Aiming to transcend its sectarian origins in the same way as the North British Review and the British Quarterly Review, the Prospective Review had formerly been the Christian Teacher, a Unitarian periodical founded in 1835. Its change of name to Prospective Review: A Quarterly Journal of Theology and Literature in 1845 reflected the trend towards a broader outlook on both religious and secular literature. Its three new editors, who included James Martineau, announced that the periodical would be 'catholic, spiritual, progressive'. It reviewed major literary works such as Chambers's Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1845), and Strauss's Life of Jesus (1846). The Prospective Review changed its name once more to become the National Review in July 1855.
A sympathetic review of both Modern Painters I and Modern Painters II appeared in the Prospective Review, May 1847.