The Private Lives of Pictures

A novel art history of England told through the artworks on display in domestic space over hundreds of years.

The Private Lives of Pictures offers a new history of British art, seen from the perspective of the home. Focusing on the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century, the book takes the reader on a tour of an imaginary Victorian or Edwardian house, stopping in each room to look at the pictures on the walls. The book opens up the intimate history of art in everyday life, and examines many issues including how pictures were chosen for each room, how they were displayed, and what role they played in interior design. Superbly illustrated, The Private Lives of Pictures appeals to readers interested in both art and social history, and the history of interiors.

“"With its impressive range of references from the worlds of art, design, literature and popular culture--from Joshua Reynolds to Abigail's Party -- The Private Lives of Pictures offers its readers a sustained and eloquent reflection on the complex and key roles played by pictures in late nineteenth-century domestic interiors."”

Shortlisted The Berger Prize For British Art History 2023
This is a ground-breaking volume on a subject previously barely touched on, the display of paintings in private homes. -- Martin Hopkinson British Art Journal
This book is an extremely enjoyable guide to discovering what it is that makes a home an "interior" rather than a set of walls with furniture: look forward to the "voyage around your room" as it was described by the late 18th-century philosopher Xavier de Maistre. This is a short book, but it is stylishly written and full of ideas, and beaufifully produced and illustrated. Timothy Brittain-Catlin, World of Interiors
Not mere decoration, this entertaining study of art at home reveals the thinking behind what people hang on their walls . . . [a] fascinating exploration of what happens to pictures when they retreat from the public gaze behind the closed doors of private houses. It is a far richer and more complex history than I had realised . . . Hang and be judged: the book may force you to cast a cold eye over your own walls. Maev Kennedy, The Art Newspaper
The Private Lives of Pictures explores the challenges, assumptions and expectations brought to bear on the sudden influx of pictures on private walls. The subject is so rich that it is remarkable it has not been substantially discussed to date . . . a convivial tour through a representative, and predominantly middle-class, parlour, dining room, drawing room, bedroom and nursery (via many corridors and stairs), Tromans suggests that pictures served different functions in different places . . . [the book] offers a provocative new approach to the history of art and interiors. Apollo Magazine
The numerous ways pictures were placed throughout public and domestic interiors in Britain in the period from 1800 to 1940 says much about individual choice and social norms. Pictures had fundamental utility – they were “transportable, stackable, and hangable" – not to mention their ability to testify to one’s decorative acumen. Tromans investigates how pictures were shown – how they were hung, whether tilted away from the wall or suspended from picture rails, and how they were illuminated, either by sunlight or lighting from oil, gas, or electric bulb . . . This impressive, well-written book will appeal to a wide audience. Highly recommended. Choice
The Private Lives of Pictures is more than an exploration of the static image, it is about bodies moving in spaces - seated in dining rooms, waiting in drawing rooms, reclining in bedrooms, climbing stairs. Tromans writes with intimacy, humour and such an impressive scope of references that the home emerges as uncomfortable, uncanny, cosy and celebratory all at once, woven together to inspire a hyper-consciousness of art and the domestic. This study of a long-neglected aspect of art history is ground-breaking in positioning the home as central to the role of the image in society. You’ll never look at your walls in the same way again. -- Sonia Solicari, Director of the Museum of the Home Journal of the History of Collections
With its impressive range of references from the worlds of art, design, literature and popular culture – from Joshua Reynolds to Abigail’s Party – The Private Lives of Pictures offers its readers a sustained and eloquent reflection on the complex and key roles played by pictures in domestic interiors. Penny Sparke, Professor of Design History, Kingston University London, and author of 'The Modern Interior'
Nicholas Tromans's room-by-room tour of an imaginary nineteenth-century house, looking at what hung on its walls, how, why and what it meant, is entertaining, erudite and does for the domestic picture what Gaston Bachelard's Poetics of Space did for the home. It deserves to become a classic. David Blayney Brown, art historian and curator
This unusual and ambitious book illuminates an aspect of art history that has been surprisingly neglected. Why did people hang pictures on their walls? How were they hung? Which pictures and in which room? This engaging book makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the public engagement with art in the long nineteenth century. Caroline Dakers, Professor Emerita in Cultural History, University of the Arts London
This is a book about picture collections and domestic space in the nineteenth century . . . a fascinating study [that] takes an engagingly creative approach to that topic, and by no means provides a neat, comprehensive, chronological history from 1800 through to WWII. Instead, it keeps coming at its subject from a variety of angles, some fascinatingly technical, some philosophical. Kate Retford, Professor of Art History, Birkbeck, University of London

Nicholas Tromans has written widely on nineteenth-century British art, including books on David Wilkie, Orientalist painting, G. F. Watts, Richard Dadd, and (with Susan Owens) Christina Rossetti and the visual arts. He lives in London.

A novel art history of England told through the artworks on display in domestic space over hundreds of years. The Private Lives of Pictures offers a new history of British art, seen from the perspective of the home. Focusing on the nineteenth- and early twentieth-century, the book takes the reader on a tour of an imaginary Victorian or Edwardian house, stopping in each room to look at the pictures on the walls. The book opens up the intimate history of art in everyday life, and examines many issues including how pictures were chosen for each room, how they were displayed, and what role they played in interior design. Superbly illustrated, The Private Lives of Pictures appeals to readers interested in both art and social history, and the history of interiors.

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