by Alexandra Harris | Aug 15, 2026 | Essays
I introduce a new edition of Mary Chamberlain’s landmark work of rural and social history. Fenwomen: A Portrait of Women in an English Village is now reissued in a 50th anniversary edition. “Fenwomen catches with extraordinary vividness the routines and...
by Alexandra Harris | Jan 15, 2026 | Essays
JMW Turner’s ethereal landscapes are works of conceptual collage – yet the magic of his painting came from his keen observation of light and scenery. This essay for Tate tries to fathom his strange powers. “Harnessing the visual language he revised and honed...
by Alexandra Harris | Oct 15, 2025 | Essays
An essay for the Royal Academy celebrating the lucid watercolours of Turner’s great friend and rival. “The White House at Chelsea is particular and intimate, yet so simple as to have an abstract and universal quality. It’s a secular revelation. Any humble...
by Eamonn Boylan | Nov 11, 2024 | Essays
A long-read for royalacademy.org.uk, drawing on research in the RA archive and thinking about the relationship between fine art, design, and the objects we want to take home. ‘…A 1993 visit to Terry Frost in Cornwall produced a particularly long list of...
by Alexandra Harris | Jun 15, 2024 | Essays
Painting the wildness of nature in the midst of her domestic garden, Jean Cooke made works that revealed her freedom of spirit. This appreciation was published in the Royal Academy magazine, responding to an illuminating show at the Garden Museum.
by Eamonn Boylan | Apr 4, 2024 | Essays
Royal Academy of Arts Magazine, Spring 2024. “Her name was heard in the coffee houses and parlours of London before she arrived. Angelica Kauffman: a young painter in Italy who was coming to England. Prodigiously talented, it was said. She was Swiss, apparently,...
