Putting history into art history: on 18th-century British Art

David Solkins Art in Britain 1660-1815 is a very welcome successor in the Pelican History of Art series to Ellis Waterhouses Painting in Britain 1530-1790. The latter first appeared in 1953, and a fifth edition was published in 1994, with an introduction by the late Michael Kitson.Waterhouses title unambiguously restricted the scope of his volume to painting. Solkins title Art in Britain suggests a range beyond painting and it does have some room for printmaking, but sculpture is not considered