With the composite portrait project, Permissible Beauty, Robert Taylor – photographer – and David McAlmont – art historian and recording artiste – sourced inspiration from a 17th century collection of portraits by Peter Lely – the Windsor Beauties – for a new composite portraiture series. Commissioned by Anne Hyde – Duchess of York – the Windsor Beauties are on permanent exhibition in the Communications Corridor at Hampton Court Palace courtesy of the Royal Collections Trust and upheld as a standard of 17th century beauty. In a collaboration with Historic Royal Palaces and University of Leicester Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, Robert and David’s bid to create a new chapter in British Beauty led to an installation at the palace, a short film and a new collection of portraits by Robert. While Lely painted the courtly women of Anne Hyde’s circle for the king’s pleasure, Permissible Beauty began with Black British drag queens but expanded into a more complex examination of Black, queer Britons. David and Robert discuss their project in The Beauty Permit.
David McAlmont is a recording artiste, art historian and Studio Master at the Architectural Association Interprofessional studio. He is a Birkbeck College and Middlesex University alumnus (History of Western Art and Architecture and Performing Arts). He is a keynote speaker at Historic Royal Palaces ‘Crown to Couture’ exhibition closing conference (September 2023), author of the ‘Permissible Beauty’ film (“Highly commended:” Museums and Heritage Association; Wellcome Collection’s The Cult of Beauty exhibition – October 2023). Recent works include the album Happy Ending (a Louder Than War “Album of the year so far,”) with Hifi Sean, and an article on the history of the word “Ghetto” for Mousse magazine and Ghetto Redux from Shifting Visions and the Florence Medici Society (January 2024). He is currently developing a Jacques Louis David project for 2025.
Robert Taylor came to photography via the British Royal Air Force, the English Bar, and publishing adventures in Nigeria. His work, exhibited and published widely, is held in several permanent collections including the National Portrait Gallery, the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Royal Society, and several Oxbridge colleges. His work has always been divided between two disparate realms: portrait collections commissioned by major academic and scientific institutions, while his personal work is mostly in exploration and celebration of identity, beauty, and the joys of aesthetics. For the last 15 years he’s specialised in collections of portraits of women of outstanding achievement in academe and STEM. Other active interests include rehabilitation through the arts in UK prisons, jewellery, and collecting art.
Organised by The Research Forum as part of the Open Courtauld strand and Research Forum series.
