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Most 19th-century pictures present a joyful and idyllic vision of country life – its weddings, village fairs and the occasional Christmas celebration. Such images were enormously popular across Europe and beyond, and they can be found in museums from America to Russia. Only in the second half of the century did some artists try to give a more sober and realistic account of the lives – and recreations – of working people.
Dr Kathy McLauchlan is an art historian specialising in French painting and is a lecturer with the Arts Society, Morley College and Oxford University.
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Header image: Oil painting entitled 'An Italian Mother Teaching her Child the Tarantella' by Thomas Uwins. British School, 1842. © Victoria and Albert Museum