Dr Bendor Grosvenor FRHistS
@bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social
Art historian. New book The Invention of British Art, out now.
For The Art Newspaper, I wrote about writing about art.
I’m interested in how a career politician who owns a controlling stake in, and is a director of, a political party of which he is also President, can describe himself as ‘not actively involved in politics’. Can anyone help?
Today on the Royal Academy connoisseurship course, we took students to the British Museum’s wonderful Prints and Drawings room. One task was to show why one of these drawings is by Raphael, and the other a copy. Try yourself!
To London with a car full of pictures for my annual connoisseurship course at the Royal Academy. Ninth year I’ve taught it.
Two major omissions from Blair's essay: decline in UK manufacturing, and house price inflation. Both were happening when he was PM, and explain many of our problems today. He has no solution for it now, because he let it happen then.
I wrote for the Art Newspaper on why charging 'foreigners' for museum entry can't practically work. www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/05/27/c...
Comment | The flaws in the plan to charge entry to British museums
The end of free universal museum entry risks deterring visitors and creating a two-tier system
theartnewspaper.com
Began work today on the paperback of The Invention of British Art.
What did you think of the recent 'AI identifies Anne Boleyn' story? The claim (in a new Nature article, link in 🧵) is that the drawing on the left is wrongly labelled as Anne, and the drawing on the right is more likely her, based on AI and facial recognition. 1/
Me and my big mouth. #ifyouseeitsayit
Amazing price for this fragment of an Artemisia Gentileschi at Dorotheum - €837,500. If you’ve got the missing bit, ‘come on down…’
A fine example of the North Eastern Railway tile maps of c.1910. Then, you could steam to Berwick-upon-Tweed from London in about 7 hours. Today (thanks to recent LNER timetable changes) it’s about 3hr50 mins, taking us back to journey times last seen in the late 1970s.
If Trump’s now fine with Iran charging for access to the Straits of Hormuz, perhaps we could get in on the action with the Strait of Dover. A little toll booth on the Goodwin Sands.
Happy Easter everyone. Snowing here.
This week we discuss the ‘De Ganay’ version of the Salvator Mundi - Leonardo, or just workshop? podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/w...
Andrew Graham-Dixon and yours truly talking art at Words by the Water in the Lake District. (Andrew’s book on Vermeer by the way is superb and well worth an order).
If you ever need a word to shake money out of tech VCs, try 'pyschographic'.
Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 5mo ago“Instead of paying humans to join focus groups and complete surveys, Aaru uses thousands of AI agents, or bots, to simulate human responses. It feeds demographic and psychographic information into its models to create human profiles that match clients’ needs…”
The ‘de Brecy Tondo’, once hailed by AI as an undoubted Raphael, has been quietly (and correctly) sold at auction as a later copy for £13k.
Next Thursday, 19th March, I'm talking at the King's Lynn festival, on The Invention of British Art. See you there! www.kingslynnfestival.org.uk/whats-on/tal...
Talk: Bendor Grosvenor on
kingslynnfestival.org.uk
My main conclusion from Gorton and Denton so far is that the punditocracy has little idea of what’s going on. They are as invested in, and connected to, the old system as the old parties.
Suspect the chance that something odiously fatal to the PM is found in the Mandelson documents have increased this morning. (And sacking the Cabinet Secretary responsible for handing the papers over might not have been too clever either).
Deep, deep joy that Goodwin isn’t an MP.
Our national embarrassments come thick and fast these days, but today I think Blair’s performance at Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ was even more cringe than the arrest of Mr M-W.
Wish I'd heard this before visiting Tate Turner Constable exh. Brilliant discussion of Constable which makes you look at his work with fresh eyes
Dr Bendor Grosvenor FRHistS@bendorgrosvenor.bsky.social · 6mo agoThis week on the podcast; what made John Constable great? I discuss with Susan Owens, author of the excellent new book, ‘Constable’s Seasons’. *(Waldy and Bendy’s Adventures in Art, on all the usual platforms.)
If you wanted to argue Britain is becoming an un-developing country, flying from Zurich Airport (runs like a Rolex, part state-owned) into Edinburgh Airport (grim, filthy, owned by BlackRock) would be a good place to start.
Goodness I feel sorry for all those figure skaters taking a tumble tonight. What pressure they must have been under. (And wasn’t the marking for Ilia a bit harsh? 15th??)
This week on the podcast; what made John Constable great? I discuss with Susan Owens, author of the excellent new book, ‘Constable’s Seasons’. *(Waldy and Bendy’s Adventures in Art, on all the usual platforms.)