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Exhibitions

William Kent was an ideas man - the Damien Hirst of the 18th century

Visit Kent’s great gardens rather than this V&A exhibition if you want a more accurate impression of this ‘father of modern gardening’

12 April 2014

9:00 AM

12 April 2014

9:00 AM

William Kent: Designing Georgian Britain

Victoria and Albert Museum, until 13 July

How important is William Kent (1685–1748)? He’s not exactly a household name and yet this English painter and architect, apprenticed to a Hull coach-painter before he was sent to Italy (as a kind of cultural finishing school) by a group of patrons who recognised his abilities, became the chief architectural impresario and interior decorator to the early Georgian nobility.

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