Collection' / 'Taste' / 'Purchasing patterns' / 'Sales and bequests' / 'References'. Much on picture dealers, especially Agnews. Chapters include: 'Nouveaux riches or new order? Early Victorian collectors in London'; 'Culture and middle class identity in Manchester and Birmingham'; 'Pre-Raphaelitism - progressive or regressive?'; 'Money and mainstream mid Victorian values'; 'The aesthetic movement - l'art at l'argent'; 'Epilogue - mimesis versus modernism'