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Tag Archives: Thomas Gainsborough
malthus: whimsey for the sullen men of property
Malthus. The theory that, essentially, the poor should not reproduce as they strain the food supply, which will be outdistanced, inevitably by population growth, leading to that final leg of human misery: famine, starvation and death. Alas, the flesh being … Continue reading
Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion, Literature/poetry/spoken word
Tagged Charles Dickens, Philip Hermogenes Calderon, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, Samuel taylor Coleridge, Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Robert Malthus, William Godwin, William Hazlitt
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high on the hog: boastful splendiferous types
…Of what there is no doubt is that this life was wasteful, extravagant, ostentatious- an appalling contrast, as Dr. Samuel Johnson noted, to the human wretchedness of rural or urban slums; yet it was saved both by its humanity and … Continue reading
Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion
Tagged David Garrick, Dr. Samuel Johnson, Earl of Egremont, George Macaulay Trevelyan, George Stubbs, Henry Fielding, James Boswell, Johann Zoffany, John Berger, Jonathan Jones Guardian, Madame Pickwick, Sir Robert Walpole, Thomas Gainsborough, William Hogarth
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mrs. graham
This famous painting of The Honourable Mrs. Graham by Thomas Gainsborough represents the eighteenth-century ideal of feminine loveliness. Mary Graham was the sister of the 10th Lord Cathcart. Gainsborough painted her shortly after her honeymoon with Thomas Graham, later Lord … Continue reading
new money: fresh smells of success
It smelt like the garden of Eden. The fresh scent of new construction that reflected the exalted sense of the Celestial Emperor. TradeĀ softened the edges of barbarism and civilization gradually manifested itself in Europe to be quickly followed by … Continue reading
Posted in Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion
Tagged Canaletto in England, John Wootton paintings, Lady Mary Churchill, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Robert Adam design, Sir Robert Walpole, Syon House Middlesex, Thomas Gainsborough, William Kent Architect, William Kent Design
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rubbing shoulders with the celestial emperor
The noble houses of eighteenth century England. Eventually the life blood of civilization began to flow through the veins of barbarized Europe. Gradually, a tide of wealth swept over the old noble warrior society. By 1750 the Western world had … Continue reading
Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion
Tagged Aubusson carpets, Capability Brown, Celestial Emperor, Dr. Samuel Johnson, England eighteenth century mansions, George Romney paintings, James Boswell, Jan Siberechts Dutch Artist, John Wootton paintings, Joshua Reynolds, Lord Scarsdale Kedleston, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, Meisen porcelain, Sevres Porcelain, Sir Robert Walpole, Thomas Gainsborough
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something about them
A French noble’s view. However grand the English country houses seemed to Anglo-Saxon eyes, they made quite a different impression on a noble visitor from the Continent. The Comte de Mirabeau, who traveled to London in 1784, left this account … Continue reading
w. blake: the quack doctors of painting
The Royal Academy. The real power of the Royal Academy lay in its early days, and the driving force behind its consolidation was not primarily intellectual or social at all. It related to the machinery of distribution and sale. High … Continue reading
Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion
Tagged Benjamin West, Grosvenor Gallery, Joseph Mallord William Turner, Joshua Reynolds, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, madame pickwick art supplies, Richard Wilson Royal Academy, The Grand Tour, the royal academy, Thomas Gainsborough, William Blake, William Hazlitt, William Hogarth
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architecture for the gypsy & virtuous ass
The inevitable decline of official institutions that have to do with the arts. Based on the belief of the immutable laws of art. Any institution that sets itself up as the guardian of such laws is, by that very fact, … Continue reading
Posted in Art History/Antiquity/Anthropology, Feature Article, Ideas/Opinion
Tagged Donald Kuspit, francis jukes, George Stubbs, James Boswell, Johan Zoffany, John Constable, Madame Pickwick, madame pickwick art blog, madame pickwick art supplies, Meyer Schapiro, robert pollard, Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Rowlandson, William Blake, William Hogarth
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more than plants looking for a home
The great change in European gardens came with the Renaissance , that sudden astonishing growth of man’s spirit which carried him forward into the daylight of intellectual confidence. He is no longer comforted with the little shut-in plots that have … Continue reading