Podcasts about sir joshua reynolds

Oliver Goldsmith (born Nov. 10, 1730, Kilkenny West, County Westmeath, Ire.—died April 4, 1774, London) was an Anglo-Irish essayist, poet, novelist, dramatist, and eccentric, made famous by such works as the series of essays The Citizen of the World, or, Letters from a Chinese Philosopher (1762), the poem The Deserted Village (1770), the novel The Vicar of Wakefield (1766), and the play She Stoops to Conquer (1773).Goldsmith was the son of an Anglo-Irish clergyman, the Rev. Charles Goldsmith, curate in charge of Kilkenny West, County Westmeath. At about the time of his birth, the family moved into a substantial house at nearby Lissoy, where Oliver spent his childhood. Much has been recorded concerning his youth, his unhappy years as an undergraduate at Trinity College, Dublin, where he received the B.A. degree in February 1749, and his many misadventures before he left Ireland in the autumn of 1752 to study in the medical school at Edinburgh. His father was now dead, but several of his relations had undertaken to support him in his pursuit of a medical degree. Later on, in London, he came to be known as Dr. Goldsmith—Doctor being the courtesy title for one who held the Bachelor of Medicine—but he took no degree while at Edinburgh nor, so far as anyone knows, during the two-year period when, despite his meagre funds, which were eventually exhausted, he somehow managed to make his way through Europe. The first period of his life ended with his arrival in London, bedraggled and penniless, early in 1756.Goldsmith's rise from total obscurity was a matter of only a few years. He worked as an apothecary's assistant, school usher, physician, and as a hack writer—reviewing, translating, and compiling. Much of his work was for Ralph Griffiths's Monthly Review. It remains amazing that this young Irish vagabond, unknown, uncouth, unlearned, and unreliable, was yet able within a few years to climb from obscurity to mix with aristocrats and the intellectual elite of London. Such a rise was possible because Goldsmith had one quality, soon noticed by booksellers and the public, that his fellow literary hacks did not possess—the gift of a graceful, lively, and readable style. His rise began with the Enquiry into the Present State of Polite Learning in Europe (1759), a minor work. Soon he emerged as an essayist, in The Bee and other periodicals, and above all in his Chinese Letters. These essays were first published in the journal The Public Ledger and were collected as The Citizen of the World in 1762. The same year brought his Life of Richard Nash, of Bath, Esq. Already Goldsmith was acquiring those distinguished and often helpful friends whom he alternately annoyed and amused, shocked and charmed—Samuel Johnson, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Percy, David Garrick, Edmund Burke, and James Boswell. The obscure drudge of 1759 became in 1764 one of the nine founder-members of the famous Club, a select body, including Reynolds, Johnson, and Burke, which met weekly for supper and talk. Goldsmith could now afford to live more comfortably, but his extravagance continually ran him into debt, and he was forced to undertake more hack work. He thus produced histories of England and of ancient Rome and Greece, biographies, verse anthologies, translations, and works of popular science. These were mainly compilations of works by other authors, which Goldsmith then distilled and enlivened by his own gift for fine writing. Some of these makeshift compilations went on being reprinted well into the 19th century, however.By 1762 Goldsmith had established himself as an essayist with his Citizen of the World, in which he used the device of satirizing Western society through the eyes of an Oriental visitor to London. By 1764 he had won a reputation as a poet with The Traveller, the first work to which he put his name. It embodied both his memories of tramping through Europe and his political ideas. In 1770 he confirmed that reputation with the more famous Deserted Village, which contains charming vignettes of rural life while denouncing the evictions of the country poor at the hands of wealthy landowners. In 1766 Goldsmith revealed himself as a novelist with The Vicar of Wakefield (written in 1762), a portrait of village life whose idealization of the countryside, sentimental moralizing, and melodramatic incidents are underlain by a sharp but good-natured irony. In 1768 Goldsmith turned to the theatre with The Good Natur'd Man, which was followed in 1773 by the much more effective She Stoops to Conquer, which was immediately successful. This play has outlived almost all other English-language comedies from the early 18th to the late 19th century by virtue of its broadly farcical horseplay and vivid, humorous characterizations.During his last decade Goldsmith's conversational encounters with Johnson and others, his foolishness, and his wit were preserved in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. Goldsmith eventually became deeply embroiled in mounting debts despite his considerable earnings as an author, though, and after a short illness in the spring of 1774 he died.-bio via Britannica This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe

The panel reads two later poems by Thomas Warton, including "Verses on Sir Joshua Reynolds's Painted Window at New College Oxford" and "Written at Vale-Royal Abbey in Cheshire," and considers them within the context of Anglicanism and the Enlightenment.Continue reading

Sir Joshua Reynolds's Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington (1783) portrait (https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:5006) now known as Charles Stanhope, third Earl of Harrington, and Marcus Richard Fitzroy Thomas  thanks to some brilliant detective work by the folk at West Sussex Records Office and the Yale Center for British Art. Chaired by Gretchen Gerzina Paul Murray Kendall Professor of Biography at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In discussion with  Alice Millard  Research Assistant at West Sussex Research Office, UK and Victoria Hepburn, Postgraduate Associate in the Department of Paintings and Sculpture at the Yale Center for British Art, USA.   Readings read by Ebun Culwin Music Minuet by Ignatius Sancho revised and arranged by Ben Park Musicians Cello- Rebecca Jordan, Violin- Buffy Rowe, Vocal Sarah Dacey , Bass and Harpsichord-Ben Park Produced by @TheBP2Podcast References: Painting David Martin (c1778) Portrait of Dido Elizabeth Belle Lindsay and her cousin Lady Elizabeth Murray, Scone Palace, Perthshire, Scotland. Article  Professor Erica Moiah James (2015) What will Blackness Be? Callaloo, Vol. 38, No. 3 , pp. 589-594 Book David Mannings (2000) Sir Joshua Reynolds : a complete catalogue of his painting,   Poem The Little Black Boy from Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789)  by William Blake

This week, we're joined by two English Heritage curators of collections and interiors, Louise Cooling and Peter Moore, to paint a picture of one of the greatest portrait artists of the 18th century, Sir Joshua Reynolds. Discover the story of his life and art, the Reynolds paintings you can find on display at Kenwood in London today and how we're celebrating the 300th anniversary of his birth. To discover more about Kenwood or plan a visit to see its art collection yourself, go to www.english-heritage.org.uk/kenwood

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 882, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: clubs 1: It's the correct term for a member of a Rotary Club. Rotarian. 2: The Literary Club was founded in the 1760s by Sir Joshua Reynolds and this subject of a Boswell biography. (Samuel) Johnson. 3: This service organization sponsors Circle K International, a club for college students. Kiwanis. 4: In the early 1930s this Harlem nightclub made Cab Calloway the leader of its house orchestra. the Cotton Club. 5: "Prosperity and opportunity through economic freedom" is the motto of the anti-tax "Club for" this. Growth. Round 2. Category: washington's sports teams 1: This team's logo is on champagne bottles commemorating the opening of Jack Kent Cooke Stadium. Washington Redskins. 2: On May 15, 1997 the NBA's Washington Bullets took this name. Washington Wizards. 3: Ron Wilson, the former head coach of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, now coaches this team. Washington Capitals. 4: The D.C. United plays this sport outside while the Warthogs play it indoors. Soccer. 5: Before moving, this baseball team was called, "First in War, First in Peace and Last in the American League". Washington Senators. Round 3. Category: new jersey 1: New Jersey's executive mansion isn't in the capital but in this university town. Princeton. 2: Forming New Jersey's border with Pennsylvania, it's easier to cross than it was in 1776. the Delaware River. 3: For a day of fun and frolic, why not visit Campbell's Soup Museum in this city opposite Philadelphia. Camden. 4: Bell Labs in Holmdel designed and built this 1st communications satellite in 1962. Telstar. 5: Elected president in 1884 and 1892, he was the only U.S. president born in New Jersey. Grover Cleveland. Round 4. Category: country singers 1: After "Achy Breaky Heart", his debut CD "Some Gave All" hit No.1 on the country and pop charts. Billy Ray Cyrus. 2: Tammy Wynette was born in Itawamba County in this state, not far from Elvis' birthplace, Tupelo. Mississippi. 3: A year before he recorded "By The Time I Get to Phoenix", he played guitar on the Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations". Glen Campbell. 4: When Mary Chapin Carpenter sang "Shut Up And" do this to "me" on 1994's CMA Awards show, Little Richard complied. Kiss me. 5: In 1970 this Virginia family became the 1st group elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame. Carters. Round 5. Category: that's so '90s 1: Joe Brown, Greg Mathis and Mills Lane joined the ranks of these on TV. TV judges. 2: In 1994 a flaw found in this company's new Pentium processor cost it $475 million in a recall. Intel. 3: His 1997 meeting with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams was the first for a British P.M. and an IRA leader in 76 years. Tony Blair. 4: Hello! In May 1999 scientists found this famous sheep might be susceptible to premature aging. Dolly. 5: Born Louis Eugene Walcott, he led a million man march in Washington, D.C. in 1995. Louis Farrakhan. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia! Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/

The Portrait of Mai (Omai) by Sir Joshua Reynolds depicts a youthful Polynesian man who visited England in the 1770s and spent time on James Cook's third voyage. The work has been the subject of UK government export bans, a feverish fundraising campaign, millions in donations and some panhandling by Britain's elites, in a desperate bid to keep it on British soil. Daniel speaks with Professor Kate Fullagar, who's written a book about the Raiatean subject of the painting Mai, and artist Reynolds, as well as Associate Professor Peter Brunt, about what Mai represents and how the historical context of the painting has been denied or ignored in the discussion. Rosa tours the vast Western Treatment Plant, where sewage and Art collide. The plant holds vital infrastructure that made the colonial city of Melbourne sanitary and liveable, and continues to do so. The plant's history and critical purpose is up for exploration in a public art exhibition called Treatment III. Artists interviewed: Fiona Hillary and Edwina Stevens.

The Portrait of Mai (Omai) by Sir Joshua Reynolds depicts a youthful Polynesian man who visited England in the 1770s and spent time on James Cook's third voyage. The work has been the subject of UK government export bans, a feverish fundraising campaign, millions in donations and some panhandling by Britain's elites, in a desperate bid to keep it on British soil. Daniel speaks with Professor Kate Fullagar, who's written a book about the Raiatean subject of the painting Mai, and artist Reynolds, as well as Associate Professor Peter Brunt, about what Mai represents and how the historical context of the painting has been denied or ignored in the discussion. Rosa tours the vast Western Treatment Plant, where sewage and Art collide. The plant holds vital infrastructure that made the colonial city of Melbourne sanitary and liveable, and continues to do so. The plant's history and critical purpose is up for exploration in a public art exhibition called Treatment III. Artists interviewed: Fiona Hillary and Edwina Stevens.

“Füssli“ entre rêve et fantastiqueau Musée Jacquemart-André, Parisdu 16 septembre 2022 au 23 janvier 2023Interview de Andreas Beyer, titulaire de la chaire d'Histoire de l'art des débuts de la période moderne à l'Université de Bâle, et co-commissaire de l'exposition,par Anne-Frédérique Fer, à Paris, le 15 septembre 2022, durée 17'51.© FranceFineArt.Communiqué de presseCommissariat :Christopher Baker, directeur des départements d'art européen et écossais et des portraits aux National Galleries d'ÉcosseAndreas Beyer, titulaire de la chaire d'Histoire de l'art des débuts de la période moderne à l'Université de BâlePierre Curie, conservateur général du patrimoine, conservateur du musée Jacquemart-AndréLe Musée Jacquemart-André présente, à l'automne 2022, l'oeuvre du peintre britannique d'origine suisse, Johann Heinrich Füssli (1741-1825). À travers une soixantaine d'oeuvres issues de collections publiques et privées, le parcours illustrera les thèmes les plus emblématiques de l'oeuvre de Füssli, artiste de l'imaginaire et du sublime. Des sujets shakespeariens aux représentations du rêve, du cauchemar et des apparitions, en passant par les illustrations mythologiques et bibliques, Füssli développe une nouvelle esthétique qui oscille entre rêve et fantastique.Fils d'un père peintre et historien de l'art, Johann Heinrich Füssli fut un temps pasteur et commença une carrière artistique assez tardivement, lors d'un premier voyage à Londres, sous l'influence de Sir Joshua Reynolds, président de la Royal Academy. Après un long séjour en Italie, au cours duquel il est fasciné notamment par la puissance des compositions de Michel-Ange, il revient s'installer à Londres à la fin des années 1770. Artiste atypique et intellectuel, Füssli puise son inspiration dans les sources littéraires qu'il passe au filtre de son imagination. Il développe dans sa peinture un langage onirique et dramatique, où se côtoient sans cesse le merveilleux et le fantastique, le sublime et le grotesque.Organisée thématiquement, l'exposition explore l'ensemble de l'oeuvre de Füssli à laquelle aucune exposition monographique n'avait été consacrée à Paris depuis 1975. Elle s'ouvrira sur la représentation du théâtre shakespearien, en particulier de Macbeth, puis elle s'attachera aux récits mythologiques et bibliques avant de se pencher sur la figure féminine dans son œuvre graphique. Se succèderont enfin les thèmes du cauchemar, véritable création füsslienne, puis du rêve et des apparitions.Füssli développe une veine fantastique relativement marginale pour l'époque car elle contourne les règles académiques. C'est en 1782 qu'il présente sa première version du Cauchemar, œuvre emblématique de son imaginaire qui assoit véritablement sa carrière de peintre. Élu membre associé de la Royal Academy en 1788, puis académicien en 1790, Füssli, tout en travaillant de manière sérielle, incarne une recherche du sublime qui s'impose à l'Angleterre de son époque.L'exposition du Musée Jacquemart-André permettra de redécouvrir l'oeuvre saisissante de cet artiste rare dans les collections françaises, peintre très original qui développe une oeuvre paradoxale, alimentée par une imagination où terreur et horreur se marient, à l'origine esthétique du romantisme noir. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

In this episode, we will be unraveling how the artist Raphael depicts the apostles as “noble” and why he has given them such high “dignity”. We will be discussing how meaningful inaccurate art with realistic content can be controversial at times. We will be providing some background on Raphael the artist and Sir Joshua Reynolds as we analyze the artwork they have created regarding the apostles and their representation of them.

Within our podcast we talk about Sir Joshua Reynolds, and Raphael Sanzio who painted tapestries for the Sistine Chapel. Within our podcast we take a journey covering the different art works Raphael painted, along with a discussion of Sir Joshua Reynolds perception of Raphael. References: Hayes, J. (1992). Sir Joshua Reynolds. Artist Info. Retrieved February 10, 2022, from https://www.nga.gov/collection/artist-info.1825.html Raphael Paintings, bio, ideas. The Art Story. (n.d.). Retrieved February 10, 2022, from https://www.theartstory.org/artist/raphael/ Reynolds, J. (n.d.). Sir Joshua Reynolds: Excerpts from discourse four. Northeastern Illinois University . Retrieved February 10, 2022, from http://homepages.neiu.edu/~wbsieger/Art318/318Readings/Reynolds-4.pdf Times, T. E. (2020, February 25). Raphael's divine 'acts of the apostles' tapestries for the sistine chapel. NATION AND STATE. Retrieved February 9, 2022, from https://www.nationandstate.com/2020/02/25/raphaels-divine-acts-of-the-apostles-tapestries-for-the-sistine-chapel/

Can inaccurate art still be meaningful. Can we be analytical of the art derived from genius and taste produced from judgement of art to contemplate the difference that is the imagination of perfection and the totality and authenticity that comes with truth. Help us as we search through the origins and influences of artists such as Raphael the artist and Sir Joshua Reynolds to deduce what Reynolds might have meant by his statements on the meaning of inaccurate art.

Hello dear friends,If you've watched the wildly-popular Netflix series Bridgerton or the wonderful film The Personal History of David Copperfield starring Dev Patel, you might have experienced and appreciated what today's podcast guest saw: People of color in a fictionalized dramatization of 18th and 19th Century Britain. But in Gretchen Gerzina's case - and unlike most of us - she knows the back stories of the real lives of Black residents of Britain in those eras. Professor Gerzina says she is drawn to “biographies and lives of those who cross boundaries of history, time, place or race” - that's on her website - and her work is all about this. In books like Black London, Black Victorians, and Britain's Black Past, Gerzina bridges all of those boundaries for us - connecting us to people across time, place, and history - and introducing us to some of the Black performers, memoirists, activists and everyday people in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries. Professor Gerzina joined me a few weeks ago, by Zoom, for today's Austen Connection podcast, and we talked about the lives of some of these Black residents of Britain historically, how she is helping to tell the stories about their lives, and how contemporary fictionalizations of Regency England capture these stories, or not. Enjoy the podcast - and if you prefer to read, here's an excerpt from our conversation. Plain JaneSo, I have been poring through your books, and I really enjoyed Black London [among others]. And … it's just really beautiful the way that you write about what you're doing - reconstructing, repainting history. In a way, you say, to illuminate the unseen vistas of people and places that are part of British history and part of our world history. Really illuminating the stories of the people and the community of Black women and men in [the] Regency era in 18th and 19th century Britain. So would you just talk first, Professor Gerzina, about that, illuminating the unseen? In what ways has this history been erased? And in what ways are you still trying to uncover that history?Gretchen Gerzina So that book was published 25 years ago or so and it's still being read all the time. And in fact, it's available as a free download through the Dartmouth College Library. And it stays in people's minds. The reason I wrote it was that I was actually working on a very different book. And … I went into a bookshop, a very well known bookstore in London, looking for … Peter Fryer's book called Staying Power, the history of Black people in Britain - massive book. And it had just come out in paperback. So I said, “Oh, let me go buy that.” And I went into the bookshop, and I couldn't find it. And I finally went up to a clerk. And I said, “I'm looking for this new this book. It's just been released in paperback.” And she looked at me and said, “Madam, there were no Black people in Britain before the Second World War.” And I said, “Well, no, that's not true.” .. .So I got so angry. I never found the book. I mean, I went to another bookshop, and it was right there. But I got so angry that I went home and put aside the book I was working on and wrote Black London. Now, I wasn't the first to write about this. Other people have written about it. And I wanted to both consolidate some of their research, go back to their research, and really look at everything that I could find. And then try to tell the story of Black people living in England. It was supposed to be called Black London. It was called Black London here but in England it was published as Black England. And of course, the reviewers all said, “Well, this is all about London. Why are you not calling it Black London?” which was amusing. … But I wanted to make people see … that these people are walking the same streets, we're living in the same neighborhoods. And I wanted to make it a living, breathing history. Now a lot of other people are working on this now and have done for a long time. But when I first started working on it, there weren't as many. And it wasn't known. And even now, it's not so much that it's been erased, as has been forgotten. People didn't quite realize that there had been a Black British history that goes back as far as the Romans. And they're still finding, they're excavating, you know, old Roman encampments and finding Black African nobility women. And they are doing documentaries on it. I've been in a few. So it's become quite a well-known issue now. Although there's still a great sense of many British people wanting not to understand or believe that past. I wanted to make people see … that these people are walking the same streets, we're living in the same neighborhoods. And I wanted to make it a living, breathing history.Plain JaneSo I suppose, as you say, this was almost 25 years ago, that Black London came out. You've mentioned in the BBC series that you did, Britain's Black Past, you mentioned that it's a detective job … finding these stories. How have you managed to find the stories that you found? And what was it like putting that into an audio series?Gretchen GerzinaThat was wonderful. And of course, it became a book, which was published when all the new research came out last year. So I was able to update a lot of the things … I've got to say - you're in radio - these producers … who have these independent companies and do the productions for BBC, they're incredible researchers. They sometimes find people that I hadn't been able to find, because we academics think in a very different kind of way than radio and television producers, who are out there finding people. So … I knew a lot of the people and we went to some of the places - but they were able to find some people I didn't know about. And then there were incredible stories … I think I was supposed to originally spend six months doing it. And then I was about to change jobs. And I only had one month. So I think I traveled all over Britain in one month doing the entire series. I would wake up in London and get on the train to Glasgow, spend the afternoon in Glasgow, come back to London. The next day, I go to Bristol, you know, kind of went on and on like that.Plain Jane That [sounds like] a really fun part of it. Gretchen GerzinaYeah, it was very tough. … Going to some of these places to really stand in the houses or on the shore. … But it was quite an adventure, to unearth some of these stories. And to just see how, for many people, these stories still last. People still really care.Plain JaneWhat stories have fascinated you? What have [written about] so many individual stories that are wonderful to hear. But what have you found most surprising and exciting to discover?Gretchen GerzinaThere's one - maybe it's one of the ones you're gonna ask about - which is Nathaniel Wells. And I resisted using that story. But they really pushed me because I hadn't really known it before. Nathaniel Wells was the son of a slave owner. He was mixed race. So he was the son of a [enslaved woman] and a slave owner. The owner … had daughters, but no legitimate sons. … He left this money to this mixed-race son ... He sent him off to England to be educated, as many slave owners did with their mixed-race children. And he went to boarding school and he studied. And then he died when Nathaniel was only 20 or 21, when he became the heir. He spent a lot of money. He was a young guy, and he moved to Wales to Chepstow. And he used the money to buy this enormous place. He built this incredible house. He had acres upon acres of this scenic land that was so gorgeous, that it became a kind of pleasure ground. And people would come - there was an open day - and they could come and walk through the parks and all of the mountains, and it was quite something. But he made his money. His money came from the slave plantation. And in fact, his mother owned slaves, his mother, who had been herself enslaved, and I was very reluctant to tell the story of a - essentially a Black or mixed-race - slave owner living in Britain. He married a succession of wealth, to white women … and his house is a ruin now. But he became the first Black sheriff in Britain. He had this enormous wealth. He didn't die with a lot of money. But his story was one I never expected to find. The one in my heart is always Ignatius Sancho, who's now been a play and everything.Plain JaneWhy is he the one in your heart?Gretchen GerzinaWell, because he was so amusing and so serious at the same time. He was brought as an enslaved child. He managed to get away, he was taken in by the Montague family, finally, away from these “three witches,” I think people call them now, who had owned him, didn't want him to read. So they took him in, he was educated. And he became a butler in their house for many, many years. And then he was a little on the heavy side, and then finally couldn't continue to do all his work. So they gave him a pension, and some money. And he moved to London. And he … set up a shop in Westminster, right near the heart of everything of the movers and shakers of British aristocracy and politics. And people would come into his shop. He married a Black woman, which was unusual at the time. And he wrote these letters, and he knew everybody. I mean, they would come in and talk to him. Laurence Sterne. He wrote to Laurence Sterne and [said], “If you're writing Tristram Shandy, please say something about slavery in there.” And he did. He had his portrait painted by Gainsborough. And it's quite a beautiful portrait. It's unfortunately in Canada - the British realize they made a mistake and are trying to get it back. I don't think they're going to get it. … And he was just somebody that people were so fascinated with - all of his letters have been published, his son arranged that they got published after he died. And he's still considered just a huge character. I mean, he … saw the Gordon riots and wrote about them in his letters. He knew people. And he was kind of the face of 18th century Britain in some ways, even though he's a Black man. He was also the first Black man ever to vote in England.Plain JaneSo many of these people were close to influential people and so therefore having an influence. As you point out, they're the easier ones [to discover], and the people who are able to write their own lives are easier to unearth and to find. But so many of the experiences of Black residents in London during this time were below stairs or quietly or really by necessity a lot of the time having to be under the radar. ...Gretchen Gerzina It's hard because … for instance, the British census doesn't list race. When I first published Black London, some reviewers said that I should have gone to all the rent rolls and seen who was Black. But the rent rolls don't necessarily indicate race. It's really hard to find. But the same thing happens in America. … When my book Mr. And Mrs. Prince came out about 10 years ago - it was about two formerly enslaved people who lived in New England in the 18th century. It was a long time ago. And all the stories that had been written about them were written about other people, most of whom got the facts wrong. They claimed that their ancestor had freed them or things like that, that proved not to be true. I had a publisher ask me if I had a photograph of them. And I said, “There was no photography in the 18th century, you know, what do you expect?” And… in general, you don't have your portrait painted, you don't have a journal, you're too busy getting on in life … If you're literate, you don't necessarily sit down and pen your memoirs, you know. You're just trying to get going. But on the other hand, there were people like Francis Barber, who was the servant of Samuel Johnson, and became his literary executor and heir at the end. And that was much disputed. And people were not very happy about that. So those kinds of people who were educated and were lucky enough to be known [we can learn about]. I actually think that the people who are finding out the most now are people you don't expect - genealogists who are starting to trace back family histories. A lot of white genealogists in Britain, they're finding that they have Black ancestors, and they didn't realize it.Plain Jane I'm a big fan of “Finding Your Roots” with Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It seems like he ends every episode saying, “See how we're all connected? More than we thought we were?” … So yes, I hear you, that's really fascinating - that so many disciplines are sort of reevaluating and re-seeing, looking again, revisioning, all of this history. You're reminding me, when you talk about no photography from 18th century Britain, you're reminding me that not only are you and scholars like you having to honor these unseen histories, but you're actually having to re-tell stories where there's been a campaign of basically very racist imagery. You write about the constant, reinforcing sexualization of Black women from these times; but then also the pro-slavery imagery and campaigns that were put out there. Even the sentimentality. You say that there's sort of two versions that even those that were anti-slavery at the time, were sort of overly sentimentalized versions, like we think of Harriet Beecher Stowe. And, you know, doing a lot of good work, I suppose, and having an influence; but yet, we need to revision those stories as well. And you mentioned that you're just looking for the real people. They're real people in real places. So [you are] … having to, as you say, repaint these people?Gretchen GerzinaWell, I mean, just remember it's all worked very differently in America, and in Paris. And the way that it's memorialized or remembered is very, very different. There were certainly Black people in Britain from hundreds and hundreds of years. But there was not slavery on their soil in the same way that it was here. So they were able to sexualize women by looking at the Jamaican plantations and what happens there with a lot of rape and a lot of punishments. But this is the country, Britain is the countries, I should say, where Black minstrelsy was a television show until the 1970s. Blackface minstrelsy was not only on television, but it was in all the private homes. But at the same time, in the 19th century Uncle Tom's Cabin was the biggest thing going. People loved it, it really spoke to them. So there was Uncle Tom wallpaper. There [were] Topsy dolls. So you would go into a child's nursery and there could be wallpaper and dolls. So that sense that America was terrible, and “Look at us, we're so great. We abolished slavery before you did,” takes away the fact that for the most part, the British actually supported the American South in the Civil War. Because their cotton came from there that fueled their textile mills in the north of Britain. They didn't have the same kind of racism, it worked a little differently, but it certainly existed. But there were lots of people who were just living among them who were not necessarily known. They weren't necessarily in a book, and they were just sort of living their lives. And that's what I'm trying to write about now. But also I just really want to have a shout out to some people who are working on these things now. Miranda Kaufmann's book, Black Tutors, really sparked a huge response. … It became a huge bestseller in England. And there was a lot of pushback when people said there were no Black tutors. And she would show them the images of the people, and then all the documentation, and they didn't want to believe it. I belong within a group that she started, that is looking into Black people in British portraiture, and trying to identify who those people were. And so far, the list has over 300 British paintings that have Black people in them - they're most often a small boy servant or something, but not always. And they're scattered all over. They're in private homes. They're in museums. But there were lots of people who were just living among them who were not necessarily known. They weren't necessarily in a book, and they were just sort of living their lives. And that's what I'm trying to write about now.So there is a kind of visual reality to all of this, where you can see the people and you can understand a bit about their lives. And so people are going into the records trying to find out, who were these people? Were they borrowed sometimes, some painter would say, “Oh, you know, he's got a Black servant, let's put him in the picture and bring him over to a bigger house for a while.” So you know, trying to track them down is difficult. But there's just more and more evidence of this ongoing presence.Plain Jane You point out now in in your works the way these stories have been played, have been part of popular culture through the ages. And I guess our culture - various cultures - have worked out the stories, have worked out some of these things, either effectively or ineffectively, on the stage. And so that brings me to where much of your research deals with - the Regency era, which happens to be where so many contemporary cultural retellings, fan fiction, and romance is taking place. And then of course, we've got Bridgerton. So let me just start with a general question. We're talking about what people typically miss, but how are you experiencing some of these cultural inventions? Gretchen Gerzina Yeah, you know, I'm enjoying the heck out of this stuff. Just like a lot of [us].Sanditon, I can let go. It was, I felt, a travesty. It kept some of the book, but it actually just took things in a direction that I found very difficult. So, for example, in Sanditon, the Jane Austen novel - the fragment because it's incomplete - the heiress from the West Indies is Miss Lambe … She is not necessarily identifiably Black. They know she's mixed race. In the series, they made her a very dark-skinned woman to point out that she in fact was a Black woman. They wanted to make that visual sense very strong for people like “Oh, we're dealing with a Black woman here.” Whereas I think in Austen it was more subtle and probably more accurate about how somebody like her would have been seen. But Bridgerton just went over the top, and I just thought it was fabulous. Because we do know that Queen Charlotte probably had some mixed-race background. She was the wife of King George III. So she's presented as a mixed-race or dark woman … But then by just making everybody in it, you know, it was like saying, “Okay, what if we recognize that all these people were there? And assuming that they could have made their way into the aristocracy, how would this world have looked?” And I think the visual treat of it all is just really great. And we all know that that is not how Regency England looked. But we can say, “You know what? I would like to see what this looks like. If this could have been true, what would it have looked like?” And of course, it's just like a visual feast anyway. It's not just the racial stuff. It's the clothes and the sets.Plain JaneTell us more, Professor Gerzina, about Queen Charlotte. You did an entire Zoom talk event with JASNA, the Jane Austen Society of North America, about these questions, and this sort of casting and Black Britain and its history. And there were hundreds of people on the Zoom. But you talked about Queen Charlotte, and the chat room just went crazy. … So it was very, very lively. So anyway, all of that to say - tell us about Queen Charlotte?Gretchen GerzinaShe had … Portuguese family so that there were a lot of that movement between North Africa, the kind of what we would think of as North Africa today. But she probably had some ancestry through her Portuguese ancestors who might have been Black. When I was doing some research on Black people who left America and moved to Canada after the Revolutionary War, those who had become the British patriots, the Black ones, a lot of them went to Canada. So I was in Nova Scotia at a center there on Black history in the province. And I noticed they had - I think it was a picture of Queen Charlotte on the wall - and I said, “Oh, what do you think of that? Do you think she was part Black?” And he said that Princess Anne had come to visit many years before and had seen the portrait and was asked about it. And she said, “Well, everybody in the royal family knows she was Black.” So that means to me Meghan Markle wasn't the first. So there's some history there. It can't be necessarily proven, but it's pretty well seen as probably true that she had some Black ancestry, and her portraits do seem to indicate that as well. But you know, the other one I really like is David Copperfield. And what you have to do in this - the same as in fiction - is you have to create a world that you will believe. You may not like all the characters, but you have to create a vision of a world that you are saying, “Okay, I'm, I'm willing to go into this world with you.” And see and believe. It's the willing suspension of disbelief, and I'm willing to do that. Do they create a world that I can believe in Bridgerton? We know it's fantasy, and fun, with some historical elements. And yes, I'm willing to throw myself into that world.Plain JaneI was a graduate student at UCL in London, during 1994 and 1995, and everybody was reading Cultural Imperialism. I literally saw people reading it on the tube in London. And I was falling in love with someone who was an Arab-English person with the name Saidi - close to Edward Said's name. So I was as a grad student in literature and also wanting to dive into our views and our histories and how race plays into that. These conversations are still going. Edward Said even writes about Jane Austen. And he writes about Mansfield Park, and he writes - really similar to you writing at the same time - we need to investigate the unseen in these stories, tell the unseen stories, which is so much what you're doing, as well. So my question is - almost going on 25 years, are we getting any better at this? Gretchen Gerzina  Well, you know, there's more being written and more being published all the time. David Olusoga's books. And all of his television programs in England are very well known. He's quite the face of Black British history and studies now. Others have been writing about it for decades. But I think what's interesting is that there's still a kind of resistance to it, to believing it. There are several things going on. One is ... the report the National Trust put out recently, which ... hired some academics and some others to take a look at the colonial and imperial and slave connections between some of the National Trust houses. And I think they listed 93 houses in the National Trust that have some kind of connection. That wasn't to say that they were houses where there was plantation slavery or anything, but a lot of it had to do with the fact that the money that was earned either out of the slave trade, or out of imperialism, or out of colonialism. [It] funded and help build, and perpetuate those houses. A lot of the money that was earned came from, originally, from the slave trade and slavery, and all of those absentee slave owners who had plantations in the West Indies. But also, from the fact that when they, when slavery ended in the West Indies in 1807, that they decided to compensate the slave owners for the loss of the enslaved people who had lived on those plantations. The enslaved people were not compensated, while the slave owners were. And a wonderful book and study done by Nicholas Draper, about the legacy of all of this showed how all of that money that was made from that compensation - built these houses. It funded the philanthropy; huge swaths of London were built based on that money. And all around the country. So they wanted to just say, “Hey, if you're going to come to one of these houses, this is great. You can look at it, you can see it, you can appreciate the beauty of it. You can see how the generations of owners contributed to the culture and the landscape and all of that. But in fact, you should recognize that the money came from colonialism. And also from imperialism.” You know, the houses were filled with porcelain from China. They were built on land that used to be tenanted, but pushed the tenants off and made a beautiful landscape that made it look like it had always been there. And they had built these houses based on that money. When that report came out, the backlash was quite strong. People did not want to hear about this. They thought, “Why do we fund a National Trust, and it spends its money on being woke?” Plain JaneInteresting. They don't see it as factual. They don't see it as history. They see it as politics happening.Gretchen GerzinaYes, they do. And there's also some work being done now on updating the curriculum in schools. So some more of this is being learned at a younger age.Plain JaneSo when you say in 1993, and you've been doing this ever since, among many other things that you're reconstructing, you don't even just mean that figuratively. I mean, your writing takes us down the streets. And really paints a visual picture ...and I would add to that the landscapes of the houses. Also sugar and so much of the economic foundations are part of what I think Edward Said was calling the interplay. … You you paint a picture of, you know, Elizabethan England and … Regency England then as well, and then even Victorian Britain as being a very cruel and violent place. And I think that in many ways, our PBS adaptations [etc] really do [whitewash] these histories in so many ways. You also point out the cruelty, the disease. But what I want to say, besides the cruelty, the disease, and just the ignorance that was rampant in these times, that we tend to forget about - probably, thanks to our screen adaptations - it was there. You found a community of Black residents in London during these times - not just individual people who were famous; they were portrayed on the stage; they were recounted in stories; and many of them were musicians, writers, very fascinating individuals - but also a community. And that was you've talked about how difficult that was to unearth. Can you talk about how you uncovered this community and the difficulty of doing that?Gretchen Gerzina A lot of that came from people who had been researching this for quite a long time. In terms of community, there are people who've been doing tons of research since my book came out. And they have been finding people and they've been finding communities. We can't be sure how much of a community there was. But we do know that there were communities - people lived in certain places and certain areas, they were part of the fabric of the kind of working class. There were people that we call the Sons of Africa. Some people have questioned whether there were as many and met as frequently as was thought … But we do know that they were there. “Hey, if you're going to come to one of these houses, this is great. You can look at it, you can see it, you can appreciate the beauty of it. You can see how the generations of owners contributed to the culture and the landscape and all of that. But in fact, you should recognize that the money came from colonialism. And also from imperialism.” And it was interesting to just think of the fact that in all of these grand houses that had Black servants, that those servants in the households, they socialized with each other. Those servants were meeting in the kitchen. Those servants were talking. And those servants were marrying the white servants, because they were mostly Black men. And then you get a sense of just this kind of other world where if Samuel Johnson is having dinner with Sir Joshua Reynolds, or with the great actors of the period, that their Black servants are probably hanging out, talking to each other. So there was a kind of network of people, definitely, who were living [among] them. And then, of course, after the Revolutionary War in America, when so many Black people had been convinced to fight for the British in exchange for their freedom. A lot of them ended up in Britain, that had been part of the promise. And so they came over in their hundreds. Plain JaneThat's fascinating - I think that you pointed out that something like 20 percent, of the soldiers fighting on both sides in the Revolutionary War with America were Black soldiers. They came back to England. And then you also pointed out they were not allowed, they were actually banned from learning crafts, learning trades ....?Gretchen GerzinaI'm not sure that they so much were banned from learning trades; they just found it difficult to find work. And also if, if they were poor, it's not so easy to move around in England at that time. I mean, physically, it's difficult. But also, it's often difficult to find work. And if you, Heaven forbid, get sick and die, you can't necessarily be buried where you're living because you're not officially part of that parish. So it's a very different kind of system than we might [envision]. And so a lot of people who worked on the British side, and obviously on the American side, in the Revolutionary War, were not just soldiers but they were doing other things: They were guides, they were helping to lead them through different terrain; they were washing clothes, they were cooking. They were following them and giving them advice.And then they also did fight. So, yes, they worked in a variety of ways and the British said, “Hey, come on our side and we'll give you your freedom and we'll give you a pension.” And then, lo and behold, the British lost then, and they came.Plain JaneOkay. So: Dido Belle and Mansfield Park - basically thoughts on that? There's also the book The Woman of Colour and there's this experience of Francis Barber and some of the others that you've mentioned. But  … what are your thoughts on Mansfield Park and is it possible that Jane Austen knew the story of Dido Belle?Gretchen GerzinaIt's possible. I have to think about the timing of it all. So Dido Elizabeth Belle of course, has nothing to do with Mansfield Park, although her great uncle who raised her was Lord Mansfield, who made a famous court decision that a Black person could not be returned to slavery in Jamaica. And that was taken by many people to say that slavery was no longer legal in England, and people ran away and said, “Hallelujah.” But in fact, that's not what the decision was.He also presided over the case of the Zhong [ship], where a slave ship had thrown over a huge number of people ... in order to collect the insurance. And he came down hard on that case. So Dido Elizabeth Belle was raised by him .. but a lot of research has been done since the film Belle was made. And a lot of that film took a lot of liberties with it. So Dido was mixed-race, and her mother was - [but] Dido was not - born into slavery. And that was a misconception. Her mother actually came and lived in England, near her, with her, for some time. And then went back to Pensacola, where she had been living in [an] old property. Dido was given some money, and so she was able to marry. But she didn't marry an abolitionist, like in the film. She married a man who'd been a steward to an important French family. And so that was still a high-up position, but it was not the big raging lawyer abolitionist [as in the film].… And I think the biggest thing about it was that her portrait was just a double portrait of herself, and of their cousin. It became the cover of my Black London book - and was later re-used by The Woman of Colour. So there's a lot of interpreting this portrait that people try to do.So I've spent a lot of time trying to track down the true story, to use the research of these other people who have done such a good job. Plain JaneWhat would you like people to keep in mind as they're watching and reading Regency era histories and romance? Just realize there are real people behind some of this. We know now that Jane Austen was likely an abolitionist, although she didn't write political things in her novels. We know that in Mansfield Park there are mentions of - and we know that the money came from - slavery. And so there was some reference to sugar and some other things in there. So we know that she's aware of it. But she doesn't make it front and center, because that's not what she does as a novelist. But I think it's really good for people who want to read these books - [to know] that there was a more racially diverse society than people realized. And that there were Black people there. And that in the places where she went and lived - because she lived in a number of places, she had to move around a lot - that she would have seen people like this.And so it's really good to remember that this was a very different world and people have now accepted it. And I think to understand and accept that, it makes it more interesting. It doesn't diminish it at all.——-Thank you for listening, reading and being with us, friends.Let us know your thoughts! Have you watched the increasingly diverse casts making up Regency and 19th century British stories like Bridgerton, A Personal History of David Copperfield, and Sanditon? What would you like to see more of in these retellings and screen adaptations? Want to know more about Queen Charlotte? Write us at AustenConnection@gmail.com.If you like this conversation, feel free to share it!And if you'd like to read more about Black life in Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries, here are some of the people and projects that Gretchen Gerzina mentioned during this conversation - enjoy!Gretchen Gerzina's website: https://gretchengerzina.com//BBC program on Britain's Black Past:- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07wpf5vSee: National Trust research into the connection to the slave trade in its great houses: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/addressing-the-histories-of-slavery-and-colonialism-at-the-national-trustThe report: https://nt.global.ssl.fastly.net/documents/colionialism-and-historic-slavery-report.pdfAll things Georgian - Gretchen recommends in interview: https://georgianera.wordpress.com/David Olusoga:  https://www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/magazine/features/david-olusoga/Dido Belle as Fanny Price: http://jasna.org/publications-2/essay-contest-winning-entries/2017/a-biracial-fanny-price/Peter Fryer's Staying Power: https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745338309/staying-power/Mirands Kaufmann's Black Tudors: http://www.mirandakaufmann.com/black-tudors.htmlGet these and all our Austen Connection conversations delivered to your inbox, when you subscribe - it's free! Get full access to The Austen Connection at austenconnection.substack.com/subscribe

The tenth episode travels back to May 26th, 2020, with the recreation of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of Elizabeth, Lady Forbes, c. 1776.See the Post - https://www.instagram.com/p/CAqUDfxh-oe/See the Teaser - https://www.instagram.com/p/CAnSmCpBSGk/ See the Extra - https://www.instagram.com/p/CAqUtBihTIV/ Follow her Instagram at - https://www.instagram.com/portraitpersonas/Follow the Podcast - https://portraitpersonas.transistor.fm/subscribeIntro & Outro by Dad. Read MoreSir Joshua Reynolds - https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/sir-joshua-reynoldsChristie's Painting Page - https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5639297BABY HERC - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Reynolds#/media/File:Reynolds,_Sir_Joshua,_The_Infant_Hercules,_ca._1785-89.jpg

This time we present the life and death of Raphael, author of the apostles' paintings, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who criticized them in an unusual interview, capturing all interesting and creative topics, taking the listener to a new level of information and never-before-experienced knowledge.

Conor Tallon and Michael Waldron astnt Curator at the Crawford Art Gallery are...Talking heads this week!It's artist James Barry's 215th anniversary, so we've dedicated this WORK OF THE WEEK to him!The remarkable career of ‘great historical painter' James Barry (1741-1806) took him from his native Cork to Dublin, Paris, Rome, Florence, Venice, and finally London. His life in the British capital saw him become not only a member of the Royal Academy of Arts but also its professor of painting. In 1799, however, his outspoken views gained him the distinction of being the only academician to ever be expelled… until 2004, that is!James Barry died in London on this day in 1806 and, on 4 March, he was interred next to his great rival, Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), in the crypt at St Paul's Cathedral. A memorial was later erected there, featuring one of four busts of Barry modelled by Joseph Panzetta (fl.1789-1830) but based on a portrait by William Evans. Another of these busts has been in The Crawford collection since 2005. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Waldy & Bendy celebrate the dodgy anniversary of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Bendy has a chat with Joanna Wood about accessibility in museums, and Waldy goes to Istanbul in his dreams.   See the show notes at our website.

Denna vecka ska vi prata om Sir Joshua Reynolds målning ”Tysoe Saul Hancock och hans fru Philadelphia (född Austen) med deras dotter Elizabeth och den indiska jungfrun Clarinda” som målades mellan 1765-67. När vi först såg målningen på Gemäldegalerie i Berlin hösten 2017 hade tavlan ett helt annat namn: ”George Clive och hans familj med en indisk jungfru”. Det fanns dock ett par forskare som, precis som vi, fängslades av målningen och inte minst av den vackra indiska kvinnan i målningen. Varför hade Joshua Reynolds placerat henne i verkets centrum och målat henne så väldigt omsorgsfullt? Vem var hon? Lyssna på veckans avsnitt och följ med på de brittiska forskarnas detektivarbete som tar oss med det brittiska Ostindiska Kompaniet till 1700-talets Indien och till den berömda författaren Jane Austens familjehistoria. Vilka berättelser och öden döljer sig bakom detta porträtt? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Benjamin West and the Struggle to be Modern At the time of his death in 1820, Benjamin West was the most famous artist in the English-speaking world, and much admired throughout Europe. From humble beginnings in Pennsylvania, he had become the first American artist to study in Italy, and within a few short years of his arrival in London, was instrumental in the foundation of the Royal Academy of Arts (he succeeded Sir Joshua Reynolds to become its second President) and became history painter to King George III. Grossman explains why Wolfe was such an instant success and why this thrilling work of art continues to exercise such a strong grip on our imaginations nearly 250 years after it was first shown to the public. He situates West in the midst of Enlightenment thinking about history and modernity, and seeks to demolish some of the prejudices about the talent and intentions of the young man from the Pennsylvania frontier who attained such eminence at the British court." Sponsored by Doro, number one in the senior mobile market

Dr Matthew Hunter (McGill University) Did Joshua Reynolds Paint his Pictures? Professor Mark Hallett (Paul Mellon Centre) Point Counter Point: Josua Reynolds, portraiture and late eighteenth-century exhibition culture. Abstracts Matthew Hunter. In May 1773, an open letter to London’s Morning Chronicle lodged a peculiar complaint with Sir Joshua Reynolds. Pigmented ooze—paint—had, in the view of this critic, come to bear in upon British art with undue, defacing force. The problem followed from conceptualizing artistic identity through an excessively literal translation of French Peintre as “Painter, and the materials which ingenious persons of that denomination make use of to display their talents, we have, from that word, calledpaint, which in French is named coleurs.” Closer to the liberal art actually practiced and promoted by Reynolds, this anonymous critic proposed, sculptors and architects could offer useful counter-models: “Why not like these have a peculiar name, Sir Joshua, for your very profession? Why not like these take up at once your classic name? Why not Pictor?” Situated within the rich, period discourse and extensive, modern documentation of Reynolds’s chemical experiments, this paper aims to take theMorning Chronicle’s complaint seriously. It considers the ways in which Reynolds and his contemporaries understood interfaces between paint and image, while exploring the broader stakes (then as now) of apprehending the President’s temporally-evolving chemical works as “pictures.” Mark Hallett. This talk, which will focus on the portraits submitted by Joshua Reynolds to the annual Royal Academy displays of the 1780s, explores the workings of the painted object within the crowded, ephemeral and spectacular exhibition displays characteristic of the late eighteenth century. Particular attention will be devoted to the ways in which, within the Academy's Great Room, Reynolds's individual portraits of women were played off against each other and against portraits of male subjects, and thereby became part of an extended and highly intriguing form of visual dialogue and counterpoint.

By the time James Boswell published his monumental biography of his friend Samuel Johnson in 1791, the latter’s life had been more fully documented than virtually any other figure in Western history. But Johnson, the famed lexicographer and man of letters, was also the subject of various forms of visual documentation. Richard Wendorf , Stanford Calderwood Director and Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, surveys all of the known portrayals of Johnson, including the famous portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds now at The Huntington.

By the time James Boswell published his monumental biography of his friend Samuel Johnson in 1791, the latter’s life had been more fully documented than virtually any other figure in Western history. But Johnson, the famed lexicographer and man of letters, was also the subject of various forms of visual documentation. Richard Wendorf , Stanford Calderwood Director and Librarian of the Boston Athenaeum, surveys all of the known portrayals of Johnson, including the famous portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds now at The Huntington.

This is one of the earliest of a number of Constable’s 1821 cloud studies in which he included a margin of land or treetops along the bottom of the image. Here he depicted the sunlight catching the tops of the small cumulus clouds, using long, sweeping brushstrokes in the upper right to express the movement of the clouds in the wind. There is good agreement between Constable’s inscription and the weather records for the London area on that day, which suggest it was a fine day with some cloud, warm temperatures and high humidity. The streets of small cumulus clouds are typical of a light westerly wind (Thornes 1999, pp. 224–25). On 17 October 1820 Constable painted his first known dated oil sketch at Hampstead in which he recorded weather effects, Sketch at Hampstead, stormy sunset (Victoria and Albert Museum, London).He continued his systematic study of changing skies over the following two years. On 23 October 1821 he wrote to John Fisher: I have done a good deal of skying– I am determined to conquer all difficulties and that most arduous one among the rest, & now talking of skies – …That Landscape painter who does not make his skies a very material part of his composition – neglects to avail himself of one of his greatest aids.Sir Joshua Reynolds, speaking of the ‘Landscape’ of Titian& Salvator & Claude– says ‘Even their skies seem to sympathise with the Subject’ …It will be difficult to name a class of Landscape,in which the sky is not the‘key note’ – the standard of ‘Scale’, and the chief ‘Organ of sentiment’… The sky is the ‘source of light’ in nature – and governs every thing. Even our common observations on the weather of every day, are suggested by them but it does not occur to us (Beckett VI, pp. 76–77). Constable considered that: ‘Nature is never seen, in this climate at least, to greater perfection than at about nine o’clock in the mornings of July and August, when the sun has gained sufficient strength to give splendour to the landscape, :still gemmed with the morning dew”’, without its oppressive heat; and it is still more delightful if vegetation has been refreshed with a shower during the night’ (Beckett, Discourses, p. 17).Although he painted this sketch a little later in the day – between 10 and 11 am, and in early September – Constable has captured the freshness of the morning sky. As with this work, Constable painted many of his cloud studies in about an hour. His reference here to ‘rain in the night following’ indicates that the inscription was added a day or so after ‘Sepr 11’, and that in making these cloud studies he was not only interested in weather conditions at the time of painting, but also the weather before and after that time. He was interested in changing conditions, in fluctuating moments, shifting effects of light and shade – and how these impacted on a landscape.

In Self-portrait with gladioli Lambert deliberately depicted himself as a precious, self-assured aesthete. In this, he visualised the thoughts expressed in a letter to Amy on 25 November 1921: I am a luxury, a hot house rarity ... Scoffed at for preciousness. Despised for resembling a chippendale chair in a country where timber is cheap (ML MSS 97/10, p.379). He was a dedicated artist who worked to the point of exhaustion, but he portrayed himself, not as he was, but as the affected, self-admiring dandy he thought others considered him to be. To paint himself thus required, as the critic for the Australasian newspaper suggested on 24 February 1923, ‘courage, self-analysis and amazing technical skill’. His gaze is quizzical; he placed himself under self-scrutiny. He stood in an apparently careless attitude, but studiously posed, with his hands splayed out and showing ‘articulations of nerve and sinew’. Lambert was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy on 23 November 1922 – the only Australian painter ever to be so honoured. This self-portrait might be viewed as Lambert’s statement of achievement. He stands smiling, in his artistic brown velvet gown, with a purple scarf around his neck and a vase of gladioli before him, like someone who has just received a medal on a ribbon and a bouquet of flowers. In other self-portraits such as Self-portrait c.1907 (cat.37) he depicted himself with a paintbrush in hand, but here he showed himself posing. Lambert’s stance in this portrait resembles that of the first President of the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds, in his Self-portrait c.1780 (Royal Academy, London), in which, dressed in his academic robes, he stands aristocratically with his right hand on his hip (although not with his left arm raised). Lambert’s pose could also be viewed as a witty adaptation of the classical marble sculpture, the Hermes Logios , an image of the god of eloquence, who, like Lambert in this portrait, stands with one arm raised, as if speaking. Gladioli are the birth flower of those born between 22 August and 22 September, as Lambert was. Gladiolus is derived from the Latin word gladius , meaning sword, on account of the shape of its leaves, which look like a two-edged sword; gladioli are sometimes known as sword lilies. In Roman times the flowers were presented to victorious gladiators. The flower is thus a symbol for victory. It can also symbolise strength of character. But in addition to being a portrait of achievement and victory, this painting is also a portrait of jest, of self-mockery. It is an image which brings to mind the lines in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience (1881), which caricature the aesthete: Though the Philistines may jostle, you will rank as an apostle in the high aesthetic band, If you walk down Piccadilly with a poppy or a lily in your mediaeval hand. And every one will say, As you walk your flowery way, ‘If he’s content with a vegetable love which would certainly not suit me, Why, what a most particularly pure young man this pure young man must be!’ In his Self-portrait with gladioli Lambert presented himself in his velvet gown with tongue in cheek. He showed himself with not one poppy or lily, but a whole bunch of gladioli to show ‘how he ranked as an apostle in the high aesthetic band’. As much as suggesting Lambert’s arrogance, it indicates his sense of humour and his delight in creating conceits. Some of his former colleagues (like Hardy Wilson), perhaps jealously, thought he had became enamoured of praise, and they no doubt considered this portrait to be a true expression of his being. C.R. Bradish described him in Table Talk, 14 July 1927, as being ‘tricked out in brocade’, ‘strutting bloated with its whole consequence’, but then asked ‘why should not George Lambert be vain?’. ‘His precision as a painter, his occasional magnificence as a draughtsman … entitle him to stand among Australian painters wearing a crown of gold feathers if he feels that way’. However, not everyone maintained Lambert was lordly: the Sydney Mail reported on 13 September 1922 that he scorned any reference to ‘artistic genius’, and that he preferred ‘to be told by a critic that he had “done his job well,” as one might address a bricklayer’. Self-portrait with gladioli was purchased in Adelaide, in 1923 by a private collector, T.E. Barr-Smith, at its first exhibition (‘Lambert and Heysen: An exhibition of portraiture, still life, and landscape’, at Preece’s Gallery). The price, £1000, was the highest paid for a work by Lambert during his life. It was not publicly shown again until Lambert’s memorial loan exhibition in Sydney in 1930, although it was widely known through its reproduction as a frontispiece in The art of George W. Lambert, published in 1924.

This year's Reith lecturer is Dr Nikolaus Pevsner, the German-born British scholar of history of art and architecture, and author of the county guide series, The Buildings of England (1951–74). In this series, Pevsner explores the qualities of art which he regards as particularly English, as illustrated in the works of several English artists, and what they say about the English national character. In his third lecture, Dr Pevsner examines the work of the portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), and argues that the far-reaching contrast between his promotion of painting in the Grand Manner, and how he actually painted, is eminently English.

This year's Reith lecturer is Dr Nikolaus Pevsner, the German-born British scholar of history of art and architecture, and author of the county guide series, The Buildings of England (1951–74). In this series, Pevsner explores the qualities of art which he regards as particularly English, as illustrated in the works of several English artists, and what they say about the English national character. In his third lecture, Dr Pevsner examines the work of the portrait painter Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792), and argues that the far-reaching contrast between his promotion of painting in the Grand Manner, and how he actually painted, is eminently English.