This pioneering study argues that the concept of 'empire' belongs at the centre, rather than in the margins, of British art history. Recent scholarship in history, anthropology, literature and post-colonial studies has superseded traditional definitions of empire as a monolithic political and economic project. Emerging across the humanities is the idea of empire as a complex and contested process, mediated materially and imaginatively by multifarious forms of culture. The twenty essays in "Art and the British Empire" offer compelling methodological solutions to this ambiguity, while engaging in subtle visual analysis of a previously neglected body of work.

Part I: Settlers and Travellers
Part II: Metropolitan Views
Part III: Roles and Reversals
Part IV: Subject Formation.