Category: Art
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Who’s Who in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Processional Frieze Part 2
Look up! When you step off the street and into the foyer of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh you’ll see above you a wonderful parade of figures from Scotland’s history. There are 155 full length portraits on the face of the first floor balcony. Above the entrance this…
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Repeat, Repeat, Repeat Visits to Scotland’s National Portrait Gallery
Most people have LIVING friends, with skin and bones and blood in their veins. (Pffff, weird!) I’ve got historical friends, people who’ve lived and died, and with whom I spend time…in my head. Their portraits are in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, and I chat with them. Click. Read.
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Speech Bubbles and Talking Pictures in the Eighteenth Century
In modern cartoons we’re used to seeing clear text in a uniform speech bubble, but not in the Eighteenth century when satirical prints based around political, social and cultural issues, gave us the early speech bubble. Learn how they were used by Thomas Rowlandson, James Gillray and William Hogarth.
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A Lost Boswell Treasure, Rediscovered in my Underpants Drawer
This morning I rediscovered a treasure I bought back in 2023: A 1973 collection of the Picturesque Beauties of Boswell. It’s a squarish pack of twenty prints, copies of etchings made by Eighteenth century artist, illustrator and portraitist Thomas Rowlandson. If you’re a Boswell fan…indeed, a Boswellian, then read this.
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Who’s Who in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery Processional Frieze Part 1
Look out for the head and shoulders portrait of James Boswell in the Great Frieze (Hole in 1897-1898) above the foyer of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. When I visit I always go straight there…I see him, and then I relax. Do it and remember how awesome he was.
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Eighteenth Century Faces Sketched by Genius Fan
Sketching faces to illustrate Genius Fan stories is a core part of the fun in this project for me. It can take a long time to get a likeness, and sometimes I have to go ahead and publish when I know the sketch isn’t quite right and could be improved.…
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You Lookin’ At Me? Portraits On My Wall
When office workers were sent home for the Covid lockdown of April 2020 we quickly adapted to video meetings using Teams, Zoom and Skype. We saw inside colleagues’ homes – what was behind them (the decor, wall art, bookcases etc), but we never saw what was in front of them.…
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Eighteenth Century as Seen by its Inhabitants
Our imaginations are rendering machines of infinite capacity. We can conjure anything we want in our mind’s eye and, for the moment anyway, only we can tap into them. But don’t rely just on the text in your favourite book to fuel your Eighteenth century day dreams, get creative and…
Genius Fan 