Latest News
The Eton College Portrait Collections and the ‘I WOZ ERE’ compulsion by Charlotte Dew
Justin Nolan, Deputy Director at Eton College, extended a warm welcome to UBP group members on the 4 April. Fellow staff and researchers connected to the College joined him in this, initiating an attitude of generosity to share knowledge and experience, which was maintained throughout the study day. Nolan outlined Eton’s recently adopted commitment to […]
Exhibition ‘Power Couples. The Pendant Format in Art’ until 8 December 2019
Venue: Utah Museum of Fine Arts, University of Utah Exhibition: 11 July to 8 December 2019 Symposium 8 October 2019 Power Couples: The Pendant Format in Art considers how two interdependent works, called pendants, convey meaning. The study of this popular portrait format reveals a variety of artistic strategies at play – desires to communicate social […]
Reflections on the Eton College portrait collection study day by Dr Tessa Kilgarriff
As a curator working within a museum with a large collection of nineteenth-century portraits, I was initially drawn to the Eton College study day for the opportunity to view their well-known collection of Leaving Portraits, often completed by leading society painters such as Sir Thomas Lawrence. However, as the day progressed it was the far-reaching […]
Call for manuscripts: Studies in the History of Collecting & Art Markets
Brill’s Studies in the History of Collecting & Art Markets is a peer-reviewed book series dedicated to original scholarship on the social, cultural, and economic mechanisms underlying the circulation of art. Over the last two decades interest in the formation, display, and dissolution of art collections has increased tremendously; art markets, trade routes, and dealer […]
“Far more popular than any portrait gallery ever before”: The Sir George Scharf Sketchbooks at the National Portrait Gallery by Philip Cottrell
1857 was an annus mirabilis for both George Scharf (1820-1895) and the cultural life of the United Kingdom due to his crucial role in two watershed events: the foundation of the National Portrait Gallery and the staging of the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition. A new database devoted to Scharf’s activities during this period has now […]
Ham House study day, and Lely at Middle Temple, by Lesley Whitelaw
The November visit to Ham House more than lived up to the very high standard of study days arranged by Understanding British Portraits. Once more the combination of excellent expert speakers covering a wide range of relevant topics, a superb venue and seamless organisation, made for a thoroughly fascinating and enjoyable day. I am very […]
Art Detective: learning more about British portraits by Dr Marion Richards
‘The National Portrait Exhibition having led to the exposure of so many errors with regard to the portraits of British worthies and the artists who painted them – it turning out in many cases that the names given were in both respects altogether wrong – it has been suggested that county magnates and others interested […]
