A Pennsylvanian, he wanted to be a great history painter. When returning from a visit to Italy, he stopped off in London, and stayed there almost 60 years.
Reynolds
Controversial and an ardent anti-unionist, Frick was an eclectic collector of art. Three Vermeers, Rembrandt, Goya, Renoir, and Whistler are among its treasures.
Rembrandt’s late paintings created visual effects as much by surface textures, as by form or colour; his secret lies in how he was able to do this in his paint.
The final canto of the Inferno takes Dante to see Lucifer himself, after which Virgil guides him back to the surface of earth.
Count Ugolino was a leading and treacherous politician, who could only be trusted to betray others. He was left to die in prison of starvation.
He was remarkably successful, a truly self-made artist, who rose from nothing to international renown. But did he ‘occasion a revolution in the art’?
West turns to a series of more classical mythological stories for his paintings between 1792 and 1802. These include Shakespeare, the Bible, and the first novel.
Far from continuing to paint ‘modern history’, he embarked on major projects for religious paintings, some of which are superb.
The painting by which West is best known, it was claimed to have started a revolution in art, and to be the first modern history painting. Is there any truth?
From very humble beginnings in the British colonies in America, he rose to become a leading history painter, friend and painter to the King, and President of the Royal Academy. How?
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