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| Arthur Lemon The Wooing of Daphnis ca. 1881 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"The story of Daphnis and Chloë was a popular subject in Continental art in the nineteenth century. Lemon was celebrated as a painter of pastoral Italian scenes and genre subjects. Although born in Britain, he worked in Italy for much of his career."
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| Camille Pissarro The Little Country Maid 1882 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
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| Camille Pissarro The Pork Butcher 1883 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"Like The Little Country Maid, this painting was executed while Pissarro lived near Pontoise, northwest of Paris. During the 1880s he became interested in painting rural market scenes, several of which were based on the markets at Pontoise and its neighbouring villages."
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| George Clausen Winter Work 1883-84 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"In the 1880s Clausen devoted himself to painting realistic scenes of rural work, after seeing such pictures by the French artist Jules Bastien-Lepage. In this picture he shows a family of field workers topping and tailing swedes for sheep fodder. It was painted at Chilwick Green near St. Albans, where the artist had moved in 1881. He uses subdued colouring to capture the dull light and cold of winter, and manages to convey the hard reality of country work. Such unromanticised scenes of country life were often rejected by the selectors of the Royal Academy annual exhibitions."
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| John Singer Sargent Claude Monet painting by the Edge of a Wood ca. 1885 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"Sargent first met Monet in 1876, but the two artists were closest ten years later. It was probably in 1885 that they painted together at Giverny, near Paris. Sargent admired the way that Monet worked out of doors, and imitated some of his subjects and methods in sketches such as this. It is characteristic of Sargent to give a human view of Monet's practice and of the patience of his wife, who sits behind him."
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| John Singer Sargent Mrs Frederick Barnard 1885 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
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| Sydney Starr A Study ca. 1887 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"The donor suspects that the sitter may have been the person who was the cause of Starr's departure for the United States in 1892. A letter from the artist Whistler to his brother William, repeating information apparently given to him by Walter Sickert, states that Starr ran off with the wife of a patron who had given him both a commission and a studio. The lady's relatives stopped them, and Whistler says that the lady turned out to be mad."
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| Philip Wilson Steer The Swiss Alps at the Earl's Court Exhibition 1887 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"The Earl's Court Exhibition of 1887 was the first of four, devoted in turn to America, Italy, France and Germany. The 'Alps' were the painted backdrop to the display about America, which owed much of its success to Colonel Cody's ('Buffalo Bill') Wild West Show. Steer's use of sombre colours and decorative surface pattern echoes the work of Whistler and Japanese prints."
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| John Lavery The Glasgow Exhibition, 1888 1888 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"The international exhibitions held in Britain's great industrial cities became increasingly sumptuous towards the end of the century. The first Scottish Exhibition in Kelvingrove Park in Glasgow attracted over five million visitors and led to the building of the Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery. Lavery recorded the exhibition in forty on-the-spot impressionist sketches. These small scenes provided the background for a commission to paint a commemoration picture of Queen Victoria's State Visit in August 1888."
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| Alphonse Legros Femmes en Prière 1888 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"Born and trained in France, Alphonse Legros (1837-1911) settled in England in 1863, encouraged by his friend Whistler. By 1876 he had become Slade Professor of Fine Art, University College, London and remained there as an influential teacher until 1892."
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| Stanhope Alexander Forbes The Health of the Bride 1889 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
"Several generations of one family are shown celebrating the wedding of a young sailor and his wife. Forbes set the scene in a local inn, and used non-professional models. He was the leader of a group of painters who settled in the Cornish fishing village of Newlyn. They were attracted by the quality of Cornish light and the survival of a traditional way of life. The painting reflects many of the Newlyn School's aims. It was sold to Henry Tate, and with the profit Forbes was able to marry the artist Elizabeth Armstrong."
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| John Singer Sargent Portrait of Miss Priestley ca. 1889 oil on canvas Tate Gallery |
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| Paul Maitland The Gardens, Chelsea Embankment ca. 1889 oil on panel Tate Gallery |
"The Gardens, Chelsea Embankment depicts a small strip of public gardens situated between Chelsea Embankment and Cheyne Walk. Thomas Carlyle, the writer, lived in Cheyne Row from 1834 until his death in 1881. The pictured memorial statue of Carlyle by Edgar Boehm was unveiled in 1882. Chelsea Embankment roadway has since been widened, and the garden area to the right of the wide path has been reduced to a small area of grass without trees. The railings around the gardens and around the base of the statue are no longer there."
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| Lawrence Alma-Tadema A Silent Greeting 1889 oil on panel Tate Gallery |
"A Silent Greeting is characteristic of many of Alma-Tadema's paintings from this period which depict an anecdotal scene of Roman life set in an archaeologically reconstructed interior. The rediscovery of Herculaneum in 1738 and Pompeii ten years later had revealed a plethora of artefacts, including wall paintings, statues, and mosaics. Alma-Tadema built up on enormous collection of photographs of fragments of classical antiquity and architecture which he consistently referred to while composing. His meticulously painted pictures proved popular amongst the Victorian middle classes. He produced more than 400 such paintings in the course of his lifetime."
– quoted passages based on notes by curators at the Tate in London