Foreign Invention of British Art: From Renaissance to Enlightenment

The stadtholders of European city states, the Holy Roman Emperors and Popes, the kings and queens of Tudor and Jacobean Britain, they all preferred to patronise a coterie of itinerant foreign artists and their assistants. From the Habsburg’s preferred patronage of Italian and Low Country artists to the success of Dürer in Venice, Van Eyck in Italy, and Holbein in England, together we will lift the lid on the multiple routes of artists from across Europe that fed the insatiable appetite of the wealthy European elites for luxurious artworks to adorn the private homes and palaces.

This will be a story of new and foreign culture imposed on to reluctant native-born artistic communities at home in England, a story of push back from those communities, a story of racism, resentment and violence that would ultimately lead various forms a legislation to curb the flood of foreigners into England.

We will examine the contributions of well-known artists, and those whose identities have long since been lost, such as: Hans Holbein the Younger, Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, Isaac Oliver, Paulus van Somer, Anthony van Dyck, Peter Lely, Peter Paul Rubens and more.