6 pm reception
6:30 pm lecture

After gaining his artistic training in Rome, William Kent returned to an England that was enjoying a period of stability and wealth. This time of peace provided the opportunity for royal patrons and gentry politicians, both men and women, to establish new friendships, titles, and estates—or stabilize old ones. In this lecture, Clarissa Campbell Orr will discuss the context of architecture and landscape design during the reigns of George I and George II that was supported by a culture of polite sociability and cosmopolitan horizons.

Clarissa Campbell Orr is a historian who teaches at Anglia Ruskin University. She is a contributor to the William Kent exhibition catalogue.

This program is presented in collaboration with the Royal Oak Foundation.