This is the fourth of Dido Powell’s Art Museum Tours in 2023, taking place on five Sundays between 5 February and 4 June. All tours take place on a Sunday 11am to 1pm. They cost £12 per tour or £55 if you book all five. See the full list here. Please message Wendy Earle (wendyearle@talktalk.net) to reserve your place.

INTRODUCTION

We will look at British paintings and sculptures from the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries depicting heroism, martyrdom and triumph, through panoramic history paintings and classically inspired, deliberately composed works promoting the virtue of stoicism. Portraits of leaders will also be analysed to see how images of power are constructed and combined with expressions of individual distinction. From images of bravery, sacrifice and glory, we will explore twentieth-century works dealing with loss, absence, gratuitous pain, and delving reportage. The themes of escape and the aftermath of war will be discussed with reference to Visionary and Neo-Romantic artists of the 1920s. Themes of industrialised war and new technologies will be addressed through sculpture.