From Palaces of Art to the Studios of Bohemia: Artists’ Houses in Victorian Kensington and Chelsea, by Jo Banham

Tuesday 12th March 2024, 7pm – 8.30pm

Successful Victorian artists, like Leighton and Luke Fildes, earned incomes that meant they were able to commission magnificent, purpose-built studio houses in the leafy suburbs of Holland Park and Kensington. The less wealthy and more unconventional, like Rossetti and Whistler, gravitated towards Chelsea, occupying picturesque old buildings in the area. This lecture reviews the two most famous artists’ colonies – Melbury Road, Kensington and Cheyne Walk and Tite Street, Chelsea – and explores the lives and interiors of the painters who lived there.

Jo Banham is a freelance curator, lecturer and writer. Previously she worked at the V&A, National Portrait Gallery, and Tate Britain as Head of Public Programmes. She is currently writing a book on the History of Wallpaper.