Enfilade

From the V&A:

Tessa Murdoch, Europe Divided: Huguenot Refugee Art and Culture (London: Victoria & Albert Museum, 2022), 320 pages, ISBN: 978-1838510121, £40 / $55.

This richly illustrated book focuses on the extraordinary international networks resulting from the diaspora of more than 200,000 refugees who left France in the late 17th century to join communities already in exile spread far and wide. Indeed, George Washington (along with 20 other presidents) was a descendant of Huguenots. First-generation Huguenot refugees included hundreds of trained artists, designers, and craftsmen. Beyond the French borders, they raised the quality of design and workshop practice, passing on skills to their apprentices, sons, godsons, cousins, and to successive generations, who continued to dominate output in the luxury trades. Although silver and silks are the best-known fields with which Huguenot settlers are associated, their significant contribution to architecture, ceramics, design, clock and watchmaking, engraving, furniture, woodwork, sculpture, portraiture, and art education provides fascinating insight into the motivation and resolve of this highly skilled diaspora. Thanks to a sophisticated network of Huguenot merchants, retailers, and bankers who financed their production, their wares reached a global market.

Tessa Murdoch is research curator of the Gilbert Collection at the V&A.

C O N T E N T S

Author’s Preface
Introduction
Maps

1  The Huguenot Diaspora
2  The Reception of Huguenot Artists, Craftsmen, and Designers in the British Isles
3  The Huguenots as Educators
4  Decorative Painters
5  Huguenot Architects and Engineers
6  Huguenot Metalsmiths
7  Carvers, Gilders, Cabinetmakers, and Upholsterers
8  Huguenot Sculptors in France and Beyond
9  The Taste for Porcelain and Ceramic Manufacture in Britain and Ireland
10  Huguenot Goldsmiths and Silversmiths in the British Isles, 1550–1780
11  Huguenot Watchmakers and Jewellers: The Manufacture and International Market for Luxury Goods
12  Printmakers and Sellers: Design, Ornament, and Reproductive Prints
13  Huguenots and Portraiture: Allegiance, Identity, Loyalty, and Memory

Acknowledgments
Timeline
Notes & References
Bibliography