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| | Art and the Middle Class: 1832-1880 |
 | | Earlier referred to as the "middling ranks," the diverse class that included manufacturers, professionals, entrepreneurs, businessmen, and shopkeepers, achieved, during the C19th, a dramatic increase in economic importance, political power, and cultural influence. |
 | | The middle-class constitued a new and expanding audience for the arts. |
 | | Furthermore, those who had benefitted most from the industrial and commercial growth and from political changes such as the extension of the franchise in 1832 or the repeal of the protectionist Corn Laws in 1846, provided a new source of patronage for painters, designers, sculptors, and architects. |
| www.etss.edu /hts/hts3/info8.htm (738 words) |
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