Bought with Love: The Secret History of British Art Collections

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Helen Rosslyn

Franny Moyle

Lucy Swingler

Bought with Love: The Secret History of British Art Collections: Episode 3: The Age of the Individual

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Episode 3

Episode 3: The Age of the Individual

The Age of the Individual

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How the booming 19th-century economy saw philanthropic industrialists buying great art.

How collecting reached its maturity in the 19th century when the booming economy encouraged philanthropic industrialists to spend their fortunes on art.

Helen Rosslyn explores how collecting reached its maturity in the 19th century when unprecedented wealth from Britain's booming economy encouraged enlightened, philanthropic industrialists to spend their fortunes on art, and in many cases then donate their collections to the nation. 

With different taste from the British aristocracy who had dominated collecting to this point, a new breed of art buyer enriched Britain's cultural story by acquiring adventurous and often avant-garde work. Helen looks at the influence of pharmaceutical magnate Thomas Holloway, the Rothschild banking dynasty and the Welsh Davies sisters.

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Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media: Arts

Stories of the people who built Britain's national collection and shaped its art history.

Art historian Helen Rosslyn traces the stories of the people whose enthusiasm for art, sense of adventure and wealth built Britain's national collection and shaped the history of art of the nation.

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Bought with Love: The Secret History of British Art Collections

Episode 3: The Age of the Individual

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