Best known from the BBC series Britain’s Lost Masterpieces and Fake or Fortune?, Bendor Grosvenor is an art historian specialising in Old Masters and British art. Beautifully illustrated throughout, The Invention of British Art is a provocative and captivating survey of British art from c. 10,000 BCE to the 19th century.
Looking at key moments, objects, and individuals from each era, it explores how they were shaped by the world in which the artists lived, and why – above all – it took so long for the art from theses isles to actually become ‘British’.
Bendor says, “this is a story I have always wanted to tell. Of how a small island nation managed to produce, after many setbacks, some of the most brilliant and distinctive artists who ever lived, like Constable and Turner. But it is also a story of ideas, power, faith and empire, and reveals how art helped shape the Britain we know today.”
Attendees will also have the opportunity to view rarely-seen items from the Alnwick Castle archive relevant to the subject of the talk.