Alison Smith (curator)

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Alison Smith (born 1962) is director of collections and research at the Wallace Collection, [1] having previously been chief curator at the National Portrait Gallery, London from 2017 until 2024. Before that she spent eighteen years at Tate Britain working as a curator of nineteenth-century British art. [2]

Contents

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

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<i>Youth on the Prow, and Pleasure at the Helm</i> Painting by William Etty

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<i>The Wrestlers</i> (Etty) c. 1840 painting of two wrestlers by William Etty

The Wrestlers is an oil painting on millboard by English artist William Etty, painted around 1840 and currently in the York Art Gallery, in York, England. It depicts a wrestling match between a black man and a white man, both glistening with sweat and under an intense light emphasising their curves and musculature. While little documentation of the painting exists prior to 1947, it is likely that it was painted over a period of three evenings at the life class of the Royal Academy.

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<i>The World Before the Flood</i> 1828 painting by William Etty

The World Before the Flood is an oil-on-canvas painting by the English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1828 and currently in the Southampton City Art Gallery. It depicts a scene from John Milton's Paradise Lost in which, among a series of visions of the future shown to Adam, he sees the world immediately before the Great Flood. The painting illustrates the stages of courtship as described by Milton: a group of men select wives from a group of dancing women, drag their chosen woman from the group, and settle down to married life. Behind the courting group, an oncoming storm looms, foreshadowing the destruction which the dancers and lovers are about to bring upon themselves.

<i>Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret</i> Painting by William Etty

Britomart Redeems Faire Amoret is an oil painting on canvas by English artist William Etty, first exhibited in 1833 and now in Tate Britain. Intended to illustrate the virtues of honour and chastity, it depicts a scene from Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene in which the female warrior Britomart slays the evil magician Busirane and frees his captive, the beautiful Amoret. In Spenser's original poem Amoret has been tortured and mutilated by the time of her rescue, but Etty disliked the depiction of violence and portrayed her as unharmed.

Richard Dorment, is a British art historian and exhibition organiser. He worked as chief art critic for The Daily Telegraph from 1986 until 2015.

References

  1. "Wallace Collection Trustees Minutes" (PDF). Retrieved 1 January 2025.
  2. "Female Voices in Art: Alison Smith" . Retrieved 1 January 2025.