Art

Gillian Williams on the promise of watercolourist and engraver, Wenceslaus Hollar, when he petitioned Charles II to allow him to accompany the British Ambassador on an expedition to Morocco, that he 'would examine all and take designs, and give his Majesty much better satisfaction'.

F.M.L. Thompson looks at the public reception of the artist George Elgar Hicks.

W.A. Coupe argues that German cartoonists ridiculed Hitler as a Chaplinesque little man, so it was easy not to take him seriously – until it was too late.

For wealthy young men in the eighteenth century, the 'Grand Tour' was the climax of their education, explains Hugh Belsey in this article. And as a souvenir of their travels, a portrait painted by Pompeo Batoni became almost de rigeur.

The art of India is a vital cultural expression of India. As Partha Mitter explains, it is intertwined with assertions of nationalism, the equation of modernisation and westernisation, and a desire to preserve the cultural heritage of India.

In this article Thomas Maxwell, one of the organisers of the exhibition and co-author of the catalogue, In the Image of Man: The Indian perception of the Universe through 2,000 years of painting and sculpture (An Arts Council publication in conjunction with Weidenfeld and Nicolson) explains the background to the exhibition.

During the last quarter of the nineteenth century the imposing canvases of battles and military manoeuvres painted by Elizabeth Thompson, later Lady Butler, caught the imagination of a nation keen to celebrate the successes of its Army. Among the artist’s many admirers was John Ruskin, who referred to her as the ‘Pallas of Pall Mall’.

German cartoonists, explains W.A. Coupe, told in stark visual language of the growing bitterness felt by their countrymen at the terms of the 1919 Peace Treaty.

William Hogarth's representations of black people in the 18th century.