Art and Money in the Writings of Tobias Smollett

Book excerpt: Offering a fresh perspective on a misunderstood eighteenth-century novelist, this study situates Tobias Smollett (1721-71) as the chief witness to the birth of the modern commercial art market. By examining the critical remarks and characters in Smollett's journalism and histories, the novels Peregrine Pickle and Humphry Clinker, and Travels Through France and Italy, the novelist is portrayed as fully involved with the commercial art market even while he offered perceptive criticism of it. Smollett's complete reviews of fine art from The Critical Review are published for the first time in an annotated appendix, while his involvement with the lavish illustration of his massive Complete History of England is analyzed in a second appendix. The approach to fine art that emerges from his writing modifies our understanding of the public art market of today, making this study of interest not only to Smollett scholars and students of eighteenth-century fiction but also to those interested in the history of art and aesthetic appreciation. William L. Gibson is an independent scholar.