Caricatures, Campagna, and Connoisseurs: Thomas Patch and the British Grand Tour in Eighteenth-Century Italy
October 16, 7-8 pm at the Lewis Walpole Library 154 Main Street, Farmington
Presented by Hugh Belsey, Guest Curator and Independent Scholar
Hugh Belsey, MBE, guest curator of the LWL’s autumn exhibition, is the former curator of Gainsborough’s House in Sudbury (UK) and author of the award-winning catalogue of portraits by Thomas Gainsborough.
The talk, presented in collaboration with the Farmington Libraries, will look at the work of artist Thomas Patch, the subject of the exhibition Caricatures, Campagna, and Connoisseurs: Thomas Patch and the British Grand Tour in Eighteenth-Century Italy. Known primarily as a caricature artist, Thomas Patch (1725-1782) was also a landscape painter, experimental printmaker, and a dealer of antiquities and old master paintings. The talk, like the exhibition, will explore the many aspects of Patch’s art, life, and associations with the British community of diplomats, tourists, artists, and collectors in Italy.
Space is limited and advance registration is required