Popular Entertainment in British Art: 1880-1945

Dr Jason Price’s project Popular Entertainment in British Art: 1880-1945 looks at the relationships and exchanges that took place between high and low cultural forms from 1880 to 1945, focusing particularly on the ways in which popular entertainments influenced the style and content of artistic practices such as painting and sculpture.

It was during this period in Britain that popular entertainments such as music hall, pantomime, seaside Pierrot shows, and café-concerts reached their commercial and popular peak. As well as the general public, many of these performance forms developed a following of British artists, several of whom began to make the performances, stars and venues they witnessed the subject of their art. Artists that drew upon popular entertainments in their work include Michael Ayrton, Spencer Gore, Gerald Kelly, Laura Knight, Walter Sickert, Thérèse Lessore, and Rowley Smart.

While many of the artistic works created by visual artists working with popular source materials continue to enjoy familiarity with the public due to their prominence in major national and international collections and exhibitions, the same cannot be said of the popular performers and acts they depicted. In many instances, a painting of a formerly high-profile popular performer may be the only public remnant available to evidence their former significance. A key aim of this research, therefore, is to recover details about the lives and practices of the entertainers who have long left the public’s memory to better understand the appeal they held for audiences and artists. This five-year project will culminate in a book and public exhibition.