Foreigners in London 1520 – 1677: The Artists that Changed the Course of British Art

Wednesday 4 October 2017

Leslie Primo

Leslie Primo is a graduate with a degree in Art History and an MA in Renaissance Studies from Birkbeck, University College, London. During his studies he specialised in early Medieval and Renaissance studies, including: Italian Renaissance Drawing; Art and Architecture in Europe 1250-1400; Art and Architecture in Europe 1400-1500; Medici and Patronage; Narrative Painting in the Age of Giotto; the work of Peter Paul Rubens, focusing on his paintings of the Judgement of Paris; and Greek Myth in paintings.

Leslie has worked at the National Gallery in London for 15 years, and has also taught a variety of art history courses at Reading University, including: Medieval to Renaissance (a survey course); Reading Pictures – The Hidden Stories in Art (a course on iconography); and Masters of the Renaissance – Leonardo and Michelangelo.

Leslie  currently lectures at the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, and teaches a variety of art history courses at Imperial College, London – South Kensington campus, the City Literary, Covent Garden, London and Bishopsgate Institute, Liverpool Street, London. Courses include: An art history survey course called Styles in Art (spanning art from Byzantium to Victorian painting); The Mirror of Nature (looking at 17th Century art and culture); The Renaissance and Beyond; Introduction to the National Galley; Introduction to the National Portrait Gallery; Introduction to Western European Art; and many more.

Please see Leslie Primo’s website for more information. Twitter

This lecture will investigate why foreign painters were preferred by the aristocracy in London to native-born English painters; why did foreigners come in the first place; what was their motivation; and what was the impact of foreigners in London on English art and art practise?

The lecture will look at the various formats and uses of art, tracing foreign artists from the Tudor period through to the Renaissance and Baroque, looking at their origins and how they came to work in England. It will examine the contributions of artists such as Holbein, Gerrit van Honthorst, Marcus Gheeraerts the younger, Lucas and Susanna Horenbout, Isaac Oliver, Paulus van Somer, van Dyck, Peter Lely, and Rubens. And it will look at how these artists influenced the British School of painting and assess their legacy.

Caption: Holbein: Portrait of Sir Thomas More, 1527. Oil and tempera on oak, Frick Collection, New York City

Further Suggested Reading

• Peter Lely: A Lyrical Vision (Courtauld Gallery), by Caroline Campbell
• Orazio Gentileschi at the Court of Charles I, by Gabriele Finaldi
• Holbein in England, by Susan Foister
• Marcus Gheerhaerts II: Elizabethan Artist in Focus, by Karen Hearn
• Van Dyck and Britain, by Karen Hearn
• Rubens: A Master in the Making, by Peter Paul (Jaffé, David; McGrath, Elizabeth; Bradley, Amanda; Moore Ede Rubens)
• Painting in Britain, 1530-1790, by Ellis Waterhouse

The notes for this lecture can be downloaded here

Below are photos of this lecture