Research Lunch | Wolf Burchard on Italian Royal Furniture
From the PMC:
Wolf Burchard, Italian Royal Furniture at Attingham Park
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, 2 October 2018
Attingham Park, Shropshire was home to eight generations of the Berwick family, before it was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1947. Its collection comprises a remarkable assemblage of early 19th-century Italian gilt-wood furniture, acquired by William Noel Hill, 3rd Lord Berwick during his diplomatic missions in Sardinia, Turin, and Naples between 1808 and 1833. The pièce de résistance of his furniture is a neo-classical daybed, which—for generations— was thought to have belonged to Caroline Murat, sister of Napoleon. New research, however, reveals that it actually belonged to Maria Theresa, Queen of Sardinia and niece of Marie Antoinette of France. Wolf Burchard’s lecture disentangles the fascinating history of Maria Theresa’s furniture—which is associated with two palazzi in Milan and Genoa as well as the leading architects of the day, Giocondo Albertolli and Carlo Randoni—and how it came to Attingham.
The Fellows Lunches are a series of free lunchtime research talks given by recipients of Paul Mellon Centre Fellowships and Grants. All are welcome, but please book a ticket in advance. 1:00–2:00pm, Seminar Room, Paul Mellon Centre.
Wolf Burchard is Furniture Research Curator at the National Trust. In 2015, the Trust’s Furniture Research and Cataloguing Project received generous funding from the Paul Mellon Centre and the Royal Oak Foundation. Burchard was previously Curatorial Assistant at the Royal Collection Trust from 2009 to 2014. He studied history of art and architecture at the universities of Tübingen, Vienna and the Courtauld Institute of Art, from which he holds an MA and PhD. He is the author of The Sovereign Artist: Charles Le Brun and the Image of Louis XIV (Paul Holberton Publishing 2016), publishes and regularly lectures on the art and architectural patronage at the British, French and German courts; he is on the board of trustees of the Georgian Group and the Furniture History Society as well as on the vetting panels of TEFAF Maastricht and New York, and Masterpiece Art Fair.
Exhibition | Ladies of Quality and Distinction
Press release for the exhibition now on view at The Foundling:
Ladies of Quality and Distinction
The Foundling Museum, London, 21 September 2018 — 20 January 2019
Andrea Soldi, Portrait of Isabella Duchess of Manchester, 1738 (London: Whitfield Fine Art).
This autumn, for the first time, visitors to the Foundling Museum will have an opportunity to discover portraits and stories of the remarkable women who supported the establishment and running of London’s Foundling Hospital. Marking 100 years of female suffrage, Ladies of Quality and Distinction resets the focus of the Hospital’s story and radically re-hangs the Museum’s Picture Gallery.
Despite its male face, women permeate every aspect of the Hospital story—as mothers, supporters, wet nurses, staff, apprentice masters, artists, musicians, craftsmen, and foundlings. Yet for almost 300 years, history has placed these women as a footnote in the story. The Museum is redressing this balance by bringing these overlooked stories to the fore.
Following a successful campaign via Art Happens, the Art Fund’s crowdfunding platform, the Museum brings together portraits of the ‘ladies of quality and distinction’ who signed Thomas Coram’s original petition to King George II in 1735, calling for the establishment of a Foundling Hospital. Working closely with eighteenth-century specialist Elizabeth Einberg, the Museum has identified portraits of these duchesses in public and private collections across the UK. Hung together for the first time, these paintings will temporarily replace the portraits of male governors that line the walls of the Museum’s Picture Gallery, reuniting the Ladies on the site of the charity they helped establish, and highlighting their role in shaping British society today. Included are magnificent court portraits by leading eighteenth-century painters William Hogarth, Thomas Hudson, and Godfrey Kneller. The majority of the portraits are in private collections, having remained within the family or ancestral home. Some paintings have not been on public display for many years.
Downstairs in the Museum’s exhibition gallery, the lives of the women who supported the day-to-day running of the institution will be brought to life. Women worked in many different roles at the Hospital, from laundresses and scullery maids, to cooks and matrons. Beyond its walls the organisation was supported by a small army of wet nurses who fostered the children in their infancy, as well as inspectors who supervised them. It was not until the twentieth century that the first woman was appointed Governor. Nevertheless, many female supporters of similar social class to the Hospital Governors gave valued advice, particularly around the proper care of infants, girls, and female staff.
Highlighted stories include: Mrs Prudence West, a female inspector and the only woman to run a branch Hospital; Miss Eleanor Barnes, one of the earliest female Governors of the Hospital; Mrs Elizabeth Leicester, an early matron of the Foundling Hospital who oversaw some of its most challenging years; and Jane Pett, a dry nurse highly acclaimed for her exceptional care.
Caro Howell, Director of the Foundling Museum said: “Women of every social class permeate every aspect of the Foundling Hospital story. After centuries of omission, their revolutionary, catalytic and invaluable contributions can at last be celebrated. We are incredibly grateful to the 336 donors who supported our Art Happens campaign to make this important exhibition possible.”
This exhibition forms part of the Museum’s year-long programme of exhibitions, displays, and events to mark the centenary of female suffrage, by celebrating women’s contribution to British society, culture, and philanthropy from the 1720s to the present day. The Museum raised over £20,000 towards this exhibition through a successful Art Happens crowdfunding campaign. The Museum is incredibly grateful to all our exhibition donors, including the 336 donors who gave to our Art Happens campaign, our main corporate exhibition sponsor Saxton Bampfylde, and to Art Fund, whose support made conservation of paintings loaned for this exhibition possible.
P R O G R A M M I N G
Georgian Women
The Foundling Museum, London, 19 October 2018
Discover what it meant to be a woman during this period and how three writers have brought the era to life. Speakers include Imogen Hermes Gowar, author of the Women’s Prize for Fiction shortlisted novel The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock; writer and television presenter Janet Ellis, author of The Butcher’s Hook; and Katharine Grant, whose novel Sedition was described by The Guardian as “subversive and unmissable.” Cash bar on the night. The programme begins at 19:00 (doors open at 18:30). Tickets £15 (£12.50 concessions and Foundling Friends). Details, including booking information, are available here.
Film Screening: The Duchess
The Foundling Museum, London, 9 November 2018
Join us for a unique cinema experience and enjoy the sensational 18th-century drama The Duchess, screened in the Picture Gallery. Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes star in this film exploring the life of Georgiana Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, as she struggles to protect her children from her unscrupulous husband and social pressures, and find her independence. The film begins at 19:00. Tickets are £12. Details, including booking information, are available here.
Wikithon: Ladies Of Quality & Distinction
The Foundling Museum, London, 17 November 2018
Join our Wikipedia edit-a-thon and help us bring the overlooked stories of women and the Foundling Hospital to the fore. Bring your laptop and prepare with our Edit-a-thon guide. Led by researchers from the project Editing the Long Nineteenth Century: Recovering Women in the Digital Age in partnership with the Birkbeck Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies, the session begins at 13:00 and lasts until 16:00; it is free, but booking is essential. This event is part of the Being Human Festival, organized by the School of Advanced Study, University of London, in partnership with the Arts & Humanities Research Council and the British Academy.
Pippa Shirley on a Royal Dinner Service, Waddesdon
From Waddesdon:
Pippa Shirley | Spotlight on a Royal Dinner Service
Waddesdon Manor, Buckinghamshire, 28 September and 11 October 2018
Silver dinner service, 1775–1824 (Waddesdon Manor, 8.2003.1-82).
Pippa Shirley, Head of Gardens and Collections at Waddesdon Manor, will be hosting a Spotlight session focused on Waddesdon’s magnificent silver dinner service. Guests are invited to imagine themselves dining with the King, as they explore this most fashionable dining set commissioned by George III in 1774.
More information is available here»
On Stage | Hogarth’s Progress, A Double Bill
Coming to the Rose Theatre, Kingston:
Hogarth’s Progress: The Art of Success and The Taste of the Town
A Double Bill by Nick Dear, Directed by Anthony Banks
Rose Theatre, Kingston, London, 13 September — 21 October 2018
Written by BAFTA Award-winning playwright Nick Dear and directed by Anthony Banks, Hogarth’s Progress is a highly imaginative and entertaining double bill of comedies. Following one of Britain’s most irreverent and celebrated artists on two monumental pub crawls, the plays explore the extraordinary lives of William Hogarth and his wife Jane at a time when culture escaped from the grasp of the powerful into the hands of the many.
The Olivier Award-nominated comedy The Art of Success, in its first major revival, compresses the newlywed William’s rise to fame into a dizzying and hilarious night out through 18th-century London’s high society and debauched underworld.
A world premiere, The Taste of the Town catches up with the Hogarths in Chiswick some 30 years later. Now hugely successful, William and Jane are still at odds with the world and with each other. Facing public ridicule for what he considers his finest painting, William sets out to confront his fiercest critic, but there’s always time for one more pint on the way.
Bryan Dick (The Art of Success) and Keith Allen (The Taste of the Town) star as the younger and older William Hogarth. . . They are joined on stage by Ruby Bentall, Emma Cunniffe, Ben Deery, Jack Derges, Ian Hallard, Susannah Harker, Jasmine Jones, Sylvestra Le Touzel and Mark Umbers. Each play can be seen as a single performance or enjoyed together, either over different days or as a thrilling all-day theatrical experience.
P R O G R A M M I N G
Hogarth’s World
Wednesday, 26 September, post-show
A fascinating exploration of the uneasy relationship between a new generation of creative power players and the established powers of parliament and the crown. Dr Karen Lipsedge’s teaching focuses on 18th-century literature and culture. Professor Norma Clarke is a literary historian and author, who has recently chronicled of the 18th-century novelist, poet and playwright Oliver Goldsmith and his contemporaries.
Hogarth’s Art
Sunday, 30 September, post-show
An enlightening conversation about William’s subjects, techniques and styles, and how his creative legacy influences our world today. Chaired by Kingston School of Art’s Geoff Grandfield.
Hogarth’s Women
Saturday, 6 October, post-show
Join us for a discussion about the relationship between Jane and William Hogarth, the status of women in 18th-century London, and the emergence of the Blue Stocking Society. Dr Jane Jordan’s research is on literature and history, especially the legal status of British women and of prostitution. Dr Karen Lipsedge’s research focuses on 18th-century domestic spaces and gender roles and their representation in the British novel.
Course | The Artist and the Garden
John S. Muller, A General Prospect of Vaux Hall Gardens, Shewing at one View the disposition of the whole Gardens, ca. 1715–92, hand-colored engraving on wove paper (New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection).
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From the Paul Mellon Centre:
Public Lecture Course | The Artist and the Garden
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London, Thursdays, 27 September — 25 October 2018
Registration opens on 20 August 2018
The Artist and the Garden will explore the multifarious ways in which the artist has impacted upon our understanding and perception of the British garden from the seventeenth century to the present day. Through a series of related but discrete talks, speakers will explore not only the ways in which artists depicted gardens but how so many of them were active as gardeners themselves, whether they were formulating grand landscape designs or cultivating private domestic spaces. The course will feature lectures from Christopher Woodward, Director of the Garden Museum, noted academics such as Joy Sleeman and Stephen Daniels, as well as landscape architect Todd Longstaff-Gowan.
The course meets every Thursday for five weeks from 27 September to 25 October 2018, 6.30–8.30pm (6.30–7.00 Drinks, 7.00–8.30 Lecture and Discussion). The course is open to all and free to attend, but enrolment is required. Registration will open at 10am on 20 August. In the meantime please read the Frequently Asked Questions for information on changes to our enrollment and booking procedures.
27 September — Introduction, with Christopher Woodward
4 October — Repton and the Landscaped Garden, with Stephen Daniels
11 October — Country Gardens, with Martin Postle
18 October — Land Art, with Nicholas Alfrey and Joy Sleeman
25 October — Artist in Focus: Eileen Hogan, with Todd Longstaffe-Gowan
Lecture | Laura Mayer on Repton
From The Gerogian Group:
Laura Mayer | ‘All around Is Fairy Ground’: Repton and the Regency Garden
Keats House, Hampstead, London, 6 September 2018
The Georgian Group is holding an evening lecture at Keats House, Hampstead, to celebrate the bicentenary of Humphry Repton (1752–1818). The lecture will be given by Dr. Laura Mayer, who has published extensively on eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century landscape history and is a former winner of the prestigious Gardens Trust Annual Essay Prize.
Repton ambitiously named himself as Capability Brown’s successor and was responsible for developing a new landscape aesthetic, which he termed ‘Ornamental Gardening’. Known for his famous Red Books, illustrated to help his clients visualise the pleasurable potential of their properties, Repton did much to encourage an appreciation of landscape aesthetics amongst the rising middle classes. Dr. Mayer’s lecture will trace his designs from their Picturesque beginnings to the progressive Gardenesque style.
Thursday, 6 September, at Keats House, 10 Keats Grove, Hampstead, London NW3 2RR. Doors open at 6pm; the lecture starts at 6.30. Tickets are £20 and include wine. This event is open to Georgian Group members and non-members.
Lecture | David Saunders on Museum Lighting
From the Eventbrite page:
David Saunders | A Clearer View: New Thinking on Lighting in Museums and Galleries
21st Annual Plenderleith Memorial Lecture, Icon Scotland Group
Dundee, 29 November 2018
Lighting in museums and galleries has long been a contentious subject. Too much light can cause damage to artworks, too little creates a poor visitor experience. In the forty years since The Museum Environment by Garry Thomson was first published, much has changed in the field of museum lighting. David Saunders will discuss how our understanding of the effects of light on collections and the lighting needs of our visitors have changed. He will explore how new approaches and developments in museum lighting affect practices and strategies for both display and conservation. The talk will be followed by a drinks reception and preceeded by the Icon Scotland Group Annual General Meeting between 5.00 and 5.45pm to which Icon members are invited to attend.
Dr. Saunders was recently Keeper of Conservation, Science and Documentation at the British Museum (and previously, Principle Scientist the Scientific Department of the National Gallery, London). He is presently writing a major work on lighting in museums and galleries which is expected to be published in 2018.
Workshop | Digital Mapping
From Eventbrite:
Hannah Williams and Chris Sparks, Digital Mapping: Introductory Workshop
Queen Mary University of London, 2–6pm, 12 July 2018
Digital mapping technologies have led to exciting recent shifts in humanities research. Rather than treating maps as mere illustrations, historians and art historians are making spatial analysis and cartographic visualisations fundamental to their inquiries and yielding fascinating insights as a result.
Yet humanities researchers often lack technical training and can be daunted by the logistics of experimenting with digital methods. This Introductory Digital Mapping Workshop aims to provide basic skills for humanities researchers who want to get started with digital mapping. In an informal setting, we will introduce some key concepts and useful resources, and run two practical sessions to develop valuable skills for undertaking your own mapping project. By the end of the day, you will have georeferenced a historical map, started devising a project brief, and prototyped a web app.
Following the workshop, we invite you to join us for the website launch of Artists in Paris: Mapping the 18th-Century Art World, a digital mapping project by Hannah Williams and Chris Sparks, funded by The Leverhulme Trust and supported by Queen Mary University of London.
This workshop is aimed especially at early career researchers, postdocs, and PhD students in humanities disciplines, but it is open to researchers at any level. Places for the workshop are limited. If after booking you are unable to attend, please let us know so that your place can be given to someone else. After booking your place at the workshop, please email the organisers with a brief description of your research interests in digital mapping and, if applicable, some of the sources you might be using. This is only for our information in planning the workshop and will not be distributed.
Website Launch – Artists in Paris: Mapping the 18th-Century Art World
Queen Mary University of London, 12 July 2018
Join us to celebrate the launch of Artists in Paris: Mapping the 18th-Century Art World, a digital mapping project by Hannah Williams and Chris Sparks, funded by The Leverhulme Trust and supported by Queen Mary University of London. Find out more about the project with a website demo and informal discussion. Drinks and snacks will be served.
These events have been made possible with support from The Leverhulme Trust.
Bedford Square Festival, 2018
From the Paul Mellon Centre:
Bedford Square Festival: Share the Square
London, 4–7 July 2018
The Paul Mellon Centre is proud to be taking part in the Bedford Square Festival for the second year. Weaving together literature, art, architecture, history, film, theatre, and education, Share the Square is composed of more than forty free events taking place between July 4 and 7.
As its title suggests, this year’s theme aims to encourage greater engagement within the local community of Bloomsbury and beyond, with a focus on inspiring new creative collaborations between institutions, businesses, and individuals in this pocket of London. Bedford Square’s beautifully preserved Georgian buildings and garden are not usually open to the public, but this annual festival represents a chance for the Square’s residents to throw open their doors, revealing a fascinating enclave that is full of artistic and scientific knowledge, beautiful spaces, amazing stories and remarkable histories.
The Paul Mellon Centre will host over 15 events during the four-day festival. A full list is available here.
Exhibition | William Birch, Ingenious Artist
From The Library Company of Philadelphia:
William Birch, Ingenious Artist: His Life, His Philadelphia Views, and His Legacy
The Library Company of Philadelphia, 1 May — 19 October 2018
Through watercolors, enamels, manuscripts, books, and prints—some of which have never before been exhibited—we will explore the life and work of one of the most important artists of the Federal period, William Birch (1755–1834).
Birch established himself in London as a miniaturist and a graphic artist before immigrating to Philadelphia, where he published the first two American books of engraved views. The City of Philadelphia in the Year 1800 captures the spirit of the cultural and political capital of the new nation and remains a cornerstone of Philadelphia iconography. His second book, The Country Seats of the United States (1808), brought to America the ideal of the country house in a picturesque landscape, a vision that persists to this day. Join us as we explore Birch’s transatlantic career as an enamellist, landscape architect, and artist of the British and American scene.
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With a symposium scheduled for October:
William Birch and the Complexities of American Visual Culture
The Library Company of Philadelphia, 5 October 2018
“This country is new and flourishing. The mechanical arts are at their highest pitch, but the fine arts are of another complexion. They are the last polish of a refined nation… From an insignificant conceit of merit we have generally no knowledge of or feeling for, our imitations of nature, however beautiful, are mechanical altogether. But [these limitations] may be considered as the first lesson necessary for the fine arts… I do not profess myself a member of the fine arts; I am a copyist only, but from my knowledge of them [I] have been allowed judgment and taste, which is competent to give me a relish for them …” –William Birch
In celebration of the tenth anniversary of the establishment of the Visual Culture Program at the Library Company of Philadelphia (VCP), a one-day symposium on Friday, 5 October 2018 will explore the visual, cultural, and social themes elicited from the work of Philadelphia artist William Russell Birch (1755–1834). Inspired by the Library Company’s 2018 exhibition about Birch and his art, the symposium aims to promote discussions that reflect broadly on the continual resonance in American visual culture of the work of this premier enamel miniaturist, aspiring gentleman, and artist of the first American viewbooks.
While British-born Birch’s Views of Philadelphia (1798–1800) was enormously successful, his second, smaller plate book, The Country Seats of the United States (1808), in essence failed. Yet both—promoted through subscription—remain cornerstones of Philadelphia iconography and American visual culture and its complexities. Birch’s body of work includes some of the earliest American visual records of the new nation’s preeminent city as well as expressions of picturesque landscape crucial to 19th-century American makers of art. At the same time, his work evinces political and cultural propaganda, aesthetics of the ordinary and the everyday, and innovation in design.
Presentations are intended to foster broad and interdisciplinary discussions about the aesthetic, political, social, cultural, economic, material, and technological themes in Birch’s art, in his own time, and in the two centuries that followed. We will ask: What can be learned from works conceived and executed by a non-native artist parallel to constantly (and infinitely) evolving fields and definitions of art, and means of art production, distribution, and appreciation?
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