Making History

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I have loved history since I was a small boy and consider myself fortunate to have built a career painting my passion. My first steps into historical subjects – nearly 30 years ago – were more fantasy-led, with Arthurian knights and damsels, but I soon realised history was more interesting than anything I could make up. Now I aim to bring our past to life.

2015 was the 600th anniversary of the famous medieval battle, Agincourt, which pitted Henry V’s small and exhausted army against the massed ranks of the French nobility.

The subject demanded to be painted on a large scale – big enough to have impact, and include lots of narrative and detail. Having conducted a huge amount of research, I arrived at a composition that conveyed as much in one scene as possible: Henry V and his knights in the thick of the struggle against the French.