Art

Annie Hill was 12 years old when Mayor painted this portrait. She worked as a half-timer at Horrockses cotton mill, splitting her day between work and school.

It was unusual at the time for working women to have their portraits painted. The painting was carried in the Women’s Sunday march in London in 1908 to represent thousands of working women and children like Annie. It played an important role in the campaign for women’s suffrage, helping to demonstrate that women contributed their labour and taxes to the country and should have a say in the country’s politics.

This self-portrait was probably painted in the 1920s. Patti was a popular Preston born artist who painted the portraits of many local people.

She attended the Slade School of Fine Art, one of the UK’s most prestigious art schools, and was a member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, better known as the Suffragettes

‘Serena Reading’ shows the heroine from a poem called ‘Triumphs of Temper’ by William Hayley, a close friend of Romney. The poem tells how Serena became so engrossed in a book that she read all through the night. Daylight is breaking and her candle has burnt down. Romney was born near Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, but moved to London, where he was the most fashionable portrait painter of his era.

This manuscript accompanies a series of sketches that were made as a teaching tool to assist artists in the skills of landscape painting. Varley published a similar guide in 1818 called The Precepts of Landscape Drawing.

This series of sketches accompany a manuscript that were made as a teaching tool to assist artists in the skills of landscape painting. Varley published a similar guide in 1818 called The Precepts of Landscape Drawing.

Wolf was a German-born artist. He settled in England in 1848 and is described as the most successful natural history painter of his generation. He pursued his art according to the principle that ‘we see distinctly only what we know thoroughly,’ and paired exacting detail with a determination to capture the liveliness of his subjects.

He provided illustrations for many noteworthy organisations including the Zoological Society, skilfully bringing together the best attributes of science and art. Wolf was admired for treating his subjects as individual and distinct, rather than just examples of a species. A large number of his studies are held at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

Nollekens went to Rome in 1762, where he studied and worked as an antique dealer and restorer, before returning to London in 1770.

This drawing is a study of an ancient fresco that was discovered in Rome in about 1600. There are a number of theories about the subject of the painting. One suggests that it represents the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles, the hero of the Trojan War.

Nollekens would have made this close study from the original fresco when it was still in the possession of the Aldobrandini family. It is now in the Vatican Museum’s collection.

As a woman, Kauffman was prohibited from drawing nude models. Instead she made studies of figures from paintings and sculpture. It is unclear when she saw the Aldobrandini Wedding, but this ancient Roman fresco, would have offered intriguing possibilities for studying drapery and the human form.

The drawing is made in reverse, indicating that Kauffman may have intended to make it into an engraving.

Kauffman was a Swiss-born painter who is best known for her portraits and historical subjects. She first visited Italy with her father in 1762, and returned to settle in Rome as an established artist some twenty years later. She was one of only two women invited to become Founding Members of the Royal Academy in 1768.

Nollekens designed some of the exterior decorative features for Somerset House in London. This drawing is an initial idea for the keystones that cap the arches near to what is now the entrance to The Courtauld Gallery. He made the sketch on the back of a letter relating to a commission for Lord Newborough.

The Courtauld Gallery moved to Somerset House in 1989. The building formerly housed the Royal Academy of Arts, where in 1772 Nollekens became a Royal Academician.