Painted riverscapes such as Claude Monet’s impressions of the Seine, Isaak Levitan’s Volga views, or Thomas Cole’s Hudson scenery became iconic not least because they embodied nationalist ideas about place and about culture. At a time when nationalism was taking root across Europe and the United States, the riverscape played an important role in transforming the abstract idea of the nation into a potent visual image. It not only offered a picture of the nation’s physical character, but through aspects such as style, the figures portrayed, and the nature of the implied spectator, it presented a cultural ideal.In this highly original book, Tricia Cusak explores significance of painted riverscapes to the creation of national identities in nineteenth and early twentieth century Europe and America. Focusing on five rivers, the Hudson, the Volga, the Seine, the Thames, and the Shannon, the author outlines the history of the development of national landscapes, elaborating on the distinctive nature of riverscapes. Drawing on the symbolic potential of rivers to represent life and time, the riverscape provided a metaphor for the mythic stream of national history flowing unimpeded out of the past and into the future.

The reading figure has been a recurrent theme in Western art but especially from the nineteenth century. This book examines Irish portraits during the long nineteenth century in which people are shown reading or holding a book. It explores different values ascribed to reading and contemporary constructions of the reader. The selected pictures are by artists born, trained, or practising in Ireland. ''Irish art'' is, therefore, used broadly to include work framed in some way by experience of Ireland and its history, culture, and politics. This was a time of large social and cultural shifts for Ireland, and a period when books and other reading, including Irish novels, were often published in London. Many of the artists and sitters discussed were Anglo-Irish Protestants. Both Imperial and nationalist ideologues tended to devalue reading, especially fiction, as an unmanly occupation. Nonetheless, some men are depicted reading and failing to embody a manly attitude. The spread of the novel, and the introduction of ‘silent reading’ allowed women of the middle and upper classes, often Anglo-Irish, to engage with a range of imaginative reading materials, secure from patriarchal surveillance. Visual images of women as serious readers drew on and contributed to the emergence of the ‘New Woman’ in Ireland.

The reading figure has been a recurrent theme in Western art but especially from the nineteenth century. This book examines Irish portraits during the long nineteenth century in which people are shown reading or holding a book. It explores different values ascribed to reading and contemporary constructions of the reader. The selected pictures are by artists born, trained, or practising in Ireland. ''Irish art'' is, therefore, used broadly to include work framed in some way by experience of Ireland and its history, culture, and politics. This was a time of large social and cultural shifts for Ireland, and a period when books and other reading, including Irish novels, were often published in London. Many of the artists and sitters discussed were Anglo-Irish Protestants. Both Imperial and nationalist ideologues tended to devalue reading, especially fiction, as an unmanly occupation. Nonetheless, some men are depicted reading and failing to embody a manly attitude. The spread of the novel, and the introduction of ‘silent reading’ allowed women of the middle and upper classes, often Anglo-Irish, to engage with a range of imaginative reading materials, secure from patriarchal surveillance. Visual images of women as serious readers drew on and contributed to the emergence of the ‘New Woman’ in Ireland.

Painted riverscapes such as Claude Monet’s impressions of the Seine, Isaak Levitan’s Volga views, or Thomas Cole’s Hudson scenery became iconic not least because they embodied nationalist ideas about place and about culture. At a time when nationalism was taking root across Europe and the United States, the riverscape played an important role in transforming the abstract idea of the nation into a potent visual image. It not only offered a picture of the nation’s physical character, but through aspects such as style, the figures portrayed, and the nature of the implied spectator, it presented a cultural ideal.In this highly original book, Tricia Cusak explores significance of painted riverscapes to the creation of national identities in nineteenth and early twentieth century Europe and America. Focusing on five rivers, the Hudson, the Volga, the Seine, the Thames, and the Shannon, the author outlines the history of the development of national landscapes, elaborating on the distinctive nature of riverscapes. Drawing on the symbolic potential of rivers to represent life and time, the riverscape provided a metaphor for the mythic stream of national history flowing unimpeded out of the past and into the future.

The reading figure has been a recurrent theme in Western art but especially from the nineteenth century. This book examines Irish portraits during the long nineteenth century in which people are shown reading or holding a book. It explores different values ascribed to reading and contemporary constructions of the reader. The selected pictures are by artists born, trained, or practising in Ireland. ''Irish art'' is, therefore, used broadly to include work framed in some way by experience of Ireland and its history, culture, and politics. This was a time of large social and cultural shifts for Ireland, and a period when books and other reading, including Irish novels, were often published in London. Many of the artists and sitters discussed were Anglo-Irish Protestants. Both Imperial and nationalist ideologues tended to devalue reading, especially fiction, as an unmanly occupation. Nonetheless, some men are depicted reading and failing to embody a manly attitude. The spread of the novel, and the introduction of ‘silent reading’ allowed women of the middle and upper classes, often Anglo-Irish, to engage with a range of imaginative reading materials, secure from patriarchal surveillance. Visual images of women as serious readers drew on and contributed to the emergence of the ‘New Woman’ in Ireland.

The reading figure has been a recurrent theme in Western art but especially from the nineteenth century. This book examines Irish portraits during the long nineteenth century in which people are shown reading or holding a book. It explores different values ascribed to reading and contemporary constructions of the reader. The selected pictures are by artists born, trained, or practising in Ireland. ''Irish art'' is, therefore, used broadly to include work framed in some way by experience of Ireland and its history, culture, and politics. This was a time of large social and cultural shifts for Ireland, and a period when books and other reading, including Irish novels, were often published in London. Many of the artists and sitters discussed were Anglo-Irish Protestants. Both Imperial and nationalist ideologues tended to devalue reading, especially fiction, as an unmanly occupation. Nonetheless, some men are depicted reading and failing to embody a manly attitude. The spread of the novel, and the introduction of ‘silent reading’ allowed women of the middle and upper classes, often Anglo-Irish, to engage with a range of imaginative reading materials, secure from patriarchal surveillance. Visual images of women as serious readers drew on and contributed to the emergence of the ‘New Woman’ in Ireland.