The Discovery of Spain

The Discovery of Spain celebrates the impact of Spanish culture on British art and collecting from the 1790s to the 1930s - from the Napoleonic period to the Spanish Civil War. Spain, now a familiar and much-loved part of the British view of Europe, was still relatively unknown in the eighteenth century. But the discovery by British artists and collectors of Spain´s architecture, customs, fashions and painting created a sensation in Britain. In a series of essays, which range from the age of Goya to Picasso, renowned scholars consider how the pioneering taste of individual connoisseurs changed the way in which Spain was depicted and consequently understood in Britain.