Pictures-within-Pictures in Nineteenth-Century Britain

Repainting the work of another into one’s own canvas is a deliberate and often highly fraught act of reuse. This book examines the creation, display, and reception of such images in nineteenth-century Britain. Using pictures-within-pictures, British artists asserted their own painterly abilities and claimed a place for their national school in the international canon. By recognizing these witty redeployments of existing works, viewers could demonstrate their own cultural knowledge. At stake for both artist and audience in such exchanges was status: the status of the painter relative to other artists, and the status of the viewer relative to other audience members. Through examinations of works by Turner, Millais, Davis, Brownlow King, and Frith, this book reveals how these small passages of paint conveyed both personal and national meanings.