Vital moments in our history

BESIDES ITS current and recent commissions, the Parliamentary Art Collection takes in work by satirists and diarists of earlier eras, including James Gillray, David Low and William Hogarth – whose depiction of the corrupt 1754 campaign in Oxfordshire makes today’s disagreements seem gentlemanly.

The curator, Melissa Hamnett, said elections were “vital moments in the political history of the nation, and have been the subject of paintings since the 18th century.”

The current artist, Nicky Hirst, was keeping an open mind on the extent to which the present one was engaging the electorate.”

“Some people just want to get on with their day-to-day existence,” she said.