A Painted Portal to the Past
‘The Wars of the Roses: The Medieval Art of Graham Turner’
It’s not often we are presented with the perfect opportunity to see through a window into the past, but in these fast-moving days of 2024 Graham Turner presents us with just that.
“The Wars of the Roses was a 30-year period that saw England drawn into civil war by a bitterly divided ruling class. In this unmissable visual tour through a pivotal period in England’s history, this new study contains a detailed history of the wars alongside a unique and comprehensive collection of over 120 of Graham Turner’s paintings and drawings, many created especially for this book.”
For those who don’t know Graham Turner, he is a Jouster turned artist and prides himself on painting various scenes from our history with impeccable attention to detail. I personally have one of his pieces sat on my living room wall, and it’s a great piece to ponder at.
Graham has produced a large number of paintings specifically focused on the Wars of the Roses, capturing key turning points from those turbulent times which literally were the ‘Game of Thrones’. Now, we are privileged to have a large portion of his War of the Roses paintings collated into a book, but further to this, we have additional new, vivid artwork accompanied by historical commentary, information and analysis on the war itself.
For those not familiar with this period of history, Graham’s work is the perfect book to help you understand and visualise the Wars, getting to grips with the conflict in a zero to hero fashion.
Graham’s vivid and dynamic artwork has the ability to bring key personalities alive within their realistic setting. Throughout the book we see countless, notable individuals - Edward IV, Richard III, Earl of Warwick, Henry VI to name a few. But here in lies an exciting difference to conventional depictions - we don’t see them in a pose that you’d see on a coin or in a manuscript. We see them in the chaos of the Battle of Barnet, during their ascension to the throne, we see them wounded in battle, or during the excitement of the joust. Their life is in full, magnificent colour.
Seeing these lives from 600+ years ago brought to life is truly magical, and after a while you find it hard to picture the period without thinking of Graham’s work. But Graham takes it all one step further than providing solely beautifully vivid art.
Now, it would be easy to Google ‘medieval’ and paint the outfits you find displayed on page 1 with no care for historical source work.
But for this book and Graham’s artwork this simply is not the case. Being a man that himself has worn historical kit and armour he ‘gets it’ I suppose - the importance of authenticity, of understanding the reality of the period and clothing or weapons within it; the right ‘things’ being shown in the right period.
Throughout the book we can see how Graham utilises Alabaster Effigies, period depictions and written source work to inform the scenes; these are highly researched depictions, based on the available evidence. Those that know their armour will notice the progression of armour that is displayed within his work from 1415 at Agincourt, which set the scene for the Wars, all the way up to the turn of the century. These are details that can only come from significant research and an appreciation for explaining and demonstrating the late 15th century for all that it truly was.
To conclude then, this book is something that has been long anticipated and it’s arrival has been extremely well received by historians, reenactors and your regular reader alike. It’s a brilliant, well written (and painted) piece that captures so much of late 15th century life, providing a window into that world like no other. From the buildings, to the clothes, the armour to the settings themselves, Graham has well and truly given it his all. I have found myself trawling through to get some inspiration for new kit ideas myself, Graham’s creativity helping to fill in all the gaps in an impression that before may have been grey.
If you’re hesitating on buying it, don’t! Stick it in the basket and enjoy all it has to offer.
We’d like to thank Osprey publishing for providing us with the opportunity to review this book.