Author Archives: jackie

Hogarth: Life in Progress is Sunday Times Art Book of the Year 2021

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Reviews for Hogarth: Life in Progress

Linda Colley, author of Britons and The Gun the Ship & the Pen: ‘In this marvellous and timely new biography, Jacqueline Riding makes sensitive and imaginative use of a wide range of often difficult and neglected sources, offering in the process a vivid and compelling reconstruction of the settings of Hogarth’s life and artistic achievements, and of the nature of the man.’

Gus Casely-Hayford, V&A East, Sky Arts: ‘If you are not familiar with the particular genius of Hogarth, this is the book through which to discover it. And if you are a fellow Hogarth fanatic then you are in for an exquisite treat. This is a special book that drops you heart first into Hogarth’s world – like the great man’s canvasses, it is full of richness, originality and considered humour, unafraid to shock with thrilling new insight.’

Michael Prodger, Sunday Times: ‘deft’, ‘perceptive and richly detailed.’

Kathryn Hughes, Mail on Sunday: ‘Hogarth understands that life is never one thing or another but always in progress’: Jacqueline Riding’s new biography is excellent.’

George Goodwin, London Historians: ‘[Hogarth] was far more than a mere depicter of his age and an artist of skill and talent. He was also a complex and active human being who was living within the society he drew. As such, he is worthy of a thorough and considered biography that captures the man of the time as well as the artist. That is exactly what Jacqueline Riding has brilliantly provided … ‘This book … is of the highest value in showing there was so much more to Hogarth than “Gin Lane”, but in also explaining exactly why he was able to create such a lasting image of his times.’ Read the full review here

Hogarth’s Britons (Paul Holberton 2023)

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PUBLISHED TO ACCOMPANY THE MAJOR EXHIBITION AT DERBY MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY 2023

Hogarth’s Britons explores how the English painter and graphic satirist William Hogarth (1697–1764) set out to define British nationhood and identity at a time of division at home and conflict abroad. With notions of community cohesion, good citizenship and patriotism, wrapped up in a unifying idea of British national character and spirit in all its variety, and set alongside the ongoing national debate on Britain’s past, present and future within European and World affairs, Hogarth and his art has never been more relevant.

In the summer of 1745, Prince Charles Edward Stuart ‘Bonnie Prince Charlie’ landed with his supporters, the ‘Jacobites’, in a remote corner of Scotland. This signalled the start of his audacious military campaign, with the backing of Britain’s global adversary France and during a Europe-wide war, to topple the Hanoverian, Protestant monarch George II and restore the Catholic Stuarts, exiled in France and then Rome since 1688, to the throne. The country descended into turmoil, with regional, local and family loyalty for these rival royal dynasties severely tested, and opposing visions for the new nation of Great Britain – since the Union of England and Scotland in 1707 – laid bare. By early December the prince and his 6,000 troops arrived in Derby, just 120 miles and five days’ march from London. For both sides everything was at stake.

From the 1720s, through the crises of the early 1740s, to the civil war called the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion or Rising, Prince Charles’s defeat at Culloden in April 1746 and beyond, Hogarth created some of the most iconic images in British and European art, including Marriage A-La-Mode, O the Roast Beef of Old England (The Gate of Calais) and The March of the Guards to Finchley. Through such vibrant scenes, rich in topical commentary, he conveyed a sense of external threat (real and imagined) from foreign powers and internal political, social and cultural upheaval. At the same time he offered his fellow Britons a confident, reassuring idea of the rights and liberties they enjoyed under King George and his government: a flawed status quo, as Hogarth would readily admit, yet certainly better, he would argue, than the regime that would replace it under the ‘popish’ Stuarts as client monarchs of the self-serving French king, Louis XV.

With British society and politics in flux, and the Union between Scotland and England arguably more vulnerable now than at any moment since 1746, the themes explored in Hogarth’s Britons have profound resonance with our own time.

Peterloo – “Excellent” Zadie Smith

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On Peterloo: The Story of the Manchester Massacre

‘Gripping … quite simply magnificent: splendidly researched, thoroughly well written, and very difficult to put down.’ John Barrell The Guardian

‘A superb account of one of the defining moments in modern British history.’ Tristram Hunt.

‘Peterloo is one of the greatest scandals of British political history … Jacqueline Riding tells this tragic story with mesmerising skill.’ Professor John Bew, author of Citizen Clem.

‘Fast-paced and full of fascinating detail.’ Tim Clayton, author of Waterloo.

‘This is the best single account of the massacre of August 1819. A brilliant piece of historical research that sets the event in the wider political and social context and which brings to life the tragic events of August 16. This is the book to turn to for anyone interested in learning what happened in Manchester on that day and why Peterloo continues to resonate today.’ Michael Powell, Chetham’s Library

‘Vivid, engrossing and well-research’, ‘an evocative account’, ‘gripping and intellectually robust’, ‘[Mike Leigh’s] film and Riding’s excellent accompanying book will rightly heighten public awareness of the events of 16 August 1819’. Professor Ted Vallance, BBC History Magazine

‘Jacqueline Riding lets the evidence speak for itself, and in doing so produces a cool and even-handed indictment of the authorities and the soldiers at St Peter’s Field that is far more devastating than any emotional rant,’ ‘cleverly structured’, ‘the sequence of events that Riding lays out in forensic details is shocking’, ‘The Peterloo story … is one that deserves to be remembered as a less than glorious chapter in our island history. No one has told it better.’ Saul David, Literary Review

‘Careful, closely researched … a fascinating and moving story … [Riding] does a fine job of putting the event into context.’ Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times

Peterloo Events Oct to Dec 2018

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On Thurs 18 Oct 6.30-8.30 pm join me in conversation with Jim White at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, sponsored by Blackwell’s Manchester. Book tickets here.

On Fri 2 Nov join me in conversation with Professor Jon Mee at the University of York. Details tbc.

On Sat 3 Nov join me and Professor Jon Mee (University of York) for a Peterloo post-screening Q&A at City Screen, York. Screening 12 midday, Q&A c. 2.30 pm. Full details tbc.

On Fri 7 Dec join me and Mike Leigh for a Peterloo post-screening panel discussion at the Curzon Soho. Part of the London History Festival, details tbc.

 

REVIEWS for BASIC INSTINCTS

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“Highmore’s works include many paintings showing his sympathetic approach to the plight of powerless women … [This is] the first major publication of his work.” The Guardian

“[Basic Instincts] brings Joseph Highmore out of the shadows.” Apollo Magazine

“Highmore (1692–1780) was much more than just a society painter … his connection with the Foundling Hospital alerted him to the inequalities and injustices of his time and to the plight of women and children at the mercy of men who always held the keys … The Angel of Mercy still has the power to shock and, sadly, tells a very modern story.” Kate Chisholm The Spectator

“[Basic Instincts] lifts the veil on the darker aspects of love and sex in Georgian London … this is the first major exhibition of Highmore’s work for more than 50 years and it brings the artist out of the shadow of William Hogarth … In Highmore’s hands, character never slides into caricature.” Caroline Bugler Country Life 

“Jacqueline Riding has written a thoughtful book … [she] convincingly argues that the progress of the children in the [Foundling] hospital’s care is reflected in the subjects of the four large paintings by Highmore, James Wills, Francis Hayman and Hogarth that decorate the Court Room. Her insights are a major contribution to our understanding of this important and influential decorative scheme … [Basic Instincts] is an enlightening show, and proves that Highmore is worthy of a new monographic exhibition.” Hugh Belsey The Burlington Magazine

“This is a deeply satisfying book at many levels. It is a model for rethinking what a traditional monographic approach might look like … By the conclusion … most readers will have learned something more about the world of painting in London from the 1720s to the 1740s, and a lot more about an artist who is only now receiving his due. Riding’s treatment of the prints for Pamela is masterful … “[she] offers a compelling account of a “unified and dominant narrative,” uniting the four paintings in the Governors’ Court Room … Her proposal deserves serious engagement … With all of this material in place, Riding finally turns her attention to The Angel of Mercy directly in the closing pages, and this singular painting now seems less like an affront and more like a remarkably daring experiment. Riding cleverly brings the painting into conversation with Highmore’s Hagar and Ishmael and with larger conceptions of virtue, providence, and divine deliverance.” Craig Hanson Journal18

“It is the commonality between high and low that Basic Instincts reveals so well. We aren’t as divided as we think. Highmore scratches away at the veneer of respectability that coats the art of his age, and finds darkness beneath. Regardless of position, everyone has the same capacity for bad behaviour. And unfortunately, as Highmore shows, all too often women bore the brunt of this behaviour.” Rake’s Digress

“The protagonist of The Angel of Mercy is one of the many women painted by portraitist Joseph Highmore, the artist that, with his powerful art, brought feminine vulnerability to the canvas, as well as exploring the attitudes during the Georgian era towards love, sexuality and desire … But Joseph Highmore … was also a painter of tender portraits, depicting mothers, friends, children and relatives, a testimony to his versatile talent.” Samantha De Martin ARTE.it

NEW! Basic Instincts: Love, Passion and Violence in the Art of Joseph Highmore

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The first major publication dedicated to the important 18th-century British artist Joseph Highmore, whose works address themes ranging from love, friendship and  motherhood, to abuse, abandonment, infant death and murder. His extraordinary painting The Angel of Mercy, the centrepiece of this book, is one of the most controversial images in 18th-century British art.

REVIEWS for Jacobites: A New History of the ’45 Rebellion, Bloomsbury Publishing 2016 (paperback 2017)

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Tom Holland, “A gripping, panoramic and timely account of the greatest eighteenth-century crisis to menace the Union of Great Britain.”

“A lively read, combining a good and succinct military account within wider and political social context … I enjoyed and recommend” –  Book of the Month, Military History Monthly Magazine. WINNER, SILVER AWARD, BOOK OF THE YEAR 2016

Colin Kidd, The Guardian, “A fresh and historically convincing perspective … An enthralling narrative [and] and a work of penetrating insight and dispassionate balance, which is captivating from start to finish”.

Paul Monod, Court Historian, “For those who know nothing about the rebellion, Jacobites is an excellent place to begin. For those who know much about the subject, Jacqueline Riding provides a comprehensive, fair-minded and well-researched account. She will lead every reader, whatever their expertise, on an exciting and highly entertaining journey”.

Sarah Fraser, Country Life, “Witty and psychologically astute … impeccably researched yet vigorously paced … Riding has mined the archives to retrieve lost voices and her panoramic vision lets us hear the evolution of a national discourse”.

Rab Houston, BBC History Magazine “it is to Jacqueline Riding’s credit that she manages to avoid partiality. Indeed, those who want an accessible, comprehensive, even-handed, and up-to-date survey, without myth or mysticism, apology or polemic, will find her book suits their purposes admirably”, “alert to the implications of the rising for the creation of a truly united United Kingdom and for the formation of the British empire”, “the book has an unusually acute sense of person and place“, “both scholarly and readable, with 60 bite-sized chapters each presenting a detailed, vivid part of a complex rebellion”, “pieced together from many small components and first-hand perspectives … Diplomacy, warfare and politics all feature but so too does human strength and frailty; there are the great and the good (and the not-so-good) but also the more obscure, all with a fascinating part to play in one of Britain’s defining crises.”

Ian Hernon, Tribune Magazine “In this page-turning, impeccably researched account”, the author “weaves a more complex tale than is taught in schools either side of the border”.

Geoffrey Scott, The Tablet, “the most comprehensive account in modern times”, “vivid storytelling and lively characterisation“.

Stuart Kelly, The Scotsman, “a forensic and accomplished account”, “one of the most nuanced and sophisticated histories of the ’45”, “Time and again, it offers fresh perspectives and interesting angles.”

Dominic Green, Literary Review, “substantial, deeply researched and fast-moving history of  ‘the Forty-Five’ … which mingles the thrill of revolt with a careful analysis of international contexts and motives.”

Catholic Herald, “Jacqueline Riding achieves a remarkable feat in producing a history which is both compulsively readable and factually packed. Having brilliantly toured the political situation of mid eighteenth-century Western Europe, she takes us along on the political (and then military) campaign trail with the Young Pretender. But the triumph of Riding’s new account of the 1745 rebellion is that, as we move from Rome, through Paris, to Scotland and England, we are taken grippingly from romance to comedy, and even high farce, before the eventual tragedy”.

 

‘An Englishman in Paris: Joseph Highmore at the Académie Royale’ Journal18, Fall 2016

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‘An Englishman in Paris: Joseph Highmore at the Académie Royale’ in Louvre Local Edition of Journal18, Fall 2016

In the early 1730s the painter Joseph Highmore (1692-1780; Fig. 1) made two foreign journeys. His voyage in 1732 to the Low Countries was his first visit to continental Europe and, as stated by Highmore’s son-in-law John Duncombe, was undertaken chiefly to view the Elector Palatine’s Gallery at Düsseldorf “collected by Rubens, and supposed the best in Europe.” Duncombe continues, regarding Sir Peter Paul Rubens: “At Antwerp also he had peculiar pleasure in contemplating the works of his favourite master.”[1] Highmore returned to the continent two years later, this time to Paris, and his journal for this trip survives.[2]

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Fig.1. Joseph Highmore, Self-portrait, c.1730. Oil on canvas, 126.4 x 101 cm. Felton Bequest, 1947, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Image Courtesy of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Highmore spent eleven weeks away from London, departing from the Tower on Sunday 13 June 1734 and returning on Tuesday 24 August.[3] A majority of this time was spent in Paris itself and its environs. Highmore’s unguarded reactions to what he saw, as recounted in this unedited and private format, are by turns extremely admiring and highly critical. Further, the journal recalls what captured Highmore’s particular attention, either in the moment or soon after, and as such the references fluctuate between structured sentences and enigmatic single-word jottings. The prominence of Flemish art, specifically Rubens, in his choice of itinerary and corresponding notations suggests that the Paris trip acted, in part, as an adjunct to his earlier experiences in the Low Countries. However and crucially, given the focus of the present collection of essays, Highmore’s itinerary also demonstrates a specific interest in meeting prominent members of the Académie Royale (located in the Louvre from 1692 onwards) and viewing examples of recent “modern” and contemporary French art. This second strand is my focus here. I will conclude by briefly considering how Highmore’s time in Paris may have influenced his art practice on return.

To read the whole article click here.