The Foreign Invention of British Art

From Renaissance to Enlightenment

Leslie Primo

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Hardback

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English

Thames & Hudson
01 June 2025

Art & Architecture; History of Art & Design Styles

A timely history of immigration, integration and national identity that reveals the true heritage behind some of the nation's defining artworks.

To truly understand British art is to recognize the pivotal contributions of the many foreign artists who have called Britain home. Traditional narratives have long obscured foreign influence, but this radical study challenges the notion of an exceptional or exclusive British culture, and in so doing rewrites the history of Renaissance and Enlightenment-era art.

Broadcaster and lecturer Leslie Primo expertly places art history in the wider political contexts of xenophobia and influence, addressing both foreign artists working in Britain and British-born artists affected by foreign cultures. From Hans Holbein to Artemisia Gentileschi, from William Hogarth to Angelica Kauffman, familiar masters and lesser-known creators are situated within the multiculturalism inherent to, yet commonly dismissed by, the art world at this time.

Weaving together artists' experiences of both acclaim and adversity, The Foreign Invention of British Art not only demonstrates how immigration and diversification are so often the driving force behind creative innovation, but also reveals the true heritage behind some of the nation's defining artworks.

By: Leslie Primo
Imprint: Thames & Hudson
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 153mm,
Weight: 740g
ISBN: 9780500024010
ISBN 10: 0500024014
Pages: 352
Publication Date: 01 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Leslie Primo is an independent art historian specializing in early to late medieval and Renaissance art. He has presented several art history programmes for the BBC and regularly lectures at the National Portrait Gallery, Imperial College London, Arts Society and other leading institutions. Primo's commitment to interrogating the historical canon and championing inclusive narratives continues through this book, his first with Thames & Hudson.

Reviews for The Foreign Invention of British Art: From Renaissance to Enlightenment

A timely celebration of multiculturalism . . . British art historian and lecturer Primo . . . argu[es] persuasively that the 'new artistic sensibility' that eventually became known as the British school of art could not have developed without the influx of artists from abroad . . . Born in Britain as a person of color with Caribbean heritage, Primo informs his study with a deep sensitivity to the xenophobia and discrimination that incomers still experience in British society.-- ""Kirkus Reviews""