Last Thursday, five art historians took to the stage in the Senior Hall to compete in our school heat of the Articulation Prize. This is a national public-speaking competition for which students prepare and deliver short presentations on a work of art, architecture or an artefact. Each of the five presentations was superb, as the audience of sixth formers and Year 11s was treated to expert-level analysis of five very different works of art: from an Italian Baroque religious painting by Artemisia Gentileschi that spoke of the strength and resolve of women, to a recent installation by the contemporary Indian artist Shilpa Gupta that explored themes of immigration and belonging. The standard was so high that the judges, Mrs Wilkes and Mr Courtenay Clack, had a very difficult decision to make, but in the end they selected Poppy in Year 13 as the winner for her sophisticated and assured dissection of the Pre-Raphaelite artist Frederick Sandys’ painting of ‘Medea’. Poppy will represent FHS early next term at one of the London heats at the National Army Museum, and we wish her all the best as she progresses on to the next stage in the competition. Well done to all involved!

Ms Faircliff, Head of History of Art