A Grand Tour!
aka: Your Summer fix of Wright History is now available!
Team Wrightington, selecting the destinations for our
Summer Spectacular Grand Tour
aka: Thomas Rowlandson, Dr. Syntax leading a lady to the entrance of a grand mansion (apparently designed for 'The Tour of Dr. Syntax in Search of the Picturesque, but not included), C19 1/4
London, Victoria & Albert Museum, Dyce Collection, DYCE.808, at https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1140075/the-tour-of-dr-syntax-watercolour-rowlandson-thomas/
Katharine Read, British Gentlemen in Rome, ca. 1750,
New Haven, CT, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, B1981.25.272: https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:767
We’ve had some requests for a Short & Sweet on the Grand Tour. Those of you who’ve encountered this phenomenon will, I suspect, agree that this would be a super course, but as many of you will have had Robert’s thoughts thereon from various angles on previous courses, we weren’t sure how to come up with enough new material to make it worthwhile for all.
If you’ve not yet come across the Grand Tour, it was essentially a fashionable part of a wealthy gentleman’s education and diversion in the late seventeenth to early nineteenth centuries. Generations of wealthy British and northern European tourists sought the exotic, taking in the sights and adventures of must-see destinations in Europe and beyond.
Loath, as always, to disappoint our loyal Denizens, we decided to go even better than a Short & Sweet… and lo!
Whether you are literally travelling or not this summer, welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to your Summer Fix of Wright History, in the form of our very own Grand Tour!
First up, 2024’s 7 week Summer Spectacular will explore the history, art and architecture of seven of our favourite palaces…
The Great Palaces: Worlds of power and wonder
Our traditional “first Saturdays of the month” Short & Sweet for August will take us to La Belle France, where we’ll revel in her glorious light, sights, and colour via the works of one of our favourite Impressionists…
Next, we embark on a medieval tour of marvels, following in the footsteps of an intrepid explorer - less well-known than the slightly earlier traveller, Marco Polo, but whose adventures took him much much further afield…
Ibn Battuta: The first global tourist?
Our final summer course will provide us with a salacious (and often gory!) stop-off point on our “homebound” journey, just before we hit autumn…
The Borgias: Sex, power, and blood all over the place
Nuff said on this one, I suspect!!
We hope that you’re as excited about our Grand Tour’s itinerary as we are!
(And yes - all sessions will be recorded, and therefore available to watch on catch-up at your leisure.)
Shameless? Moi??
NB Should your appetite for things Grand Tour-related have been whetted, you may be interested to know that it will have a cameo role in our upcoming Hogarth, Gillray, and Daumier: The not-so-subtle art of satire Short & Sweet, during which Robert will introduce you to Dr Syntax (featured in the image at the top of this post), who is the hero of William Combe’s satire on the Milordi, illustrated by Thomas Rowlandson.
To see all of our currently-available courses in calendar order, click here.