To speak of 'the British' in conjunction with 'the Modern' suggests a linkage that goes against the grain of the narrative which dominates our understanding of the history of western art from the eighteenth century to the present day. Although works produced by British artists do occasionally appear in that story, as a rule they have featured as insignificant, or have simply been left out altogether.

Towards a Modern Art World aims to account for the marginal position of British art by approaching that marginality as an historical problem. In a series of essays dealing with institutions as well as individual painters and sculptors, this book charts the development of the London art world from the 1730s to the 1930s. Academies, public exhibitions, and commercial galleries feature together with artists as diverse as William Hogarth, Sir Joshua Reynolds, W. P. Frith, Walter Sickert, and Henry Moore.