On Monday, the Lower Sixth Art students visited the Royal Academy of Arts and National Portrait Gallery in London to seek inspiration for their coursework research.

Kate Sutton and Sophie Harrington-Law (Lower Sixth) reflected on the visit: “The trip started with a visit to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Pre-Raphaelite Sisters exhibition, which celebrates the contribution that the 12 woman behind the portraits had on the movement. ‘These women actively helped form the Pre-Raphaelite movement as we know it. It is time to acknowledge their agency and explore their contributions.

“The Pre-Raphaelite exhibition was brimming with beauty and imagination, raging against the more historic and artificial portraiture that came before it. It was fascinating to see the stories behind the women who were perhaps overlooked. They were not only muses but also painters and artists from very different backgrounds. From Fanny Eaton who was Jamaican in heritage, to the poet Christina Rossetti. The intense and glossy colours, kinetic movement and composition within the artwork and strikingly wistful models made for a distinctive and soulful exhibition. You gained a real sense of the tight knit circle of artists and poets that composed the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood, along with the conventions and boundaries of typical art they sought to challenge.

“We then moved onto the Royal Academy of Arts to explore the Lucian Freud exhibition, which focused on his self-portraiture work, which spans his whole career starting from his early teenage years. It was fascinating to see how his technique developed over the years.”