Dr Agata Dworzak spent a month in London, staying at the Trust’s Highgate house and working on a post-doctoral research project entitled ‘Artistic Practice in the field of Early Modern Sculpture/Architecture, with particular reference to Prints and Publications held in British Collections’. Dr agata  addressed the following report to the Trust’s Co-ordinator, Howard Davies following her stay.

I want to thank you for all you have done for me and also thank the Trust for the opportunity. This month in London was a special and wonderful time for me! As I have never been to England before, everything was new for me and you made it very easy for me to adapt.

Agata in the Trust’s highgate house.

During this time I visited three libraries (The Warburg, The British Library and National Art Library at the V&A), I scanned pages from over 80 books, which are crucial to my research and not available in Poland. It was a great aid for me and will help me to improve my research on early modern sculpture, architecture and artistic patronage in the 17th and 18th century. Since the history of art is a comparative science, it’s essential that I can compare the mechanisms of Polish and European art within a broad context.

Scanning underway at the Warburg Institute.

In my free time I visited several museums, some of them more than once, including V&A, The British Museum, National Gallery, The Wallace Collection, Tate Modern, Buckingham Palace, the Museum of London (a great museum! It made me understand the topography of London), Sir John Soane’s Museum, Tower Hill (from now on, my favourite monument in London) and Westminster Abbey (for me, as I specialise in early modern sculpture, the complex of tombstones in the cathedral is invaluable). To see, to feel the artworks in real life, not in books or the internet, is very important for me as an art historian. It’s a whole different experience. And I also took a lot of pictures, which I will use during my lectures. In fact, some of them from The British Museum, I will use tomorrow in my lecture on Greek and Roman Art 🙂

Agata at Buckingham Palace.

And not because of my job, but only from my pleasure and my love for 2nd World War planes I visited The RAF Museum and also The Natural History Museum (my childhood love for dinosaurs still stands).

London as a city is extraordinary and I am very grateful that I was able to walk through it and discover its beauty and monuments. It was also a great adventure for me to see, and be in places which I know from TV and books.

Agata in Notting Hill.

Once again I want to thank you for your hospitality and help.

I also want to thank the Trust, for making it possible and for giving me this opportunity. I am very grateful for that! Thank you for your generosity. I hope that I will be able to come back to London in the future. There are still lots to see and lots to read in libraries 🙂