What did the army mean to the respectable classes of Victorian England - 'the scum of the earth' or brave Tommy Atkins holding the thin red line? What did images of the charge of the Light Brigade, the battle of Waterloo, of heroic scenes of blood and glory, mean to the Victorians?This stimulating book offers an important contribution to our understand of Victorian society through a study of its painting of soldiers and the army. It reveals the depth of the contempt in which the soldier was held at the opening of the century and charts the changes in the army's public image until the tragic climax of the Great War.It examines the careers of the most important artists of military subjects and discusses critical responses to their work. As the first complete survey of military painting in nineteenth-century Britain, the book will provide new information and insights for the study of history and of art history alike.
