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On Sunday 13 July, the Tempo Half Marathon will begin and end at Compton Verney.

Please note that we are still open to visitors on this day, however there will be a rolling road block in the morning, and the site may be busier than usual due to this event so please allow yourself more time to travel.

Georgian Portraits: Seeing is Believing

20 May 2009 – 13 December 2009

About the
exhibition

This display of portraits, on loan from the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath, presented a unique opportunity to see highlights from their collection, including works by Thomas Barker, Arthur Devis, Angelica Kauffman, Allan Ramsay, Henry Raeburn, George Stubbs and Richard Cosway.

While wealthy patrons continued to have their portraits painted as symbols of class and status, the Georgian era saw portraiture enter a golden age of realism and glamour.

With the popularity of landscape architects such as Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, nature also found its way into portraiture. Parkland and gardens, previously only seen through the windows of the great estates, became the setting for new conversation pieces – whether fanciful depictions of Arcadia or the grand backdrops to the patron’s country manor.