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@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 29, 2026, 9:41 AM

Henry Wallis, Chatterton (1856). Horace Walpole was (unfairly) vilified in his lifetime over the Chatterton affair; the 19C Chatterton revival didn’t help his reputation. Tate Britain #c18 #c18th #18thc

Melodramatic portrait of the dead poet on a bed in a garret, a casket of papers by his bedside

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 28, 2026, 9:32 AM

William Hogarth, scene from John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera where Polly Peachum and Lucy Lockit plead for the release of Macheath, each believing she’s his wife (1735). Mack the knife … Tate Britain #c18 #c18th #18thc

Inside a prison, a group of figures. In the centre, a man dressed in a scarlet coat and black Twickenham. To his right, a kneeling young long wiman in white pleads with the gaoler. The gilt wood frame has a dark wood carved portrait of Hogarth in an oval surrounded by trophies of the arts

@sarahmurden.bsky.social Sep 28, 2026, 7:19 AM

From the archives of All Things Georgian, 'The Long-Eared Aesculapius: Asses' Milk and Georgian Medicine' - wp.me/p3JTNy-39b #mondayblogs #c18 #18c

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 27, 2026, 9:59 AM

Room 4 at Tate Britain: #c18 #c18th #18thc pictures hung salon-style. Joseph Highmore’s Mr B Discovering Pamela Writing should be here (or nearby) but is in storage 😥

Pictures hung from the top of the knee-high dark green marble running around the room up the green walls to the white plaster cornice

Pictures described here: https://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-britain/display/historic-early-modern-british-art/1760-room?utm_source=signage&utm_medium=qr_code&utm_campaign=DIG_Exhibition-Age

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 26, 2026, 3:01 PM

Joseph Wright of Derby, Sir Brooke Boothby (1781), Tate Britain #c18 #c18th #18thc

Sir Brooke, dressed in brown with white stockings and a black broad-brimmed hat, reclines languorously in a woodland setting, one arm propped up against a tree trunk. In the other he holds a volume that says ‘Rousseau’ on the spine

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 26, 2026, 2:16 PM

Henry Fuseli (Füssli), Titania & Bottom (c1790), Tate Britain #c18 #c18th #18thc

Scene from Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream showing the Queen of the Fairies enchanted by the ass-headed Bottom, surrounded by a crowd of fairies

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 26, 2026, 9:57 AM

Chinese blue and white ceramics (late 17C to #c18 #c18th #18thc) from the collection of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, on loan to Tate Britain from The Hunterian, Glasgow

Four shelves of blue and white ceramic plates and vessels

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 26, 2026, 9:57 AM

Torii Kinoyaga, scenes from Twelve Months in the South (1780s), from the collection of James Abbott McNeill Whistler, on loan to Tate Britain from the British Museum #c18 #c18th #18thc

Two scenes of women, some standing and some seated, in a anterior with a vview of a sailing ship seen through a window

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 8:31 PM

The temple in the gardens at Chiswick House #c18 #c18th #18thc

Temple with Ionic columns, framed by trees, overlooking a pond with an obelisk in the middle. Note the brown grass left by the summer’s drought)

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 5:12 PM

One of John Cheere’s original lead sphinxes (1749), preserved from the elements inside Chiswick House; the garden has stone replicas #c18 #c18th #18thc

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 3:06 PM

Chiswick House: portrait of Alexander Pope (1735) by William Kent above a door (validating Horace Walpole’s observation that Kent was a mediocre painter) #c18 #c18th #18thc

View of a white doorway with gilding and pediment, oval portrait above with supporting gilt merboys (putti with fishtails)

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 12:06 PM

Chiswick House: interior views (photography strictly verboten!) #c18 #c18th #18thc

The Blue Velvet Room, with rich silk wall hangings and masses of gilding. The photography police were too passively aggressively vigilant to allow me to take snaps of the Red Velvet Room, where the interpretive guides have gone pretty heavily into the ‘Lord Burlington was a crypto-Jacobite’ theory promoted by Jane Clark (which I’m not sure I buy)

Doorway in the Blue Velvet Room with gilt pediment and over door portrait flanked by gilt putti

Under the central octagonal dome , hung with large paintings over Roman marble bust on gilt brackets

Curved white marble fireplace with gilding

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 25, 2026, 6:18 AM

Chiswick House (completed 1729) exterior views #c18 #c18th #18thc

The Earl of Burlington’s Palladian villa in white with a columned portico and dome, yellow stone wing to the right, seen from the gravel forecourt

Stone sphinx on a plinth in the garden (replacing John Cheere’s lead original of 1749)

View of the main block from an allée lined with cypresses

Stone gatepost topped by a (replacement) lead sphinx

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 24, 2026, 3:27 PM

John Smart, portrait of an unknown gent (c1770). V&A #c18 #c18th #18thc

Oval portrait of a young man in a blue suit with a black silk collar, white shirt, hair powdered. The frame is set with sparkly brilliants

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 24, 2026, 1:35 PM

James Smart, portrait miniature of Abdul Khaliq Sultan (c1792), eldest legitimate son of the Tipu Sultan of Mysore. V&A #c18 #c18th #18thc

Oval portarit miniature of a young Indian prince with an inquisitive look. White coat, pale red turban. He and his younger brother were taken hostage by the East India Company, which wanted concessions from Tipu Sultan. The portrait was probably intended to show that the prince had not been mistreated

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 24, 2026, 10:53 AM

James Barry, self-portrait (c1775-80). V&A #c18 #c18th #18thc

Severe, perhaps angry expression. Brown hair in a fringe over his forehead, brown coat and white shirt, dark background

@nguthrie.bsky.social Sep 24, 2026, 7:02 AM

William Blake, Eve tempted by the Serpent (c1799-1800), V&A #c18 #c18th #18thc

Small painting showing the naked Eve encircled by an enormous translucent gold serpent. There is tree trunk to the left, and Adam lies on the ground to the right, asleep. Behind, there is lake with a waterfall and a dark blue sky and moon

@ivoteliberal.bsky.social Sep 23, 2026, 4:30 PM

Les libéraux ont donné 600 M$ aux médias qui les couvrent. Puis ils demandent pourquoi les Canadiens doutent des nouvelles. #polcan #C18

@ivoteliberal.bsky.social Sep 23, 2026, 4:30 PM

The Liberals gave $600M to the media that covers them. Then ask why Canadians don't trust the news. #cdnpoli #C18

@asls.org.uk Sep 23, 2026, 1:07 PM

“John Barleycorn” is believed to be one of Robert Burns’s earliest productions, based on its appearance in the poet’s First Commonplace Book. You can listen to “John Barleycorn” on the @glasgowburns.bsky.social website, sung by Bill Adair
#folksong #ballad #C18
burnsc21.glasgow.ac.uk/john-barleyc...