British Art History Resources online
The Walpole Society’s guide to freely available online resources for the study of the history of British art and architecture from earliest times to the 20th century.
Portrait News Category
The Unknown Sitter
A collaboration between the artist Nicky Bird and art historian Lara Perry, Knowing the Unknown Sitter brought together writers from a range of disciplines to explore the problem of the unknown sitter, and the value of their portraits, once identity has been lost.
Underwear: from corsets to bullet bras and back by Eleri Lynn, V&A
This film from the V&A Channel features author Eleri Lynn as she leads us on a tour of a long hidden world. Eleri’s brief history of shapewear starts with the hourglass and S-bend forms – and steel and whalebone engineering – of Victorian and Edwardian corsets carries on through the breast-flattening bandeau bras worn by […]
Facing Beauty: Painted Women and Cosmetic Art by Professor Aileen Ribeiro
Throughout the history of the Western world, countless attempts have been made to define beauty in art and life, especially with regard to women’s bodies and faces. Facing Beauty examines concepts of female beauty in terms of the ideal and the real, investigating paradigms of beauty as represented in art and literature and how beauty […]
The art world in Britain 1660 to 1735
The art world in Britain 1660 to 1735 publishes primary sources and research tools for the study of the arts in Britain between the restoration of Charles II and the opening of Hogarth’s St Martin’s Lane Academy. Launched in October 2011, this long-term project is creating a large body of transcribed sources that underpin secondary […]
The Life & Letters of Gavin Hamilton (1723-1798). Artist & Art Dealer in Eighteenth-Century Rome, by Brendan Cassidy
Further details on the publisher’s website.
Disability in the 18th century – a National Portrait Gallery trail by Jacob Simon
Disability is no respecter of person. Those represented on the walls of the National Portrait Gallery and in its collections are among the most celebrated members of British society but among them are many with disabilities. Some are celebrated in literature: Richard III was famously depicted by Shakespeare as ‘Crookback’, while the poet Byron who […]
Pre-Raphaelite portrait drawings
A small online exhibition of PRB portrait drawings in the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Liverpool.
British portrait minatures at the V&A
An exemplary online resource for new research into miniature production, key proponents, royal iconography, and techniques.
Object focus video: Rex Whistler’s self portrait at the National Army Museum
Jenny Spencer-Smith presents a self-portrait by the artist Rex Whistler. Link to video on National Army Museum’s website.
