Dining Room at Kirtlington Park, Oxfordshire 1742 - 1753

John Sanderson's "Dining Room at Kirtlington Park, Oxfordshire" is a detailed drawing that offers us a peek into the opulent world of 18th-century British aristocracy. Sanderson, working in a time of rigid social hierarchies, meticulously maps out the architecture of wealth and power. Here we see not just a room, but a stage set for the performance of class. The elaborate ornamentation, the symmetry, and the classical motifs, all speak to a desire for status, a visual language of dominance and refinement. Think about the enslaved people and exploited laborers, whose work funded and maintained such lavish displays. How might their stories echo within these carefully constructed walls? Sanderson’s drawing, in its precise detail, invites us to consider the labor and the lives that underwrote this vision of aristocratic life. It is at once a beautiful rendering and a stark reminder of the inequalities embedded in the very foundations of British society.