Founded in 1827 at the suggestion of Sir Walter Scott, it offered reviews of foreign literature. John Forster (1812-1876), close friend and biographer of Charles Dickens, became editor when it was acquired by the publishers, Chapman and Hall in 1841. Forster was previously a contributor to the Athenaeum and the Edinburgh Review. Originally a Tory periodical, the Foreign Quarterly became more liberal when it was merged with the Benthamite Westminster Review in 1846. Contributors included W. M. Thackeray, Robert Browning, Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), and G. H. Lewes. (See Houghton, Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals.)
A review of Modern Painters I appeared in the Foreign Quarterly Review, July 1846 shortly after the publication of Modern Painters II.