During the 18^th and 19^th century, it was fashionable for wealthy British families to send their sons, and occasionally daughters, on a Grand Tour. This saw privileged young men and women setting off usually from London to travel across Europe. The tourists were affluent enough to spend multiple years on the Tour. They would often carry letters of introduction with them to integrate into society while abroad.

John Carr (1764-1817) and Harriet Carr (1771-1848) were siblings who set out on their Grand Tour in 1791, returning to England in 1794. They were the children of successful northern businessman Ralph Carr and his wife Isabella.

Ralph and Isabella were initially against Harriet going on the Grand Tour but eventually gave their approval because it was thought that the tour would benefit Harriet’s health – she had a cough thought to be tuberculosis. Some of their objections were around fears of the political situation in Europe and potential dangers to travellers. John and Harriet’s ultimate destination was Italy, travelling via France and Switzerland.

John and Harriet spent almost six months in Rome with short trips to Bologna, Florence, Naples, and Turin. They had planned to leave for England in early 1792 but the outbreak of the Franco-Austrian War prevented this. They returned to Florence in May 1792, staying there until November 1793. In December 1793 John and Harriet made a final visit to Rome before leaving for England and arriving home in the summer of 1794.  

Almost all of Harriet’s Grand Tour letters include reference to her interest in art and her efforts to improve her own artistic knowledge and skills.

Writing to her mother from Florence on 4^th August 1792 (ZCE F/1/1/4/4) Harriet describes how she goes ‘to the Gallery (which one does with as much ease as at one’s own House) & copy some of the Statues for 2 Hours; the rest of the day is spent in reading, writing, drawing’. The Gallery was the Uffizi, one of the must-see sights for the Grand Tourist in Florence.

In the letter Harriet lists some of the paintings she had made, a combination of copies of paintings she has viewed, places she has visited and portraits of people she has met on the Tour. She makes specific reference to a Titian painting ‘Venus blinding Cupid’, probably Venus Blindfolding Cupid, now in the Borghese Gallery in Rome.

The Cardsharps was painted in around 1594 by Italian Baroque artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

Caravaggio used everyday people as models, giving his art works a different look to religious paintings and portraits of wealthy influential figures of the time.

The painting shows a petty crime scene with the card players engaged in a game of primero. The young man on the left is expensively dressed and likely new to gambling. The young man is engrossed in his cards and is unaware of the older cardsharp in the middle glancing down at his hand and signalling to his accomplice on the right. The fingertips of the older cardsharp’s gloves are cut off, possibly to better feel marked cards. The younger cardsharp on the right has a dagger tucked into his belt and upon the signal is reaching for a hidden card behind his back.

Titian is regarded as one of the greatest painters of 16^th century Venice. Over his long career he experimented with many different painting styles. La Bella, sometimes known as ‘Portrait of a Lady’, was painted in around 1536.

The painting is a three-quarter length portrait shows a young woman wearing a fashionable, expensive-looking blue dress. Her garments and accessories are the same as those associated with mature Venetian noble ladies. She has a neutral facial expression and is shown to have the ‘ideal’ proportions of a Renaissance woman.

Although the model’s identity is unknown, it has been suggested that she is the same model who Titian used for his Venus of Urbino (1534) painting.