Arts of the 19th Century : 1850 to 1905

The second half of the 19th century was a period of rapid change: of optimistic industrial achievement and scientific invention which inspired new and diverse artistic movements and saw the dawn of the skyscraper, the motor car and the cinema.

This volume explores the wide-ranging artistic eclecticism of the age by tracing and illustrating fine and decorative art movements, from Realism, Impressionism, and Arts & Crafts movement and Art Nouveau to primitivism and Expressionism.The book encompasses a remarkable variety of painting, sculpture, architecture and town planning, photography and the decorative arts - furniture, glass, metalwork, textiles and more - on both sides of the Atlantic.

The text is by curators at the Musee d'Orsay, Paris.