Hogarth: Life in Progress is one of Waterstones “Best Books to Look Out for in 2021”

Hogarth: Life in Progress has been included in Waterstones prestigious list as The Best Books to Look Out for in 2021. Waterstones says “The definitive life of the profoundly influential early-Georgian satirist, Hogarth paints a vivacious portrait of a complex, larger-than-life figure and the bustling, corrupt and degenerate London that he so savagely documented.”

NEW Hogarth publication klaxon! “Hogarth: Place & Progress”

This brilliant, fully illustrated catalogue has been published to accompany the Sir John Soane’s Museum exhibition, which is now open until 5 January 2020. Included is my chapter on Hogarth’s little-known, unfinished series “The Happy Marriage” (see below The Staymaker painted after 1745, Tate) entitled ‘Rewards of Virtue: Hogarth’s The Happy Marriage’ pp.42-51. You can buy it online here priced £24.95.

Confirmed Peterloo Events in 2019

May 9 – Chipping Campden Literature Festival

May 11 – Voices from the Past: Peterloo and New Historical Fiction Conference organised by the Open University at the People’s History Museum

June 1 – Derby Book Festival

June 13 – Chetham’s Library, Manchester

June 22 – Wimpole History Festival

June 30 – Bradford Literature Festival

July 13 – Buxton International Festival

July 17 – Palace of Westminster

August 13 – The National Archives (Kew)

August 14 – Oldham Library

August 15 – Manchester Histories Festival Peterloo 2019

August 16 – National Portrait Gallery

August 19 – Edinburgh International Book Festival

Peterloo Events Oct to Dec 2018

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

“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

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

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

‘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.

‘Jacobites’ Bloomsbury USA out 5 July 2016

9781608198047

Buy now at Amazon 

Reviews for Jacobites USA:

“[Riding] unflinchingly describes the consequences for those who supported the rebellion. The use of contemporary accounts, especially from women, offers a different and compelling perspective to events, resulting in a persuasive work geared toward 21st-century readers. Even-handed, refreshingly free of jargon, and organized into short, succinct chapters focused on geographic location that make the book read like a thoroughly researched adventure story, this work will appeal to the lay reader while also being an ideal resource for a Scottish history course.” – starred review, Library Journal

“[Riding] maintains objectivity . . . making this work unusual among the many passionate and patriotism-tinged treatments of the oft-romanticized prince . . . Throughout, Riding seamlessly incorporates journal entries, letters, and other primary sources [and] effectively shows why Bonnie Prince Charlie’s once-great hopes . . . continue to inspire the romanticization of his legend centuries later.” – Publishers Weekly

“Given the popular sentimentality of her subject 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.” – Catholic Herald

“Jacqueline Riding’s Jacobites brilliantly captures the extraordinary daring of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s ’45, and takes us step-by-step to the final disaster at Culloden. This is the definitive modern account of the Jacobite Rising.” – George Goodwin, author of Benjamin Franklin in London (Yale 2016)