17 rooms in Historic and Early Modern British Art
London is the largest city in Europe, a hub of global trade and commerce. Artists such as William Hogarth show us the many sides of urban life
During a period of peaceful economic growth in Western Europe, London becomes a thriving market of commercial exchanges and coffee houses. Along with Bristol and Liverpool, London is also a hub of the transatlantic slave trade. The resulting goods and profits pour into British cities. When war breaks out in 1756, victory over France allows Britain to strengthen its position abroad, expanding its North American colonies and consolidating power in India.
Religious zeal and conflict have receded, while new commercial values hold sway. Wealthy merchants now play an important role in London’s art market, alongside aristocrats and landowners. Artists depict them in small-scale group portraits of family and friends, known as ‘conversation pieces’. This new format becomes a particularly British genre of painting. These fashionable scenes of polite society show a booming consumer culture, derived from Britain’s colonial wealth: tobacco is smoked, tea and coffee are sweetened with sugar, then drunk from Chinese porcelain.
Hogarth’s conversation pieces are celebrated for their informality and vibrancy. His images of bustling city life and his biting satires, which cross social classes, are also hugely popular. While some of the best European artists, such as the Italian painter Canaletto, still come to London, there are also renewed efforts to establish a home-grown British school of painting. This is a cause that Hogarth champions with particular vigour.
Art in this room
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You've viewed 6/28 artworks
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