ABSTRACT
Few moments in the history of British art have proven more favorable to contemporary artists than the period of the 1860s through the late 1880s. During this brief era British artists enjoyed unprecedented popularity among a broad and admiring public, their fame surpassing the adulation exhibited for such other popular artistic professions as novelist, playwright, and poet. Rare was the social event or high society dinner without a well-known or promising visual artist at hand. Of course, new found fame had its price, and frequent comments are found in artists’ memoirs and journals concerning the constant demands upon their time. Thomas Sidney Cooper’s statement is typical: “The late hours of London society, with the excitement consequent upon the numerous social gatherings that I was called upon to attend, combined with my continued hard work and close attention to my professional 58duties, began at last to make such really serious inroads upon my health” (Cooper 2:79).
