Crossing the Channel: British and French Painting in the Age of Romanticism

After years of wartime stand-off, the period of high Romanticism (1820-1840) was one of fervent cultural exchange between France and Britain. In the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, British artists contributed regularly to Paris Salons, shared studios with French colleagues, collaborated with Parisian print publishers, and served as drawing masters to the French aristocracy. Tourists from both countries criss-crossed the channel. Watercolour painting, in which the British excelled, caught the imagination of French painters and collectors for the first time, and France was swept by enthusiasm for British literature: the publication of Scott's historical romance Ivanhoe 1819 caused as much of a sensation in Paris as the exhibition of Gericault's painting The Raft of the Medusa did in London the following year.