Private Tour: Painting the Performance: Art, Celebrity and Society in 18th-Century Britain
Fri, Nov 20
|National Gallery London
In 18th‑century Britain, painters crafted images that blended theatre, fashion & social ambition. We'll explore how artists like Hogarth, Stubbs, Gainsborough & Reynolds captured swaggering aristocrats, actors & celebrities, contributing to notions of taste, politics and the rise of a modern public.
Time & Location
Nov 20, 2026, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
National Gallery London, 12 St Martin's St, London SW1Y 5BS, UK
About the Event
In 18th-century Britain, portraiture and history painting became stages on which ambition, status and identity could be performed. Artists drew on the visual language of theatre, fashion and spectacle to create dazzling images of a society increasingly fascinated by celebrity, taste and public reputation.
In this tour of the National Gallery, we explore works by artists including William Hogarth, George Stubbs, Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds. From swaggering aristocrats and fashionable sitters to celebrated actors and public figures, their paintings reveal a world in which appearance mattered—and in which artists played an important role in shaping how people wished to be seen.
Along the way, we consider the relationship between art and the theatre, the changing conventions of portraiture, the emergence of the celebrity, and the ways in which paintings could communicate—and sometimes challenge—ideas about class, gender, politics and social ambition. We will also ask how notions of “taste” were…
Tickets
RSVP
£16.00
+£0.40 ticket service fee
Creditor
This ticket is for people who have credit with Art Historical London because they have paid in advance via bank transfer or gift voucher.
£0.00
Total
£0.00