The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
N EWSLETTER Yale University
January 2014 Issue 38
RICHARD WILSON AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING The exhibition Richard Wilson and the Transformation of European Landscape Painting is to be held at the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, from 6 March to 1 June 2014, and at the National Museum Wales, Cardiff, from 5 July to 29 October 2014. Long known as the father of British landscape painting, Richard Wilson was, the exhibition contends, at the heart of a profound conceptual shift in European landscape art. With over 160 works, the exhibition and accompanying publication not only situate Wilson’s art at the beginning of a native tradition that leads to John Constable and J.M.W. Turner, but argues that in Rome during the 1750s Wilson was part of an international group of artists who reshaped European art. Rooted in the work of great seventeenth-century masters such as Claude Lorrain but responding to the early stirrings of neoclassicism, Wilson forged a highly original landscape vision that through the example of his own works and the tutelage of his pupils in Rome and later in London was to establish itself throughout northern Europe. In addition to a wide range of oil paintings and works on paper by Wilson, the exhibition includes works by Claude Lorrain, Gaspard Dughet, Anton Raphael Mengs, Pompeo Batoni, Giovanni Paolo Panini, Charles-Joseph Natoire, Claude-Joseph Vernet, Adolf Friedrich Harper, Johan Mandelberg, William Hodges, Thomas Jones, Joseph Wright, John Constable and J.M.W. Turner. The exhibition is co-curated by Martin Postle, Deputy Director of Studies at the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, and Robin Simon, Visiting Professor of English, University College London and Editor of The British Art Journal. The exhibition catalogue, published by
Richard Wilson (1714–82), Vale o f Narni, c.1760. Oil on canvas, Brinsley Ford Collection
Yale University Press for the Yale Center for British Art, also contains contributions by Steffen Eggle, Oliver Fairclough, Jason Kelley, Ana Maria Suarez Huerta, Lars Kokkonen, Kate Lowry, Paul Spencer-Longhurst, Jonathan Yarker, Scott Wilcox and Rosie Ibbotson.
The Paul Mellon Centre Staff Director of Studies: Mark Hallett Deputy Director of Studies: Martin Po stle Assistant Director for Research: Sarah V icto ria T urner Assistant Director for Finance and Administration: Sarah Ruddick Librarian: Emma Floyd Archivist and Records Manager: C harlotte Brunskill Picture Research and Online Cataloguing: Maisoon Rehani Events Co-ordinator and Director’s Assistant: Ella Fleming Yale-in-London Coordinator: Nermin A bdulla Fellowships and Grants Manager: Mary Peskett Smith Editor Research Projects: G uilland Sutherland Administrative Assistant: Lyndsey G herardi Archives and Library Assistant: Jenny Hill Archives and Library Assistant: Frankie Drummond Senior Research Fellows, Special Projects: Hugh Belsey, Elizabeth Einberg, A lex Kidson, Eric Shanes, Paul Spencer-Longhurst Advisory Council: Iwona Blazwick, A lixe Bovey, David Peters C orbett, Penelope C urtis, Michael Hatt, Nigel Llewellyn, Richard Marks, A ndrew Moore, G avin Stamp, C hristine Stevenson, Shearer W est, A lison Y arrington Company Registered in England 983028 Registered Charity 313838
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THE PAUL MELLON CENTRE
ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
Research Programmes Spring 2014 RESEARCH SEMINARS
RESEARCH LUNCHES
Wednesdays, 5.45–7.45 PM
Fridays, 12.30–2.00
Our Spring series of research seminars will feature papers given by distinguished historians of British art and architecture. Seminars typically take the form of hour-long talks, followed by questions and drinks, and are geared to scholars, curators, conservators, art-trade professionals and research students working on the history of British art.
The Spring programme of research lunches is geared to doctoral students and junior scholars working on the history of British art and architecture. They are intended to be informal events in which individual doctoral students and scholars talk for half an hour about their projects, and engage in animated discussion with their peers. A sandwich lunch will be provided by the Centre. We hope that this series will help foster a sense of community amongst PhD students and junior colleagues from a wide range of institutions, and bring researchers together in a collegial and friendly atmosphere.
15th January Christine Riding (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich) Turner and the sea 29th January Rosemary Hill (All Souls College, Oxford) Anglo-Norman attitudes: cross-channel antiquarianism 1789-1850 12th February Tanya Harrod (Independent scholar) Modern pots, colonialism and the politics of craft: the conflicted life of Michael Cardew 26th February ONE OBJECT, THREE VOICES The Cenotaph Roger Bowdler (English Heritage), David Odgers (Odgers Conservation Consultants) and Guests
PM
24th January Samuel Bibby (Associate Editor of Art History) The pursuit of understanding: The Burlington Magazine, Art History, and the periodical landscape of twentieth-century Britain 7th February Lucinda Lax (University of York) Sermons in paint: Edward Penny and the reinvention of genre painting 21st February James Alexander Cameron (Courtauld Institute of Art) Sedilia in English churches: challenges and discoveries in the study of parish church architecture
12th March John Brewer (California Institute of Technology) Depicting Vesuvius: painting, panorama and performance, 1760-1830
7th March Sarah Thomas (Birkbeck, University of London) James Hakewill and the politics of slavery
Details about the Research Seminars and Research Lunches can also be found on the Centre’s website, www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk
14th March Nicola MacCartney (Birkbeck, University of London) Art world dissidents and their alternative identities: art and language, Bob and Roberta Smith, Spartacus Chetwynd and Lucky PDF
It is essential that anyone who plans to attend individual research seminars and research lunches emails the Centre’s Events Co-ordinator, Ella Fleming, at least two days in advance: efleming@paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk
THE PAUL MELLON CENTRE ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
Research Events at the Centre Autumn 2013 As well as our regular research seminars and lunches, we hosted and collaborated on several other research events in Autumn 2013. COURT, COUNTRY, CITY 26–27 September In late September, the Centre hosted a two-day publication workshop featuring scholars associated with the University of York–Tate Britain research project Court, Country, City: British Art 1660-1735. Participants presented a wide variety of papers dealing with late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century British art and architecture, preparatory to a major publication that will appear as part of the Yale Center for British Art’s Studies in British Art series.
ARIAH 24–26 October The PMC hosted the business meeting of the Association of Research Institutes in Art History (ARIAH) at the end of October. This was attended by an international group of representatives from research institutions worldwide. We organised a busy schedule of visits and talks in and around London, including trips to the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Sir John Soane’s Museum and Dulwich Picture Gallery.
Peter Lely, Diana Kirke, later C o untess o f O xfo rd, c.1665, Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection From the C o urt, C o untry, C ity workshop
TRANSFORMING TOPOGRAPHY 22 November A workshop entitled Transforming Topography, was held on November 22nd at the British Library. Ten scholars gave presentations on images from King George Ill’s Topographical Collection at the British Library, ranging from views of Chichester to maps of Barbados. CONSTABLE WORKSHOP 29 November The Centre also hosted a workshop on November 29th, which brought together the curators of two forthcoming Constable exhibitions, Mark Evans (V&A) and MaryAnne Stevens (RA), to discuss these shows with an invited audience of scholars and experts in the field of Constable studies.
Prince 2011/2012 by Gillian Carnegie © Gillian Carnegie Photo: Lothar Schnepf, courtesy Galerie Giesla Capitain, Cologne From the C o ntempo rary Painting in C o ntext conference
CONTEMPORARY PAINTING IN CONTEXT 13 December On December 13th, the Centre hosted a conference, Contemporary Painting in Context, designed in collaboration with the curators of the Painting Now: Five Contemporary Artists exhibition, which is currently being displayed at Tate Britain. Tickets sold out within a couple of days and we hope that this will be the first of many research events to focus on contemporary art in Britain.
THE PAUL MELLON CENTRE
FELLOWSHIP AND GRANT AWARDS
Fellowship and Grant Awards At the October 2013 meeting of the Centre’s Advisory Council the following Grants were awarded: CURATORIAL RESEARCH GRANTS Ashmolean Museum to help support a research curator for 2 years on the project The Kiss of James Gillray from the New College Collection British Library to help support a research curator for 2 years on the project Transforming Topography Cheltenham Art Gallery and Museum to help support 2 research curators for 2 years on the project The ecclesiastical work of the British Arts and Crafts Movement, 1850-1914 Leamington Spa Art Gallery and Museum to help support a research curator for 2 years on the project The Art of Deception: The work of the Leamington camouflage group in the Second World War Royal Academy of Arts to help support a research curator for 1 year on the project Jean Étienne Liotard Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum to help support a research curator for 3 years on the project Slade Painters in Dorset I: The Edwardians and Slade Painters in Dorset II: Between the Wars The Stephen Lawrence Gallery to help support a research curator for 18 months on the project Stockwell Depot and The London Artists’ Studio Movement Strawberry Hill Trust to help support a research curator for 1 year on the project The Strawberry Hill Collection Tate Britain to help support a research curator for 10 months on the project Bodies of Nature UCL Art Museum, University College London to help support a research curator for 3 years on the project Spotlight on UCL Art Museum’s Slade Collections University of California to help support a research curator for 3 years on the project The Art Collection of William Andrews Clark, Jr Victoria and Albert Museum to help support a research curator for 3 years on the project The Work of England: luxury embroideries of the Middle Ages Watts Gallery to help support a research curator for 2 years on the project Watts Gallery Drawings Research and Cataloguing Project PUBLICATION GRANTS (AUTHOR) Ronald Baxter: The Royal Abbey of Reading David Bindman: Warm Flesh, Cold Marble: Canova, Thorvaldsen and their Critics Oliver Bradbury: Sir John Soane’s Influence on Architecture, 1791-1980 – A Continuing Legacy Leo Damrosch: Eternity’s Sunrise: An Introduction to William Blake Paul Dobrazczyk: Iron, Ornament & Architecture in Victorian Britain: Myth and Modernity, Excess and Enchantment Alison FitzGerald: Silver in Georgian Dublin: Making, Selling, Consuming
Keren Hammerschlag: Frederic Leighton: Death, Mortality, Resurrection Edward Juler: Grown but not Made: British Modernist Sculpture and the New Biology Yat Ming Loo: The Chinese East End Henry Miller: Politics Personified: Portraiture, Caricature and Visual Culture in Britain, 1830-1880 Lucy Peltz: Facing the Text: Extra-Illustration, Print Culture, and Society in Britain, 1769-1840 Gregory Salter: Cold War At Home: John Bratby, The Self and the Nuclear Threat Rosemary Shirley: Everyday Country: Rural Modernity, Everyday Life and Visual Culture Julia Skelly: Wasted Looks: Addiction and British Visual Culture, 1751-1919 Kimberley Skelton: The Paradox of Body, Building and Motion in Seventeenth-Century England Joy Sleeman: Five Sites for Five Sculptures: Roelof Louw and British Sculpture since the 1960s Rebecca Wade: Art versus Industry? New Perspectives on Visual and Industrial Cultures in Nineteenth-Century Britain PUBLICATION GRANTS (PUBLISHER) Ben Uri Gallery, London Jewish Museum of Art: Sarah MacDougall (Ed), The Spirit of Place: Joan Eardley, Sheila Fell, Eva Frankfurther, Josef Herman, L S Lowry Fitzwilliam Museum: David Alexander, Caroline Watson (c.1760-1814) & female printmaking in late Georgian England Harvey Miller Publishers: Ilana Tahan, Evelyn Friedlander, Louise Hofman & Vivian Mann, An English Heritage, Jewish Ceremonial art Huntington Library Press: Lucy Peltz, Facing the Text: Extra-illustration, Print Culture, and Society in Britain, 1769-1840 Institute of Contemporary Arts: Anne Massey & Gregor Muir (Eds), A History of the Institute of Contemporary Arts: 40 Years of Modern Art. Cybernetic Serendipity Leeds Art Fund: Evelyn Silber (Ed), Festschrift for Terry Friedman London Parks and Gardens Trust: Todd LongstaffeGowan (Ed), The London Gardener, vol. 18 (2013/14) Lund Humphries Publishers: Paul Hills & Ariane Bankes, The Art of David Jones Manchester University Press: Edward Juler, Grown but not Made: British Modernist Sculpture and the New Biology Modern Art Press: Toby Treves, Peter Lanyon: catalogue raisonné of the oil paintings and three-dimensional works Parthian Books: Peter Lord, A New History of Welsh Art Paul Holberton Publishing: Steven Parissien (Ed), Canaletto: Celebrating Britain
THE PAUL MELLON CENTRE
COLLECTIONS
Collections THE DENNIS SHARP ARCHIVE Earlier this year the Centre acquired, by kind donation, the archive of Dennis Sharp (1933-2010) from his widow, Yasmin Sharif. The archive focuses on Sharp’s long term interest in the work of 1930s architects Connell, Ward and Lucas, many of whose buildings have iconic status today. As our first archive collection concerning modernist architecture, it is an important acquisition for the Centre. Sharp was a partner in Dennis Sharp Architects and a prolific author on the subject of architecture, editor of the AA Quarterly, and among other things co-founder and chairman of the Royal Institute of British Architects Architecture Centre. Alongside Sharp’s own research papers, this collection also includes original records from the Connell, Ward and Lucas practice. Pontifical Institute for Mediaeval Studies: Jessica Berenbeim, Art of Documentation: Documents and Visual Culture in England, c.1250-c.1450 Public Monuments and Sculpture Association (PMSA): Jill Seddon and Peter Seddon Public Sculpture of Sussex Royal Birmingham Society of Artists: Brendan Flynn, A Place for Art: The Story of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists Royal Pavilion & Museums: Stella Beddoe, A Piece of the Action: Henry Willett’s Ceramic History of Britain Seraphim Press Ltd: William Waters, Edward Burne-Jones, Henry Holiday & Pre-Raphaelite Stained Glass 1870-1898 Spire Books: Michael Hill, West Dorset Country Houses Tate Britain: Andrew Wilson (Ed), Painting Now: Five Contemporary Artists Twentieth Century Society: Elain Harwood and Alan Powers (Eds), Cross-country: architect-designed houses of the twentieth century Wallace Collection: Lucy Davis and Mark Hallett (Eds), Sir Joshua Reynolds: Experiments in Paint Watts Gallery: Nicholas Tromans (Ed), Ellen Terry: The Painters’ Actress Whitechapel Gallery: Kirsty Ogg, Contemporary Art Society and Whitechapel Gallery Collections Displays William Shipley Group: Susan Bennett (Ed), ‘Almost Forgotten’: The International Exhibition of 1862 EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMME GRANTS Central St Martins College of Art and Design grant towards a 2-day symposium: Recovering Fonthill 1560-2013 Holburne Museum, Bath grant towards a study day: Joseph Wright of Derby: Bath and Beyond Institute of Contemporary Arts grant towards a programme of talks: Richard Hamilton: Talks Programme University of Leeds grant towards a 2-day conference: The Period Room: Museum, Material, Experience
Traced plan of a building on the Park Wood Estate, Ruislip, built 1934, in the Dennis Sharp Archive, box 11.
The Dennis Sharp Archive has not yet been catalogued, but is open for consultation. A box list is available on our website. The Centre’s Library collection also includes material on early and mid-20th-century architecture and architects, as well as material on house and garden design. A special lecture to celebrate the acquisition of the archive will be held at the Centre in Spring 2014. RESEARCH SUPPORT GRANTS Antonio Brucculeri for research on The École des Beaux-Arts and the training of British architects in London, 1860-1960 Philip Cottrell for research on ‘An Ideal Gallery on Paper’: Sir George Scharf ’s Survey of British Collections, 1856/7 Clarisse Godard Desmarest for research on Women and Architecture in 18th-century Scotland Sarah Hendriks for research on Spaces for Secular Music Performance in 17th-century England Louise Hughes for research on A ‘ s Seen’: Modern British Painting and Visual Experience Allison Ksiazkiewicz for research on Aesthetics, art and the earth sciences Caroline McGee for research on The work of John Hardman and Company, Birmingham in Ireland, 1850-1914 Diana Maltz for research on The Child in the House: Lifestyle Aestheticism, Visual Culture, and Family Identity, 1800-1910 Chloe Northrop for research on Fashioning Creole Society in Eighteenth-century British Jamaica Caitlin Silberman for research on ‘I Believe We Shall Be Crows’: Thinking with Birds in Britain, 1840-1900 Heidi Strobel for research on Stitching the Stage: Mary Linwood and the Art of Installation Embroidery Meaghan Whitehead for research on The Wheel of Fortune in Medieval English Art Michelle Wilkinson for research on V is for Veranda: A ‘ rchitecting’ in British Guiana Allison Young for research on ‘Torn and Most Whole’: Zarina Bhimji and the Culture Wars in Britain, 1970-2002 BARNS-GRAHAM RESEARCH SUPPORT GRANT Lee Hallman for research on Staking Ground: The London Landscapes of Frank Auerbach and Leon Kossoff, 1950 to Present Spring 2014 closing date for applications 15 January 2014
THE PAUL MELLON CENTRE
FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS
Queen Caroline: Cultural Politics at the Early Eighteenth-Century Court Joanna Marschner
The Cobbe Cabinet of Curiosities: An Anglo-Irish Country House Museum Edited by Arthur MacGregor
The Duchess’s Shells: Natural History Collecting in the Age of Cook’s Voyages Beth Fowkes Tobin
As the wife of King George II, Caroline of Ansbach became queen of England in 1727. Known for her intelligence and strong character, Queen Caroline wielded considerable political power until her death in 1737. She was enthusiastic and energetic in her cultural patronage, engaging in projects that touched on the arts, architecture, gardens, literature, science and natural philosophy. This meticulously researched volume surveys Caroline’s significant contributions to the arts and culture and the ways in which she used her patronage to strengthen the royal family’s connections between the recently installed House of Hanover and English society. She established an extensive library at St. James’s Palace, and her renowned salons attracted many of the great thinkers of the day; Voltaire wrote of her, ‘I must say that despite all her titles and crowns, this princess was born to encourage the arts and the well-being of mankind’. Joanna Marschner is Senior Curator at Historic Royal Palaces, with responsibility for the State Apartments and Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection, Kensington Palace.
This beautiful book reveals the fascinating history of the cabinet of curiosities belonging to the Cobbe family, who created it around 1750 at Newbridge House (Co. Dublin) and developed it over the following century. Now housed at Hatchlands Park (Surrey), it has changed so little since 1850 that it offers a virtually unique time-capsule of a private cabinet from the period of the Enlightenment, once common in country houses throughout Britain but now all but lost to view. The enormous range of surviving objects and specimens (including ethnographic specimens, antiquities, natural history, geology) is illustrated by specially commissioned photography and catalogued by scholars in the respective fields, who discuss also the place of the cabinet of curiosities in Enlightenment society, the history of the Cobbe family and the uniquely surviving display cabinets, in which the collection is still displayed. Arthur MacGregor was, until his retirement in 2008, senior assistant keeper in the Department of Antiquities, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and is an expert in the history of collecting.
Margaret Cavendish Bentinck, the 2nd Duchess of Portland, was one of the wealthiest women in 18th-century Britain. She collected fine and decorative arts (the Portland Vase was her most famous acquisition) but her great love was natural history, and shells in particular. Over the course of twenty years, she amassed the largest shell collection of her time, which was sold after her death in a spectacular auction. Beth Fowkes Tobin illuminates the interlocking issues surrounding the global circulation of natural resources, the commodification of nature, and the construction of scientific value through the lens of one woman’s marvellous collection. This unique study tells the story of the collection’s formation and dispersal – from the sailors and naturalists who ferried rare specimens across oceans to dealers’ shops and connoisseurs’ cabinets on the other side of the world. Exquisitely illustrated, this book brings to life Enlightenment natural history and its cultures of collecting, scientific expeditions and vibrant visual culture. Beth Fowkes Tobin is Professor of English and Women’s Studies, University of Georgia.
March 232 pp. 265x220mm.120 colour, 40 b/w illus. HB ISBN 978-0-300-19777-8 £40.00*
April 400 pp. 275x245mm. 200 colour, 100 b/w illus. HB ISBN 978-0-300-20435-3 £45.00*
April 240 pp. 241x170mm. 30 colour, 35 b/w illus. HB ISBN 978-0-300-19223-0 £40.00*
THE PAUL MELLON CENTRE
FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS
Space, Hope and Brutalism: English Architecture, 1945–1975 Elain Harwood
Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester and the World of Elizabethan Art Elizabeth Goldring
Reynolds: Portraiture in Action Mark Hallett
This is the first major book to study English architecture between 1945 and 1975 in its entirety. Challenging previous scholarship on the subject and uncovering vast amounts of new material at the boundaries between architectural and social history, Elain Harwood structures the book around building types to reveal why the architecture takes the form it does. Buildings of all budgets and styles are examined, from major universities to the modest café, from private houses, hotels and theatres to town halls, train stations and places of worship. The book is illustrated with stunning new photography that reveals the logic, aspirations and beauty of hundreds of buildings throughout England, at the point where many are disappearing or are being mutilated. Space, Hope, and Brutalism offers a convincing and lively overview of a subject and period that fascinates younger scholars and appeals to those who were witnesses to this history. Elain Harwood is Senior Architectural Investigator, English Heritage.
This book is the first comprehensive survey of aristocratic art-collecting and patronage in Elizabethan England, as seen through the activities of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. One of the most fascinating and controversial people of his day, Leicester was also the most important patron of painters at the Elizabethan court. He amassed a substantial art collection, including commissioned works by Nicholas Hilliard, Paolo Veronese and Federico Zuccaro; helped foster the birth of an English vernacular discourse on the visual arts; and was an early exponent, in England, of the Italian Renaissance view of the painter as the practitioner of a liberal art and, thus, fit company for the educated and well-born. Although Leicester’s collection and personal papers were dispersed after his death, this volume’s pioneering research reconstructs his lost world and, with it, a turning point in the history of British art. Elizabeth Goldring is an Associate Fellow at the Centre for the Study of the Renaissance, University of Warwick.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, the first President of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, was the most celebrated and innovative British portraitist of the eighteenth century. He was acclaimed for transforming portraiture into an art form that had all the ambition, depth and animation of history painting, and that could communicate the most complex personal, psychological and social narratives. This book offers a deeply researched and compellingly written investigation of the portraiture that brought Reynolds such fame. It offers close readings of his most striking and intriguing canvases, and pays particular attention to the dynamic ways in which he exploited the new forms of print culture and pictorial display that were emerging in late eighteenth-century London. Reynolds: Portraiture in Action offers a highly original reassessment of an especially important and influential figure in the history of British art. Mark Hallett is Director of Studies, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. He is the author of, among other books, The Spectacle of Difference: Graphic Satire in the Age of Hogarth, also published by Yale.
May 512 pp. 285x245mm. 280 colour, 120 b/w illus. HB ISBN 978-0-300-20446-9 £50.00*
May 304 pp. 256x192mm. 50 colour, 175 b/w illus. HB ISBN 978-0-300-19224-7 £40.00*
June 464 pp. 290x250mm. 350 colour, 10 b/w illus. HB ISBN 978-0-300-19697-9 £50.00*