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The eighteenth-century was an age of careful balance between classicism and romanticism in the arts and one moulded by the tension between individualism and the rise of middle-class taste. Stephen Jones outlines the main artistic developments of this period, relating them at all points to the experience of daily life in the age and highlighting the important figures in the arts whose careers exemplify the general themes - from Madame de Pompadour to Gainsborough and Nash. This introduction does not assume a wide-range of background knowledge. Themes are explained in context and technical terms made clear. The book introduces important elements that have often been given insufficient emphasis: the central place of the garden and landscaped park in the taste of patrons and builders and the influence of both French and Industrial revolutions on eighteenth-century art.