28/09/2021 – 30/11/2021
The Enlightenment was a watershed moment in European history, society and culture. Individual merit, thought and emotion were celebrated by thinkers such as Rousseau, Kant, Voltaire and Hume, challenging the established order, and economic power was slowly passing into the hands of a new, industrial class. Such upheavals inevitably generated new explorations in the arts – a fresh look at Nature in paint and country estates, projects for philanthropy as well as private splendour, and, in portraiture, a rising class and new family values.