‘Drawings’ is a collaborative venture combining two exhibitions that have been timed to coincide: British Drawings: 1890-1990 at Sotheran’s and Drawings 1990-2022 at Purdy Hicks Gallery. Both shows emphasise the importance of drawing to artists of the last 120 years: though many of the artists have used myriad other art forms, they have invariably returned to the honesty of drawing, time and time again.The artists reflect their times. The artists from 1890-1980 are very much associated with strong schools of thought. One school in particular, the Slade School of Fine Art, dominates. Its rigorous process of drawing underpins much that we see, but is of course interpreted differently artist by artist. There was most definitely a British School, and in terms of drawing its greatest, though largely unacknowledged, triumph can be found in the remarkable works produced by the artists of the British School at Rome with their use of drawing techniques dating back to the Renaissance. This catalogue contains outstanding examples by Winifred Knights, Evelyn Gibbs, Anne Newland, Thomas Monnington, Robert Austin, Alan Sorrell and Reginald Brill. Slade student Winifred Knights exemplified the teachings of Henry Tonks, (Professor of Fine Art at the Slade from 1918 to 1930), with her observation of nature and meticulous methodology, working through endless studies, which were in turn painstakingly transferred to create finished works. Gilbert Spencer, another of the Professor’s students, recalled how Tonks talked of dedication, the privilege of being an artist, that to do a bad drawing was like living with a lie, and he proceeded to implant these ideals by ruthless and withering criticism. I remember once coming home and feeling like flinging myself under a train, and Stan telling me not to mind as he did it to everyone.Methodology aside, many of the artists in this catalogue share common traits – an obsession with the minutiae of nature, an unbreakable attachment to landscape, an immersion in the narrative tradition, and an inability to resist humour and affection for the quirky and mundane.

From antiquity, when the Great Pyramid was revered as a wonder of the ancient world, to the Cleopatra of Shakespeare’s stage, and from the medieval Arab scholars who sought hieroglyphs’ mystical wisdom, to the biblical stories still told today, Visions of Ancient Egypt explores how ongoing engagement with ancient Egypt has shaped centuries of art and design. Accompanying a ground-breaking exhibition, it unpicks the constructed fantasies of this ancient civilisation and charts how ancient Egypt’s iconic motifs and visual style have been re-imagined over time – revealing not just an enduring artistic fascination with Egypt, but a story of how Egypt’s own heritage has been reinvented and appropriated by different cultures over time, and a history closely entwined with imperial conquest and colonial politics. Beautifully illustrated throughout and with contributions by leading scholars, this book explores the imagined construction of ancient Egypt promoted through painting, sculpture, photography, architecture and film, as well as design, fashion and jewellery. It traces the journey across time, beginning with the ancient Romans who looted Egyptian monuments and adopted Egyptian gods into their Pantheon; to Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt, and the elite taste for all things Egyptian it prompted; as well as the Victorian creation of an Orientalist fantasy popularised at World Fairs. Presented in a nuanced way, the story is not Eurocentric. For the first time, it also places Egypt’s own story firmly into the narrative, exploring for example Egyptian artists’ responses to nationalist calls for independence spurred by the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, while also addressing the popular impact of the ‘Tutmania’ craze in the West and its influence on Art Deco. The book also examines the enduring appeal of ancient Egypt in global contemporary art, across media from painting and sculpture, to film and multimedia installations. Artists both within and beyond Egypt continue to look to its ancient imagery to make statements about heritage, identity and race. The book invites readers to debate and to discuss this complex history of the construction of ancient Egypt in art and design, and to ask who these visions serve – both then and now.