James Gunn (1893-1964) was a British painter renowned for his evocative landscapes and portraits that reflect a keen understanding of light and color. His early works were characterized by a traditional approach, but he later embraced modernist influences, blending impressionistic techniques with a deep appreciation for naturalism. His landscape paintings, often inspired by the Scottish Highlands, capture the dramatic interplay of light and atmosphere, drawing parallels to the works of contemporaries like John Duncan Fergusson and the Scottish Colorists.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Gunn gained recognition through exhibitions at prestigious institutions, including the Royal Academy and the Royal Scottish Academy. His portraits, often infused with a psychological depth, showcase his ability to convey character and emotion, making him a sought-after artist among the social elite of his time.
In 1734, a group of young British gentlemen, all alumni of the Grand Tour in Italy, formed a dining club in London. Calling themselves the Society of Dilettanti (from the Italian dilettare, to take delight), this close-knit association transformed classical antiquity from a private pleasure to a public benefit by sponsoring archaeological expeditions, forming collections, and publishing influential books on ancient architecture and sculpture. Generous sponsors of expeditions to Greece, the Ionian coast of Asia Minor, and the Middle East—regions then still largely unknown to Continental travelers—the Society published lavish folios that set unprecedented standards for objective archaeological research.
The Dilettanti met in a series of taverns, throughout during the eighteenth-century active consideration was given to buying or constructing a building of their own, for use as meeting rooms and as a museum for their collection. A site in Cavendish Square was bought in 1747, but the plan had been abandoned by 1756 and the land was sold. The scheme was revived in 1761, when Sir Frances Dashwood approached George III for a site in Green Park, but this was unsuccessful. For most of the century, from 1757, the society met five times a year at the Star and Garter in Pall Mall.
Taking inspiration from such groups as the libertine Hell Fire Clubs, the esoteric Freemasons, and the Arcadian Academy in Rome, the Dilettanti carried out traditional rituals in rooms hung with witty portraits by George Knapton and Sir Joshua Reynolds. The president draped himself in a scarlet toga and sat in a mahogany armchair called the “sella curulis,” after the official chair occupied by Roman consuls. Formal dinners, held four times a year, the centerpiece of the table is still the mid-18th-century carved chest called the Tomb of Bacchus and the elaborately carved ballot box of the same date used in Reynolds's day. Reynolds was in a position to appreciate the ethos of the society because he was a member, one of a long line of distinguished painters that includes Thomas Lawrence, Frederic Leighton, John Singer Sargent, and, nowadays, David Hockney.