Objects of Desire ─ Victorian Art at The Art Institute of Chicago

This volume focuses on a wide range of Victorian-era objects from Britain and the United States in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The following topics are explored: still-life painting in nineteenth-century America; the burgeoning Victorian print market; a fascinating sketchbook used by the English painter Edward Burne-Jones; a spectacular Gothic-style British wine cabinet; and a rare photographic album compiled by an aristocratic English family. Also featured, in a portfolio section, are other highlights from the museum's Victorian collection, including furniture, paintings, photographs, textiles, and works on paper by such noted artists as Julia Margaret Cameron, William Morris, and John Everett Millais.

Judith A. Barter is curator of American Art, Ghenete Zelleke is curator of European Decorative Arts, and Martha Tedeschi is curator of Prints and Drawings, all at the Art Institute of Chicago. Debra Mancoff teaches at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Douglas Nickel is director of the Center for Creative Photography, Tucson.