Sarah Stone and the Holophusicon as a creative space

In the Nineteenth Century with Lara Nicholls by Lara Nicholls

Episode notes

Based on my research to date, this recording explores the practice of British eighteenth-century natural history artist Sarah Stone. It suggests that her patron's eccentric museum located in Leicester Fields, London was a highly creative space for her. I reveal new biographical information about Stone and establish that she was an artist of the Metropole and one of the first women painters to take part in the burgeoning fashionable practice of sketching and painting in museums. Contrary to views that women artists in the eighteenth century practised as amateurs, Stone had at least three patrons and was clearly working as a professional artist. In fact, she may have been one of the first women artists to be given what we would call today a solo exhibition. Today, her work is located in galleries and museums in England, Australia and the USA.

Keywords
historyartnineteenth centuryfeminismsarah stonewomen artists