13 December, 2016

Then And Now: A Walk Through Historic British Paintings

Richard E.Grant and Gus-Casely-Hayford Go Boating. Sky.

Tate Britain has teamed up with Sky Arts to give you “Tate Britain’s Great British Walks”. Airing in 2017, the show brings together six celebrities with art historian Gus Casely-Hayford as they look at the stories and places behind their favourite British paintings. In the process they’ll examine how contemporary life still reflects the attitude within which they were made. Those planning to participate are Richard E. Grant, Simon Callow and Michael Sheen. “I thought I knew Britain, but seeing it through an artist’s eyes was like seeing it for the very first time,” Casely-Hayford said. “Stepping into worlds created by some of our greatest landscape painters and walking the very paths that they once trod has changed the way that I feel about our country.”
What the series will showcase is how, although the customs may have changed, the essential British character of certain places is the same, the painting and the modern equivalents seemingly frozen in time. In anticipation of the series, which will run from 22 February to 29 March 2017, we have taken a look at four of these works and paired them with contemporary pictures to see how British paintings have a certain quality of preserving the national mood.