Patrons, Poets, Painters

Britons in Europe in the Age of the Grand Tour. David Blayney Brown, curator of the exhibition Grand Tourists to Turner, introduces the fascinating figures – aristocrats, adventurers, and poets – who shaped British art through the Grand Tour.

From patrons like William Lock and Lord Dartmouth to influential collectors such as Richard Payne Knight and William Beckford, these travellers supported artists by commissioning, inspiring, and accompanying them across Europe.

The lecture also explores how artists like J. M. W. Turner were influenced by these journeys, and how the Grand Tour lived on through memoirs, paintings, and poetry by figures including Lord Byron and Samuel Rogers.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), The Basilica of Constantine, Rome, 1819, gouache, pen and ink, graphite and watercolour on paper. Photo: Tate