In the December edition of the New Criterion, Dalrymple recounts a recent visit to the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool and reflects on ideology in art:

“The Rise of Women Artists” as the title of an exhibition grated on me, for it seemed to me to be inescapably condescending, and to bring irresistibly to mind Doctor Johnson’s remark about women preaching: “It is not well done, but you are surprised to find it done at all.” In general, the more shrilly a principle is enunciated, the less securely is it believed. Were the pictures in the exhibition any good, and were they united by anything other than the sex of their painters? Could a specifically female sensibility be seen at work in them?