If you are travelling to London or planning a “stay-cation”, do not miss The Baron de Besenval in his Salon (1791) by Henri Pierre-Danloux at the National Gallery. In this fascinating portrait, the setting is as eloquent as the subject himself. The Baron is shown in his study, surrounded by Dutch and Flemish paintings, ormolu mounted porcelain, and other luxurious objects. The work is both a specific portrait and also a celebration of collecting, making it a fitting starting point for a Dickinson-inspired journey.

 

A few hours away in St Ives is the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden. Although the cast of River Form (1965) sold by Dickinson is now in a private collection, another version can be seen in the museum dedicated to one of Britain’s greatest twentieth-century sculptors.

The Hepworth museum offers an intimate glimpse into the artist’s creative mind. Surrounded by the garden where many of her sculptures were created, River Form embodies Hepworth’s fascination with the rhythms of nature and the Cornish landscape. The bronze curves highlight her ability to transform nature into abstract forms, making it an essential stop for anyone interested in modern British sculpture.

 

For anyone heading north to Edinburgh, the National Galleries of Scotland offer some of Dickinson’s most outstanding discoveries.

One of the museum’s greatest possessions is Sandro Botticelli’s The Virgin Adoring the Sleeping Christ Child (c. 1485). Although it is recognised as an autograph work by Botticelli today, for many years it was dismissed as a workshop copy. Dickinson played a pivotal role in its rediscovery before it was acquired by the National Galleries of Scotland in 1999. The acquisition was a momentous milestone in bringing one of Botticelli’s finest devotional paintings to a UK public collection, and it also demonstrated how careful scholarship can completely reshape the understanding and attribution of an artwork.

While you’re there, seek out Guercino’s Erminia Finding the Wounded Tancred (c. 1650), another painting that was purchased through Dickinson. The subject comes from Torquato Tasso’s epic poem Jerusalem Delivered, which recounts the First Crusade. Painted towards the end of his life, this work is widely regarded as one of Guercino’s greatest achievements of his late career.

 

At the Getty Museum, don’t miss Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s The Fountain of Love (1785), acquired in 1999. The painting depicts a young couple hurrying to drink from the legendary fountain whose waters promise love. Although the theme was a popular allegory during the eighteenth century, Fragonard distinguishes his interpretation by placing the lovers within an idealised classical landscape rather than a contemporary setting, creating a scene that is both playful and timeless.

Continue your visit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where Pompeo Batoni’s Portrait of Sir Wyndham Knatchbull-Wyndham(1758-59), reflects the importance of the Grand Tour for young British elites. Batoni became the portraitist of choice for Grand Tourists, often depicting his sitters surrounded by the sculptures and antiquities they had admired in Italy. Here, the young baronet and future Whig MP for Kent is presented against a backdrop of carefully chosen classical references that would have signalled both education and status to eighteenth-century viewers.

Just a forty-five minute drive away, the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens houses Francisco Goya’s Portrait of Jose Antonio Caballero (1807). Completed shortly before the Dos de Mayo Uprising, it was one of Goya’s final commissions from the Spanish government. The portrait captures both the dignity of its sitter and the psychological insight for which Goya would become known.

 

If your travels ever take you to Texas, the Kimbell Art Museum is an essential stop.

George Stubbs’ Mare and Foals (1761-62) is among the museum’s highlights. Widely regarded as the greatest painter of horses in European art, Stubbs combined impressive anatomical accuracy with elegant composition. Once owned by the Second Viscount Bolingbroke, the painting remains one of the Kimbell's most celebrated works, as well as one of Dickinson’s finest sales.

In the same gallery hangs Thomas Gainsborough’s Going to Market, Early Morning (1773), which was acquired through Dickinson in 2023. Although Gainsborough is best known for his portraits, his landscapes reveal an equally remarkable eye of nature. Here, idealised scenery is combined with images of everyday life, demonstrating how Gainsborough revolutionised British landscape painting by shifting from imagined settings to locally recognisable countryside.

These two paintings hang alongside a third masterpiece acquired from Dickinson: Sir Henry Raeburn’s The Allen Brothers (early1790s), acquired in 2002.

 

It is nearly impossible to see everything at the Rijksmuseum, so ensure you do not miss Jan Mostaert’s Landscape with an Episode from the Conquest of America (1535).

This painting is the earliest known depiction of the Spanish conquest of Central America and the Caribbean. Rather than documenting events accurately, as he never travelled to America, Mostaert imagined an exotic landscape populated with dramatic mountains and fantastical details that reveal how Europeans viewed the newly encountered Americas at this time. The painting also has a fascinating history. It once belonged to the Jewish Dutch art dealer Jacques Goudstikker, but it was looted by the Nazis and then restituted to his heirs in 2006. Dickinson later oversaw the sale to the Rijksmuseum, where it returned to public view.

Beyond Mostaert’s landscape, his Portrait of a Moor (c. 1525-30) also hangs in the Rijksmuseum and is another work once handled by Dickinson. One of the earliest surviving individual portraits of a black man in European art, the painting has become one of the Rijksmuseum’s best-known Renaissance works. The sitter’s identity remains unknown, but he possibly served on the Brussels court of Emperor Charles V. His richly embroidered clothing suggests a figure of considerable status.

 

Not every stop on a Dickinson Grand Tour is tied to a single museum. In 2012, Dickinson sold a plaster version of Auguste Rodin’s Eve (1881) to a private collector. Although this exact sculpture is not publicly accessible, other casts can be found in museums across the world.

Inspired by his figures that comprise The Gates of Hell (1880 – 1917), Eve depicts the biblical figure immediately after the fall. It is a moment of shame and anguish, with her body twisting inward as she shields herself. The sculpture is a testament to Rodin’s radical approach to modelling the human figure, using expressive form rather than classical ideals to convey emotion and beauty.

Versions of Eve can be seen at art institutions including the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery in Washington D.C., and the Belvedere Museum in Vienna, making it one of the easiest Dickinson works to encounter during your travels.

From Renaissance Florence to eighteenth-century Britain, The Netherlands to France, the works that have passed through Dickinson celebrate centuries of European artistic achievement. So, whenever you visit a museum, whether on holiday or in your hometown, keep your eyes peeled! You may well find yourself standing in front of a painting that was once in Dickinson’s hands.