A new exhibition at Hampton Court Palace is exploring the standards of beauty around the royal court and how those can be explored in a modern context.
“Permissible Beauty” opened at Hampton Court Palace last week in the Communication Gallery and Cartoon Gallery. The exhibition features the “Windsor Beauties”, a set of portraits by British artist Sir Peter Lely featuring several women from the court of Charles II. Anne Hyde, the first wife of Charles’s younger brother (the future King James II) commissioned the paintings.
Known as the Windsor Beauties for their original hanging location at Windsor Castle, the paintings are now held by the Royal Collection and have been loaned to Historic Royal Palaces for the exhibition.
“Permissible Beauty” explores the very narrow standards of female beauty in the seventeenth-century court by juxtaposing them with old and new pieces. A seventeenth-century portrait of Lady Frances Stuart dressed in masculine clothing challenges these standards in the period.
Several new portraits of Black British Queer artists have been commissioned for this exhibition, with artist Robert Taylor’s work on display. Taylor worked with historian, singer-songwriter, and artist David McAlmont, Professor Richard Sandell (RCMG, University of Leicester), and Mark Thomas (Soup Collective) to curate the exhibition.
Of the project Taylor says,
“Co-creating Permissible Beauty has been a joyful and incredibly satisfying learning process that has invigorated my sense of what it is to be Black British and Queer… The cherished centre of the whole enterprise has been the revelatory experience of working with our six remarkable subjects: Ebony, Le Gateau, Karnage, Lius, Tutu and Winn. I feel privileged to have witnessed their notably various, thoughtful and inspiring takes on the subject of beauty, and the complicated business of finding ways to thrive, as themselves, in a challenging landscape.”
“Permissible Beauty” is on at Hampton Court Palace until 26 February 2023, and admission is included in ticket prices. Hampton Court Palace is currently open from Wednesday to Sunday from 10:00 to 16:00.
Historic Royal Palaces is a registered charity that manages six historic properties: Hampton Court Palace, the Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Kew Gardens, Banqueting House, and Hillsborough Gardens.
