Heroic Figures

The Fan Museum’s upcoming exhibition ‘Heroic Figures’ explores the ways in which, from the eighteenth century to the present day, our perception of the hero or heroine has evolved. The role model of the eighteenth century may have been a Trojan Prince, translated into an opera or depicted in a painting, or on a fan, but today, our heroes are sportsmen and women and stars of the stage and screen. Just as the word fan has an alternative meaning in the twenty first century, so the heroic figure, the helmeted warrior, is no more.

New and old stories evolve on fans in this exhibition which reveals the unexpected and the beautiful.

Hélène Alexander
Founder/Director, The Fan Museum

Dido excoriating Aeneas, folding fan, Italy, c.1700 The Death of Cleopatra, folding fan, France, c.1750s Heroes of the Unification of Italy, folding fan, France, c.1849 Caesar Returns the Crown of Egypt to Cleopatra, folding fan, English, c.1780s