Enfilade

Joseph Mallord William Turner, The South Wall of the Square Dining-Room (Petworth), 1827, gouache on paper, 13.8 × 18.8 cm
(London: Tate).

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From the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art:

Art in the British Country House: Collecting and Display
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 7 October 2016

This conference is the first in a series associated with the Paul Mellon Centre’s flagship research project Art in the British Country House: Collecting and Display, which investigates the collection and display of works of art in the country house in Britain from the sixteenth century to the present day.

The crucial importance of the country house to understanding the history of art-collection and display in Britain is indisputable and of long-standing interest to historians of British art. This project, in turning a fresh eye on the collections of art associated with the country house, builds on exciting new developments within this area of scholarship, which shed new light on the wide range of motivations and circumstances that have shaped such collections. The project extends to the country house a growing scholarly interest in modes of pictorial display, which has hitherto tended to focus on the display of paintings, sculpture and prints within more urban and public environments, and on the exhibition space in particular.

The conference will consist of eight papers, followed by a keynote lecture. The papers will be grouped together in themes over four sections, addressing subject matter ranging from the mid-seventeenth century to the late nineteenth century. In the keynote lecture Adriano Ayminino will address the aspects of the history and methodology of country house scholarship over the past hundred years.

General Admission: £20 (+ admin fee)
Concession ticket: £15 (+ admin fee)
The concession rate is available for students and 60+. Ticket prices include refreshments, lunch and drinks reception

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P R O G R A M M E

9:00  Registration

9:30  Welcome and Introduction by Martin Postle

9:45  Emily Burns (University of Nottingham), The Grand Designs of Sir Justinian Isham: Investigating the Patronage, Collecting and Display at Lamport Hall during the Interregnum

10:10  Amelia Smith (Birkbeck College, University of London), “The most capital masters dispers’d all over the house”: Displays of Art at Longford Castle in the Late Eighteenth Century

10:55  Coffee

11:25  Susan Gordon (University of Leicester), ‘Bronzo Mad’: The Choice, Order and Location of General James Dormer’s Sculpture, Collection at Rousham, Oxfordshire

11:50  Joan Coutu (University of Waterloo), The Future of the Past: Copies of Antique Statues at Wentworth Woodhouse

12:35  Lunch

13:50  Peter Björn Kerber (J. Paul Getty Museum), The Audio- Visual Charles Jennens

14:15  Andrew Loukes (Petworth House, National Trust) ‘Solid, liberal, rich and English’: Patronage and Patriotism at Petworth in the Early 19th Century

15:00  Tea and coffee

15:30  Caroline McCaffrey-Howarth (University of Leeds) Forming Hierarchies and Creating Dialogues: Ferdinand de Rothschild’s Display of Sèvres Porcelain at Waddesdon Manor

15:55  Nicola Pickering (London Transport Museum), Mayer Amschel de Rothschild and Mentmore Towers: Displaying le goût Rothschild

16:40  Keynote Speaker: Adriano Aymonino (University of Buckingham)

17:45  Drinks Reception