The ancient world in the art of Alma-Tadema, Poynter and Long: background, training and appraisals -- Embracing antiquity: the early Egyptian works of Alma-Tadema and Poynter -- 'Something more than painting': Alma-Tadema, Poynter and the establishment of archaeological genre painting -- Evoking antiquity with heart and mind: Alma-Tadema's and Poynter's Egyptian paintings of the 1870s -- A fascination for 'local colour': Edwin Long and the customs of ancient Egypt -- From genre to spectacle: Alma-Tadema's return to Egypt -- The currency of objects: artistic, historical and cultural contexts of archaeological genre painting in Britain -- Objects and images: Egyptological and archaeological sources for British archaeological genre painting -- Learned artistry: the methods and preparatory materials of Alma-Tadema, Poynter and Long -- 'A new type of beauty': critical reception of archaeological genre painting in the nineteenth century -- Rise and fall : critical reception of archaeological genre painting in the new century.