A Century of Shoes celebrates the visual splendour and dramatic forms of a century of shoes from the opulent and extravagant Georgian era. From the fanciful footwear of the wealthiest to the functional mules of the down at heel, this new exhibition reveals the fashion and function of Georgian footwear.
For the wealthiest in society shoes were the ultimate fashion statement and accessory. Often luxurious and flamboyant in design, they showcased exquisite materials and craftsmanship which transformed them from being mere functional items into aesthetic objects of desire. Shoes, then as they do today, reflected the style, personality, gender and class of the individual who wore them. Spanning a century of fashion with over hundred shoes on display, A Century of Shoes: The Rise and Fall of the Georgian Heel celebrates the Georgians’ love affair with ‘heels’—charting the evolutions which took place in their design, the monumental shifts which took place in their manufacture and sale, and the crucial role they played amongst Britain’s shoe-obsessed elite as symbols of the wearer’s exquisite tastes and superior social rank.
The excesses of George IV, his debts, and the huge sums that he expended on his wardrobe are legendary. It is, therefore, strange that the man who was the Prince’s tailor for over thirty-two years, and his principal tailor for over half of that time, should have been named, and then only in passing, in just two other books. Louis Bazalgette (1750–1830) has been a shadowy figure until now; the relationship between the two men was discreet and almost clandestine. This biography presents a detailed picture of an extraordinary man, of humble origins, whose influence on tailoring, and upon the Prince himself, must have been far-reaching. This fascinating story presents a new angle on Georgian and Regency life, as seen through the eyes of a little French tailor who by his own efforts became a wealthy propertied merchant. There is also a great deal of information on tailoring of the period. Some of Louis Bazalgette’s descendants also enter the story. His eldest son Joseph William Bazalgette, R.N, served with distinction during the Napoleonic Wars, and his grandson of the same name was a noted civil engineer. The author is Louis’s great-great-great-great-grandson.
This study day will comprise a morning lecture by Michael Phillips, who will discuss Blake’s ground-breaking print techniques, followed by lunch (for those attending the full day) and an afternoon demonstration of the full-scale reproduction of Blake’s wooden printing press that is currently located in the exhibition gallery at Gainsborough’s House. Attendees will have the rare opportunity to use the press to make a print from a choice of copper plates.
This book discusses memorials—stained glass windows, church, cemetery and public monuments—commemorating British seafarers, shipbuilders and victims of shipwreck from the sixteenth century to the present. Examples have been chosen mainly from Great Britain and Ireland with a few from wider afield. They include important works by major British artists as well as more modest productions by anonymous carvers. The book retells the dramatic stories behind them, illustrating significant social and cultural changes in Britain’s relationship to the sea. Memorials vividly illustrate the hazards of seagoing life and the impact these had both upon the family of the deceased and the general public. The book has a cultural historical focus. Each chapter includes case studies of both high status and popular memorials, showing how iconography such as the depiction of the wrecked ship was widely transmitted. The book covers both naval and commercial aspects of seafaring and includes memorials to naval officers, merchants, explorers, fishermen, leisure sailors, victims of shipwrecks and lifesavers, with around 100 illustrations of memorials. Published in association with the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
• Genevieve Warwick and Richard Taws, “After Prometheus: Art and Technology in Early Modern Europe,” pp. 198–209.
Die Graphische Sammlung des Germanischen Nationalmuseums bewahrt rund 130 niederländische Zeichnungen des 15. bis einschließlich 18. Jahrhunderts, die durch Ankäufe, Schenkungen und Vermächtnisse in den Jahren 1858 bis 1982 erworben wurden. Hierzu zählen Werke von Jan Breughel d.J., Philips Koninck oder Bartholomeus Spranger, aber auch Arbeiten von weniger bekannten und anonymen Meistern. In dem vorliegenden Bestandskatalog sind die niederländischen Zeichnungen nun erstmals in ihrer Gesamtheit wissenschaftlich bearbeitet, mit Provenienzangaben sowie den technischen und bibliographischen Daten dokumentiert und farbig abgebildet. Den Katalog ergänzen Textbeiträge zur Sammlungsgeschichte niederländischer Kunst am Germanischen Nationalmuseum sowie zu den Funktionen niederländischer Zeichnungen.
William Blake, illustration for “Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat,” in ‘The Poems of Thomas Gray (1797-98), watercolor with pen and black ink and graphite on paper with inlaid letterpress page (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection)
In the South Transept of Westminster Abbey in London, the bodies of more than seventy men and women, primarily writers, poets, and playwrights, are interred, with many more memorialized. From the time of the reburial of Geoffrey Chaucer in 1556, the space has become a sanctuary where some of the most revered figures of English letters are celebrated and remembered. Poets’ Corner is now an attraction visited by thousands of tourists each year, but for much of its history it was also the staging ground for an ongoing debate on the nature of British cultural identity and the place of poetry in the larger political landscape.
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