ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on two very specific sets of comparative images: one being taken from the second quarter of the nineteenth century, and the other from the third quarter. In attempting this comparison of the ‘national traditions’ of France and Britain by way of such a scanty selection of images, I am well aware of the accusations to which art historians expose themselves. It is all too easy to select such examples with a view to proving one’s case. Any significant differences might then disappear from view if another range of visual data were highlighted. This might be a special danger in the case of a study that bears on the nineteenth century.
