Sarah Grant – författare

This comprehensive book brings to light the portraits, private collections and public patronage of the princesse de Lamballe, a pivotal member of Marie-Antoinette’s inner circle. Drawing extensively on unpublished archival sources, Sarah Grant examines the princess’s many portrait commissions and the rich character of her private collections, which included works by some of the period’s leading artists and artisans. The book sheds new light on the agency, sorority and taste of Marie-Antoinette and her friends, a group of female patrons and model of courtly collecting that would be extinguished by the coming revolution.

This comprehensive book brings to light the portraits, private collections and public patronage of the princesse de Lamballe, a pivotal member of Marie-Antoinette’s inner circle. Drawing extensively on unpublished archival sources, Sarah Grant examines the princess’s many portrait commissions and the rich character of her private collections, which included works by some of the period’s leading artists and artisans. The book sheds new light on the agency, sorority and taste of Marie-Antoinette and her friends, a group of female patrons and model of courtly collecting that would be extinguished by the coming revolution.

Hero is an exploration of the role of the storyteller and the relationships artists have between the two halves of themselves: the crowd-fronting persona and the person behind the curtain. Through the lens of filmmaking and framed by the 17-step Monomyth (sometimes called “The Hero’s Journey” as theorised in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero With 1000 Faces) “Hero” is a collection about the pressure to follow the story path laid out before us and the urge to break the mould and just be.

As the collection progresses the poems themselves rebel against and shuck off the restrictive monomyth, breaking free of the prescribed narrative “happy ending” mentality for one of peace and balance and wellness.