18th century

Booksreview

'Understanding our things in action': innovative book gives new life to objects owned by 18th-century artists

We rarely consider the everyday items owned by artists—this volumes' authors aim to change that

Saved by a pub entrepreneur, Sherborne House reopens as an arts centre

The comprehensive renovation includes a new restaurant, an events pavilion and the restoration of a James Thornhill mural

Royal Academy of Arts’s forgotten founding member Angelica Kauffman gets solo show

The Swiss-born portraitist and history painter was celebrated in her lifetime but later fell into obscurity

Reinterpreting and repositioning the legacy of Joshua Reynolds 300 years after his birth

An exhibition in Plymouth, near where Reynolds grew up, looks at the stories behind the society figures depicted in his portraits

Booksreview

Scurrilous, rude and joyful: the secret stories of tampered pennies told in new publication

Essays explore the myriad ways that coins have been inscribed with messages of protest, love and more

Booksreview

For richer, for poorer: domestic life in 18th-century Ireland examined in new book

Scholarly essays examine how people lived, from poor tenant farmers to their whist-playing landlords

Booksreview

New book reveals how women artists in the 'Age of Revolutions' confound stereotypes

This statistics-driven investigation shows that many of the hundreds of women exhibiting in London and Paris between 1760 and 1830 eschewed the still-life

Booksreview

Magnificent two-volume book reveals the sumptuous, Rococo-infused life of Versailles courtier Madame de Pompadour

This comprehensive history of the lady’s obsessive relationship with Sèvres porcelain in the 18th century sheds light on little-known aspects of the industry

Booksreview

An exquisite study of the man who documented North America’s wildlife in the 18th century

This exploration of Mark Catesby is a rich and deeply researched account of his journey from amateur naturalist in East Anglia to intrepid observer in the New World

The story of an Irish family’s history and its porcelain service are woven together in this fascinating book

The recovery of a Worcester soft-paste collection sheds light on 18th-century Anglo-Irish culture

A catalogue demonstrates Boucher’s mastery of the 'Chinese' taste

The essays in this book investigate the many facets of this extraordinary 18th-century fashion

Gainsborough's newly restored Blue Boy awaits the end of lockdown

Closed by coronavirus, Huntington Library posts online video reflecting on 18-month conservation treatment of dazzling portrait

Booksreview

Despite its 'hybrid' approach, the Met's catalogue on French painting lacks detailed analysis

When used together, the New York museum’s print catalogue and supplementary website on their 18th-century French works make an excellent initial resource but offer little new information

Angelica Kauffman, who was lauded in her lifetime but later largely ignored by art historians, gets new show

Travelling Kunstpalast exhibition will feature the only known ceiling paintings created by a woman in the 18th century

A journey through William Hogarth’s ‘moral geography’ of London and beyond

As an exhibition opens at the Sir John Soane's Museum, the curator David Bindman takes us from Covent Garden and Grosvenor Square to “Guzzledown”

Booksreview

National Gallery definitively catalogues 'small but perfectly formed' collection of French 18th century paintings

Humphrey Wine’s lavishly illustrated book details the London museum's 60 authentic works and 12 replicas, copies or pastiches

Children’s portraits without shadows: new book on painting childhood

No Chucky or Lord of the Flies in portraits by British and British-based artists

Boilly, prolific portraitist and genre painter

Almost unknown in Britain, his work was secretly amassed by Harry Hyams, the billionaire property developer

Winckelmann's impact on modern concepts of art history is celebrated in Weimar

The man who wrote art history is remembered 300 years after his birth

Booksnews

Sir Joshua Reynolds’s portraits in focus, at last

His most important works now take centre-stage

Booksarchive

Portrait of Prince Nicholas II Esterházy as an avid collector, a bankrupt, and a womaniser

The Prince's passions cost him his fortune but gave Hungary a fine collection of art

Piranesiarchive

Inside Piranesi’s prisons on show at the Venice Architecture Biennale

An immersive, digital film at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini reimagines the artist’s dark fantasies as if in three dimensions

Bringing back the Baroque—colonial style

Yale prepares for the 2012 installation of its decorative arts galleries by reconstructing a period room

Booksarchive

Books: Saviour of the Habsburgs, richly rewarded

Soldier and collector Prince Eugene of Savoy’s role in the rise of the Austro-Hungarian empire

Metropolitan re-opens Wrightsman Galleries for French Decorative Arts

Also now open is its Ruth and Harold D. Uris Center for Education

Booksarchive

Books: James Brydges, munificent benefactor or bad-taste merchant?

A reappraisal of the life of the first Duke of Chandos, patron, collector and philanthropist