The Burlington Magazine, October 2017
The eighteenth century in The Burlington:
The Burlington Magazine 159 (October 2017)
A R T I C L E S
• Gauvin Alexander Bailey, “Rococo in Eighteenth-Century Beijing: Ornament Prints and the Design of the European Palaces at Yuanming Yuan,” pp. 778–88.
• J. P. Losty, “Eighteenth-Century Mughal Paintings from the Swinton Collection,” pp. 789–99.
R E V I E W S
• Rose Kerr, Review of John Ayers, Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen (Royal Collection Trust, 2016), pp. 822–23.
• Marjorie Trusted, Review of Alan Chong, ed., Christianity in Asia: Sacred Art and Visual Splendour (Asian Civilizations Museum, 2016), pp. 823–24.
• Milo Beach, Review of Terence McInerney, Divine Pleasures: Painting from India’s Rajput Courts: The Kronos Collections (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016), pp. 824–25.
• Aida Yuen Wong, Review of Petra ten-Doesschate Chu and Ning Ding, eds., Qing Encounters: Artistic Exchanges Between China and the West (Getty Publications, 2015), p. 826.
• David Bindman, Review of Elizabeth Einberg, William Hogarth: A Complete Catalogue of the Paintings (The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2016), pp. 827–29.
• Robert O’Byrne, Review of Mark Clark, The Dublin Civic Portrait Collection: Patronage, Politics, and Patriotism, 1603–2013 (Four Courts Press, 2016), p. 832.
• Charles Beddington, Review of the exhibition Eyewitness Views: Making History in Eighteenth-Century Europe (The Getty Center, Los Angeles, 2017; Minneapolis Institute of Art, 2017; and The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2018), pp. 856–58.
Call for Papers | Boston University Graduate Symposium — Excess
From H-ArtHist:
34th Annual Boston University Graduate Symposium
in the History of Art and Architecture — Excess
Boston University, 2–3 March 2018
Proposals due by 1 December 2017
Excess conjures the idea of the extractable, left over, too much, or ‘extra’. Looking closely at perceptions of the extraneous reveals excess to be a historically constructed category that marks shifting notions of cultural values. Deemed peripheral, abject, deviant, and tertiary due to factors such as geographic relationships or conceptions of power at a particular moment, excess is the focal point of the 34th Annual Boston University Graduate Symposium in the History of Art and Architecture.
We invite submissions that explore themes of excess. Topics may include but are not limited to the following: opulence; decoration; the grotesque; the carnivalesque; caricature; exuberance; indulgence; exaggeration; extremes of religious or social practice and ritual; extravagant lifestyle; expressions and critiques of abundance; so-called ‘luxury arts’; the overbuilt.
Papers must be original and previously unpublished. Please send an abstract (300 words or less), a paper title, and a CV to bugraduatesymposiumhaa@gmail.com. The deadline for submissions is 1 December 2017. Selected speakers will be notified by 23 December 2017 and are expected to accept or decline the offer within a week of notification. Papers should be 20 minutes in length and will be followed by a question and answer session.
The Symposium will be held Friday, 2 March – Saturday, 3 March 2018, with a keynote lecture (TBD) on Friday evening at the Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery and graduate presentations on Saturday at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
This event is generously sponsored by the Boston University Center for the Humanities; the Boston University Department of History of Art and Architecture; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; the Boston University Graduate Student History of Art and Architecture Association; and the Boston University Art Gallery at the Stone Gallery.
Journées d’Étude | Académies d’Art et Mondes Sociaux, 1740–1805
From the study day programme:
Académies d’Art et Mondes Sociaux, 1740–1805
Mobilité des artistes, dynamique des institutions : dessiner la cartographie des échanges
Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès, 9–10 November 2017
En partenariat avec le Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art, Paris
Deuxième volet des journées d’étude conduites par le programme de recherche ACA-RES sur Les académies d’art et leurs réseaux dans la France préindustrielle, cette rencontre mettra l’accent sur la question des circulations artistiques. La seule aspiration parisienne ne saurait rendre compte des dynamiques d’échanges qui se mettent en place au cours de la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle, alors même que certaines institutions de province apparaissent comme centres et nœuds de liens multiples. Les provinces marquent souvent une autonomie vis-à-vis de la capitale. Une nouvelle cartographie demande ainsi à être repensée.
L’étude des relations entre les individus et les institutions académiques à l’échelle nationale et européenne, par le biais de voyages, séjours, correspondances épistolaires, sera au cœur des discussions pour voir si les mouvements dépendent des aléas des carrières (itinérance, migration, exil, fuite, opportunités de commandes ou de protections, etc.) Ces derniers peuvent tout autant répondre à un souhait d’implantation durable qu’à une stratégie de progression professionnelle. D’ailleurs la notion de « mobilité » peut aussi être entendue du point de vue de l’ascension sociale.
Pour les institutions, le voyage s’intègre-t-il avant toute chose dans une perspective de perfectionnement pédagogique et de formation du goût ? Quels bénéfices les déplacements d’artistes et d’amateurs, comme les affiliations institutionnelles, offrent-ils aux établissements artistiques, en termes d’élargissement de réseaux, d’enrichissement des collections et de rayonnement culturel ? Au-delà de la réalité des frontières et des proximités géographiques, à rebours d’une construction idéologique « nationaliste », quelles forces – culturelles, économiques, relationnelles – sont-elles à l’œuvre ?
Dans le prolongement des acquis de la précédente manifestation de décembre 2016 (voir sur la page Internet d’ACA-RES, dans la rubrique « Les Ressources », Actes des journées d’étude), mais en étendant la période envisagée au-delà des premières années de fondation des établissements, il s’agira d’envisager la mobilité des artistes – des peintres, des sculpteurs et des architectes autant que des ornemanistes voués à la fabrique – sans perdre de vue la lecture sociale et culturelle de ces institutions écloses au siècle des Lumières. Les villes aux portes des frontières du royaume, comme celles sensibles à l’appel du Grand Tour par leur position de carrefour des routes, seront étudiées en priorité.
Ces journées d’étude entendent privilégier le dialogue entre spécialistes et jeunes chercheurs, tout en gardant l’ouverture vers d’autres disciplines des sciences humaines, en particulier la sociologie et les humanités numériques. Le dispositif de la rencontre privilégiera les débats. Chaque intervenant présentera son étude de cas en fonction des thèmes retenus pour les demi-journées. Le temps de parole, volontairement très restreint, suffira à dégager les principaux points qui seront ensuite repris et discutés de façon collégiale au cours des tables-rondes. Les après-midis seront consacrés à des ateliers de travail participatifs.
J E U D I , 9 N O V E M B R E 2 0 1 7
9.00 Matin
Ouverture, Markus Castor (Centre allemand d’histoire de l’art, Paris)
Conférence introductive, Gaëtane Maës (Université Lille 3, IRHiS UMR 8529), De la nécessité de repenser les dynamiques de circulations artistiques et la notion de « modèle » parisien
I. Séance de travail : Voyages et correspondances d’académiciens
Conférences de 10mn par intervenant
• Ariane James-Sarrazin (Institut national d’histoire de l’art), La mobilité des responsables et des professeurs des écoles de dessin dans le Grand Ouest
• Émilie Roffidal (CNRS, FRAMESPA UMR 5136), Jean-Michel Verdiguier (1706–1796), une ambition espagnole
• Dominique d’Arnoult (Université de Lausanne), Jean-Baptiste Perronneau (v. 1715–1783), Académies et écoles de dessin, jalons de ses voyages en France et en Europe
• Gérard Fabre (Musée des Beaux-arts de Marseille), Jacques Beaufort (1721–1783), un académicien entre Marseille et Paris
• Candice Humbert (Université Grenoble Alpes, LARHRA UMR 519), Louis-Joseph Jay (1755–1836), de Montpellier à Grenoble, quels parcours pour quelles ambitions?
Table-ronde avec l’ensemble des intervenants et les organisateurs ; Pascal Julien (Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès, Laboratoire FRAMESPA UMR 5136), modérateur.
12.00 Pause déjeuner
14.00 Après-midi
I. Atelier de travail : Comment documenter les déplacements ?
Chaque communicant parle 5min
Interviennent tous les participants qui présentent le matériel et les méthodes employés pour étudier les circulations : correspondances, registres, inventaires, vies d’artistes, discours, presse locale, mais aussi sources visuelles (portraits, estampes), etc.
Une collaboratrice d’ACA-RES, Clémentine Souchaud, présente les modalités de diffusion numérique des sources documentaires sur Nakalona.
V E N D R E D I , 1 0 N O V E M B R E 2 0 1 7
9.00 Matin
II. Séance de travail : Grands axes de circulations et logiques des flux
Conférences de 10mn par intervenant
• Gaëtane Maës (Université Lille 3, IRHiS UMR 8529), Le nord de la France, une attractivité entre Paris et Bruges ?
• Fabienne Sartre (Université Paul-Valéry-Montpellier 3) et Marjorie Guillin (Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès, FRAMESPA UMR 5136), Toulouse, Montpellier et le réseau des académies languedociennes
• Lucas Berdu (Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès), Le voyage d’Italie de quelques académiciens toulousains
• Nelly Vi-Tong (Université de Bourgogne, Centre Georges Chevrier, UMR 7366), Hors des frontières de la Bourgogne : opportunités et carrières des élèves de l’École de dessin de Dijon
• Anne Perrin Khelissa (Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès, Laboratoire FRAMESPA UMR 5136), L’Italie, entre fantasmes et réalités à l’Académie de Lyon
Table-ronde avec l’ensemble des intervenants et les organisateurs ; Stéphanie Trouvé (Université Paul-Valéry-Montpellier 3), Projet de recherche LexArt, modératrice.
11.00 Pause brunch
13.00 Après-midi
II. Atelier de travail : Valorisation et visualisation des déplacements
Discussion libre
Deux stagiaires du programme ACA-RES, Florie Valton et Lucas Berdu, interviennent. Ils présentent la base de données et les résultats obtenus à l’issue de leur mission (cartes, graphiques, formalisation et interprétation).
Utilité, pertinence, limites et enjeux des outils numériques en histoire de l’art ? Tous les participants sont invités à réagir aux avancées et perspectives du programme, au regard de leurs propres recherches et expériences.
Conférence conclusive
Martine Azam (Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès, LISST UMR 5193), Le point de vue du sociologue sur la notion de circulation
15.00 Fin des journées d’étude
Post-Doctoral Fellowships | The Library Company of Philadelphia
From The Library Company of Philadelphia:
NEH and PEAES Post-Doctoral Fellowships, 2018–19
The Library Company of Philadelphia
Applications due by 1 November 2017
National Endowment for the Humanities Post-Doctoral Fellowships support research in residence at the The Library Company of Philadelphia on any subject relevant to its collections, which are capable of supporting research in a variety of fields and disciplines relating to the history of America and the Atlantic world form the 17th through the 19th centuries. NEH Fellowships are for individuals who have completed their formal professional training. Consequently, degree candidates and individuals seeking support for work in pursuit of a degree are not eligible to hold NEH-supported fellowships. Advanced degree candidates must have completed all requirements, except for the actual conferral of the degree, by the application deadline, 1 November 2017. Foreign nationals are not eligible to apply unless they have lived in the United States for the three years immediately preceding the application deadline. NEH fellowships are tenable for four to nine months. The stipend is $4,200 per month.
Program in Early American Economy and Society Post-Doctoral Fellowships support research in the collections of the Library Company and other nearby institutions into the origins and development of the early American economy, broadly conceived, to roughly 1850. PEAES fellowships provide scholars the opportunity to investigate the history of commerce, finance, technology, manufacturing, agriculture, internal improvements, economic policy making and other topics. Applicants may be citizens of any country, and they must hold a Ph.D. by 1 September 2018. The stipend is $40,000 for the academic year, or if the award is divided between two scholars, $20,000 per semester.
Senior scholars are particularly encouraged to apply. The Library Company’s Cassatt House fellows’ residence offers rooms at reasonable rates, along with a kitchen, common room, and offices with internet access, available to resident and non-resident fellows at all hours. All post-doctoral fellowships are tenable from 1 September 2018 through 31 May 2019, and fellows must be in continuously in residence at the Library Company for the duration of their fellowships.
The deadline for receipt of applications is 1 November 2017 with a decision to be made by December 15. Make just one application; you will automatically be considered for all the fellowships for which you are eligible. To apply, go to the application page to fill out an online coversheet and upload a single portable document format (PDF) containing a brief résumé, a two- to four-page description of proposed research, and a writing sample of no more than 25 pages. In addition, two letters of recommendation should be submitted online in PDF format.
Candidates are strongly encouraged to inquire about the appropriateness of the proposed topic before applying. For more information about the NEH award, contact James Green via telephone (215) 546-3181 or email jgreen@librarycompany.org. For more information about the PEAES award, email Cathy Matson at cmatson@udel.edu.
Call for Papers | Art and Audience under the Spanish Crown
From H-ArtHist:
Wider Worlds: Art and Audience under the Spanish Crown
The Frick Collection, New York, 5 April 2018
Proposals due by 12 December 2017
The Frick Collection is pleased to invite submissions for Wider Worlds: Art and Audience under the Spanish Crown, a public symposium inspired by the special exhibition Zurbarán: Jacob and His Twelve Sons, Paintings from Auckland Castle (on view at The Frick from 31 January to 22 April 2018). Co-organized with the Meadows Museum, in Dallas, where the paintings are currently on view, this exhibition marks the first time that Francisco de Zurbarán’s set of thirteen monumental canvases depicting the family of the biblical prophet Jacob will be displayed in the Americas.
Zurbarán’s paintings were probably commissioned in the 1640s for a monastery in colonial Spanish Peru, where the popularity of this particular iconography drew on histories positing the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas as ‘lost descendants’ of the twelve tribes of Israel. The works traveled to England and, in 1756, entered the collection of the bishop Richard Trevor, an advocate for the rights of Jewish people. This history, as well as the apocryphal story of the paintings’ seizure by pirates, prompts us to think seriously about the afterlives of objects, anticipated versus accidental receptions, and art’s capacity for generating multivalent, sometimes competing, interpretations. For Jacob and His Twelve Sons, those interpretations range from justifying the enterprises of one colonial empire to serving as symbols of religious tolerance in another.
We welcome proposals for twenty-minute papers on the status of the art object and the circulation of objects and ideas in the early modern Hispanic world. Please send a CV and 250-word abstract by Tuesday, 12 December 2017, to academic@frick.org. Submissions from emerging scholars, including early career university and museum professionals and advanced doctoral students, are particularly encouraged. Possible lines of inquiry include:
• How artists, patrons, and audiences dealt with anxieties around distance, delay, and the conveyance of meaning in the diverse and multilingual early modern Hispanic world
• Re-signification and/or halted trajectories in the biographies of objects, especially in a global context
• The imaging of origin myths and master narratives
• How Iberia’s Jewish and Islamic pasts were interrogated and reinterpreted in Catholic image practices
• The issue of workshops, masters, and authorship and their relationship to global markets
• The global and material turns in art-historical scholarship
Wider Worlds: Art and Audience under the Spanish Crown is convened by Caitlin Henningsen (The Frick Collection) and Adam Jasienski (Southern Methodist University). Susan Grace Galassi (Senior Curator, The Frick Collection) will preside.
Exhibition | El Greco to Goya: Masterpieces from The Bowes Museum
Now on view at The Wallace Collection:
El Greco to Goya: Spanish Masterpieces from The Bowes Museum
The Wallace Collection, London, 27 September 2017 — 7 January 2018
Claudio Coello, Portrait of Mariana of Austria, Queen of Spain, 1683–93 (County Durham: The Bowes Museum).
The Wallace Collection presents El Greco to Goya: Spanish Masterpieces from The Bowes Museum, the first London exhibition of Spanish art from The Bowes Museum in County Durham, including works by Goya and El Greco. This collaborative exhibition between the Wallace Collection and The Bowes Museum celebrates the partnership between these two great museums. Like the Wallace Collection, The Bowes Museum is the product of one family’s obsession with collecting great works of art. John Bowes and Richard Wallace—both illegitimate sons of aristocratic fathers—bequeathed collections of international significance to the nation.
The exhibition spans three centuries and explores one of the largest collections of Spanish art in Britain. On display are El Greco’s The Tears of Saint Peter, thought to be the artist’s earliest interpretation of this subject, Goya’s psychologically penetrating Portrait of Juan Antonio Meléndez Valdés and disturbing Interior of a Prison, plus perhaps less well known but outstanding works such as Antonio de Pereda’s, Tobias Restoring His Father’s Sight. The works chosen explore a period of huge social, religious, and political upheaval in Spain, providing a microcosm of the changes in style and subject matter during this period. The paintings complement works by Velázquez and Murillo on permanent display at the Wallace Collection.
Xavier Bray, Wallace Collection Director: “El Greco to Goya is not only an unprecedented opportunity to see Spanish art of extraordinary power and significance in London, but also the beginning of an exciting relationship between the Wallace Collection and The Bowes Museum. Both institutions share a commitment to making great art accessible to wider audiences and we are looking forward to working closely together to develop a long term connection between London and the North East.”
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
Symposium: El Greco to Goya
The Wallace Collection, London, 25 November 2017
This major international, one-day symposium on Spanish painting, accompanies the exhibition El Greco to Goya: Spanish Masterpieces from The Bowes Museum. The aim of the symposium is to explore in greater depth the remarkable collection of Spanish paintings on loan from The Bowes, our regional partner, which is outstanding in both its quality and range. Speakers include Xavier Bray, Peter Cherry, Edward Payne, María Cruz de Carlos Varona, Bernadette Petti, Juliet Wilson Bareau, and Véronique Gerard Powell. Tickets are £25 (£10 for students) and can be purchased by following this link.
Francisco de Goya, Interior of a Prison, 1793–94 (County Durham: The Bowes Museum).
P R O G R A M M E
9:30 Registration
9:50 Welcome
10:00 Morning Session
• Bernadette Petti (Assistant Curator of Fine Art, The Bowes Museum), An Overview of Four Centuries of Spanish Art in The Bowes Museum
• Véronique Gerard-Powell (Senior lecturer, University of Paris, Sorbonne), A Reluctant Purchase: El Greco’s Tears of St Peter
• Peter Cherry (Lecturer, Trinity College Dublin), Foreign Food: Spanish Still Life in the British Isles
• María Cruz de Carlos Varona (Lecturer, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Claudio Coello’s Portrait of Mariana of Austria
1:00 Lunch Break
2:00 Afternoon Session
• Xavier Bray (Director, The Wallace Collection), Goya and Religion: Early Works for the Spanish Church
• Juliet Wilson-Bareau (Independent Academic), Goya’s Prisons: Of the State, of the Church, and of the Mind
• Edward Payne (Head Curator: Spanish Art, The Auckland Project), A Museum in the Making: The Spanish Gallery in Bishop Auckland
4:30 Close
New Book | Livre de Croquis de Gabriel de Saint-Aubin
From Musée du Louvre Éditions:
Xavier Salmon, Livre de Croquis de Gabriel de Saint-Aubin Peintre, 1760–1778 (Milan: Officina Libraria, 2017), 2 vols., 196 pages, ISBN: 978 889976 5385, £40 / €45.
En 1783, soit trois années après la mort de Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, Pahin de la Blancherie indiquait que l’on n’avait jamais rencontré l’artiste « qu’un crayon à la main, dessinant tout ce qui se présentait à ses yeux ». Cependant, malgré cette passion du dessin, le chroniqueur de la vie parisienne fut bien vite oublié et il fallut attendre les Goncourt à la fin du XIXème siècle pour le redécouvrir. Chacun, dès lors, goûta l’art de Saint-Aubin et rechercha ses œuvres. Grand collectionneur du XVIIIe siècle français, Camille Groult entra en possession d’un exceptionnel carnet réunissant plus d’une centaine de pages sur lesquelles le maître avait griffonné son quotidien. Longtemps ce rarissime témoignage de l’art de Saint-Aubin demeura jalousement gardé. Edmond de Goncourt ne put en donner qu’un dépouillement incomplet. Quelques années après, Emile Dacier, grand spécialiste de l’artiste, ajouta quelques éléments nouveaux mais sans avoir obtenu de pouvoir examiner en détail le carnet. Le 20 novembre 1941, le Louvre en faisait l’acquisition. L’œuvre livrait enfin tous ses secrets. Dacier en reprit l’étude et publia en 1943 un opuscule de quarante planches.
Aujourd’hui, c’est l’ensemble du carnet qui est pour la première fois reproduit à l’échelle réelle et étudié de manière exhaustive. De petites dimensions (18 x 12,5 cm), et réunissant 108 pages dont 103 illustrées et annotées entre 1759 et 1778, l’ouvrage est un document inestimable. L’artiste nous invite à parcourir les rues de Paris, à découvrir certains de ses monuments, à partager avec lui quelques événements marquants ou bien encore à vivre le quotidien de son petit monde peuplé de si nombreuses jeunes femmes toutes occupées à la lecture, à la musique ou aux travaux d’aiguille. De sa fine écriture souvent si difficile à lire, il a couvert de jour comme de nuit les pages de nombreuses annotations, noms de collectionneurs, prix de denrées, maximes ou bien encore localisations. Pour qui aime le Paris du XVIIIe siècle, pour qui cherche à mieux connaître l’art de Saint-Aubin, le carnet du Louvre invite indéniablement à la plus passionnante des découvertes.
Distributed by ACC Publishing:
Gabriel de Saint-Aubin (Paris, 1724–1780) was “never seen without a pencil in his hand, intent in sketching all that appeared in front of his eyes.” His Livre de Croquis (sketchbook) is a veritable chronicle of Parisian life in the 18th century. Compiled between 1760 and 1778, it contains views of the streets and monuments of the ville lumière, scenes at the theatre or of a grand ball, portraits of young workers writing, sewing or playing an instrument. Saint-Aubin’s minute annotations are deciphered and explained in the commentary volume. The sketchbook, acquired from the heirs of Saint-Aubin, was guarded jealously in a private collection—and was, therefore, almost unknown—until 1941 when it was acquired by the Louvre. It has never before been reproduced in its entirety. Text in French.
Xavier Salmon is the director of the Prints and Drawings Department at the Musée du Louvre. He has curated many exhibitions and edited their catalogues. His book Fontainebleau: Le temps des Italiens was awarded the ‘grand prix de l’Académie Française’ in 2014.
Volume 1: Reproduction
Same size as the Louvre’s album containing the drawings
Volume 2: Commentary
• Introduction: Across Paris Accompanied by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin
• Description of the Sketchbook
• Bibliography
2018–19 James Smithson Fellowship: History, Memory, and Authenticity
2018–19 James Smithson Fellowship: History, Memory, and Authenticity
Applications due by 15 January 2018
The Smithsonian Institution invites applications for the 2018–19 James Smithson Fellowship. The theme for this coming year is “History, Memory, and Authenticity.”
After hearing the Declaration of Independence read aloud on the night of July 9, 1776, a group of American colonists proceeded to Lower Manhattan, tied ropes around an equestrian statue of King George III, and pulled it down. Although debate about public symbols and what they represent is as old as our nation itself, recently the volume of public discourse attempting to reconcile meaning attached to historic people, objects, and places has increased. As discussion about history’s ‘authenticity’ in social media and modern society has surged, so too has dialogue about the meaning of scientific research and its uses in public life.
This public desire for modern life to be better informed by history and science presents an opportunity for researchers to engage in a number of pressing conversations on the national and global level.
The James Smithson Fellowship is open to post-doctoral students in the fields of science, the humanities, and the arts. The James Smithson Fellowship Program was created to offer early career opportunities for post-doctoral researchers interested in gaining a better understanding about the interplay between scholarship and public policy through a Smithsonian lens. While this fellowship provides an immersion experience working with Smithsonian researchers and relevant collections, it also affords fellows a hands-on opportunity to explore relationships between research and public policy through direct interaction with Smithsonian leaders, and with policy leaders throughout the Washington, DC network.
The program is designed for a new generation of leaders, who seek a experience that leverages both scholarly and practical expertise in an environment of innovation like no other. Among the goals of the James Smithson Fellowship are to provide fellows with the opportunity to
• Conduct scholarly research at the Smithsonian
• Strengthen understanding of the interplay between research and public policy
• Gain skills at leveraging research to inform conversations about public policy
To support independent research and study, the fellowship includes a base stipend of $53,000. In addition to this base stipend, allowances may also be provided to help cover relocation, health insurance, and research expenses.
Additional information is available here»
Strawberry Hill Study Day | Portraits, Authenticity, and Copies
From the conference programme and flyer:
Portraits, Authenticity, and Copies in the 17th and 18th Centuries
Strawberry Hill, Twickenham, 2 November 2017
‘Truth is the sole merit of most antiquities; and when we cannot discover the truth, what value is there in dogmatic error about things that have no intrinsic value?—and such were all our pictures before Holbein, and infinitely the greater part of our pictures since!’
–Horace Walpole to Sir John Fenn, in response to a query about a historic portrait, 17 September 1774
Horace Walpole’s Strawberry Hill was famously full of portraits, many of them collected as part of the broader antiquarian effort to form a narrative of British and European history. In this, as in other fields of painting, there was much less emphasis on the ‘original’ than there is today. But, as a historian, Walpole was greatly exercised by questions of authenticity, although his own collection of portraits included many later copies, both specially commissioned and unrecognized, as well as misdescriptions and deliberate fakes.
This study day will focus on issues and practices around meaning and authenticity in portraits in the 17th and 18th centuries. It is linked to the recent installation in the Holbein Chamber of digital facsimiles, made by Factum Arte, of George Vertue’s accurate copies, made in 1743, of 33 of Holbein’s famous drawings of the court of Henry VIII. Their acquisition in 1758 prompted Walpole to create the Holbein Chamber, inspired by Queen Caroline’s closet at Kensington Palace, where the original drawings were shown.
Refreshments including a light lunch will be provided; price £60.
Booking information is available here»
Queries: please email claire.leighton@strawberryhillhouse.org
P R O G R A M M E
9.30 Coffee
9.50 Welcome
10.00 Morning Session
• Michael Snodin (Strawberry Hill), Copies and Copying at Strawberry Hill
• Charlotte Bolland (National Portrait Gallery), Copying Portraits in the 16th and 17th Centuries
• Victoria Button (V&A), Holbein and Vertue: Materials, Techniques, and the Art of Copying
• Silvia Davoli (Strawberry Hill), Walpole, George Vertue, and Holbein
12.15 Lunch and tours of the house including a curator’s tour of the Holbeins
2.10 Afternoon Session
• Kate Retford (Birkbeck College), Copies and Connections: Portrait Practice in Eighteenth-Century Britain
• Stephen Lloyd (Derby Collection, Knowsley Hall), Copy or Authentic Likeness? Horace Walpole’s Collecting of Portrait Miniatures and Drawings at Strawberry Hill
• David Alexander (Fitzwilliam Museum), The Work of the Harding Family
3.45 Tea
New Book | Highland Retreats
From Rizzoli:
Mary Miers, Highland Retreats: The Architecture and Interiors of Scotland’s Romantic North (New York: Rizzoli, 2017), 288 pages, ISBN: 978 08478 44760, $65.
Featuring breathtaking photographs of some of Scotland’s most remarkable and little-known houses, this book tells the story of how incomers adopted the North of Scotland as a recreational paradise and left an astonishing legacy of architecture and decoration inspired by the romanticized image of the Highlands. Known as shooting lodges because they were designed principally to accommodate the parties of guests that flocked north for the annual sporting season, these houses range from Picturesque cottages ornées and Scotch Baronial castles to Arts and Crafts mansions and modern eco-lodges. While their designs respond to some of Britain’s wildest and most stirring landscapes, inside many were equipped with the latest domestic technology and boasted opulent decoration and furnishings from the smartest London and Parisian firms. A good number survive little altered in their original state, and some are still owned by descendants of the families that built them.
Images from the famous Country Life Picture Library and specially commissioned photographs evoke the dramatic settings and arresting detail of these houses, making the book as appealing to decorators and architectural historians as it is to travelers and sportsmen.
Mary Miers commutes between her home in the Scottish Highlands and the London offices of Country Life magazine, where she works as fine arts and books editor. Her books include American Houses: The Architecture of Fairfax & Sammons and The English Country House.
Paul Barker was one of England’s premier interior and architectural photographers, whose books included English Country House Interiors, The Drawing Room, and English Ruins.
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