Samuel de Wilde : Mr Suett as Dicky Gossip in ‘My Grandmother’ : 1797 : Ashmolean

Every now and again I come across a painting which I have never really stopped to look at before – however well I may think I know the gallery. The painting may not be  large, or colourful, or dramatic – and it probably is not on the ‘hit list’ of must see paintings. Preparing for my hour long talks on single works, ‘Just One Painting’, at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford I came across one such painting – the painting here illustrated. Tucked away in a rather tucked away gallery devoted to eighteenth century Fine and Applied Art, a delightful treasure-house, I suddenly noticed this rather insignificant work.  I began to ask myself the same question I ask my, usually adult, students – What do you actually see? Here was a man, looking rather jovial, who appeared to be a tradesman or craftsman of some sort.  The next query was why should anyone commission a painting of this workman? Perhaps a closer examination of the work might reveal useful information?  On closer inspection the man appeared to have in his workman’s apron an odd collection of tools, including a saw and a pair of shears or large scissors – no obvious answer here!    I then thought I had better squint at the label in hope of enlightenment – where I found that this was a painting of an actor, Dicky Suett, in a character role in a play ‘The Grandmother ‘ written by the nobly named ‘Prince Hoare’.   The character he was playing was a certain ‘Dicky Gossip’. OK – I had gone some way but not far enough. So I went away and began to search for further enlightenment – which led me to a world far removed from the respectable and staid ethos of the Ashmolean Museum with it’s usually august painters and paintings, and it’s heroic subjects and famous and important people.   This was the world of eighteenth and early nineteenth century theatre. In this context I knew about the ‘stars’ of the dramatic scene of that period – the actor/producer and impresario David Garrick, a portrait of whom hangs in another of the Ashmolean galleries, and such people as Sarah Siddons, famously portrayed by Thomas Gainsborough. I then remembered Hogarth’s painting of the controversial play ‘The Beggars Opera’, by John Gay. But this work, not by a famous painter but by someone I knew little about, ?Samuel ……. I dug further and found that the artist was better known for his respectable portraits of respectable people but that he had also been commissioned to paint a series of paintings of ‘character actors’ famous in the theatre-going world of the eighteenth century.    The theatre in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century was a thriving, controversial, and often riotous part of social life at the time. London had many theatres and provincial centres aimed to have at least one theatre in their town or city. For most people characters like Dicky Suett were well known and sought after. Suett had been a chorister at Westminster Abbey, where he learnt his singing and acting skills – as did several of his fellow actors.   ‘The Grandmother ‘ was a typical eighteenth century, rather ribald, sort of musical play – with ‘character’ parts and ‘character’ performers – Dicky Suett being one of the best. Trying to unearth the play is not that easy – but possible.  The main character, who from time to time burst into song, was this Dicky Gossip – who had contrived to be a master of many skills, barber, carpenter, surgeon, apothecary, and so on. He claimed that all these skills were linked – barber could lead to dressing wounds – as apothecary he could provide medicine for ailments, keeping people alive – hopefully for a long, and to him, a profitable time – if and when he failed to keep them alive he could provide a coffin – and a relative, who was in the ‘family firm’, could dig the grave and be the Undertaker. In fact he could do everything! Somebody had commissioned this painting – which would have been popular at the time but in Victorian respectable circles would have been considered not ‘respectable’ and thus most such paintings have been lost.

The importance of Provincial Art Galleries.

Britain is fortunate in having a huge number of public art galleries spread throughout the country – a richness and availability which is the envy of the world. Foreign visitors invariably make such places a first port of call which often puts us Britain’s to shame! There is more to these institutions than you might think – and ignorance can lead to neglect and thence to loss. An area of art gallery activity which is currently under threat is scholarship and research. Provincial public art galleries have been one place where research has been done on local collectors and collections. Regrettably such research activity is being squeezed out of to-day’s art gallery activities as money becomes tight and the emphasis is increasingly on headline catching temporary exhibitions. This down-grading of important scholarly work done by local art galleries is a real problem.

The role of major regional art galleries was seen, ideally, as researching and encouraging artists from their region as well as bringing to the region, by adding to the permanent collection works by national and internationally important work from all periods, and with loan exhibitions of work not otherwise available to the general public. They also saw it as their duty to collect examples of local artists and encouraging local contemporary art. In addition to record information about local collectors. The task was daunting and not always achievable because of inadequate premises and lack of staff. Unlike their cultural companions the Libraries our Art Galleries were not made statutory when the ‘Enabling Acts’ of the late nineteenth century were implemented – although regarded as strongly desirable as part of the wider education of the general public. Nevertheless through local philanthropy and support a network of provincial art galleries developed from the late nineteenth century – towns often regarded it as essential to have an active art gallery and museum service, a sort of cultural flagship for the town, part of the education of their citizens.

The twentieth century saw a development of these provincial art galleries and museums with finance and staffing strengthened. The post World War Two period saw a further strengthening of their activities – particularly with the establishment of the Arts Council of Great Britain and of Regional Arts Councils and Area Museums Services. Unfortunately as the century progressed they were increasingly seen as soft targets for ‘financial savings’ and suffered from a series of actions which severely undermined their work – including the disbanding of the Arts Council of Great Britain, the Regional Arts Councils, and the Area Museums Services. We now have a situation where we are losing scholarly curatorial staff and replacing them with a new breed of ‘Curator’ who are, in effect, often simply entertainments managers staging expensive ‘blockbuster’ temporary exhibitions. It is now sometimes difficult to actually see the permanent collection of a local art gallery or contact a specialist.

Hopefully the tide will turn before it is too late and valuable records lost.

In some cases the Art Gallery shared their site with a Museum – and all were regarded as educational institutions, emphasised by Bristol which is sited next to the magnificent Wills Building of the University. The common factor with all our public, civic, art galleries is that they are free to enter – they are OUR collections provided for education and enjoyment. All of them take their role very seriously however hard pressed they may be and seek to cater for all – adults and children, experts and amateurs. All sorts of activities take place, from introductory talks and tours for adults to all sorts of activities for children and students of all ages.

This blog is an attempt to flag up the valuable educational and cultural work of our provincial art galleries – something for which the country should be proud and recognize. All our cities and many of our towns have a public art gallery and they should be recognised as a beacon for society and our nation – I have chosen a few as symbolic of our rich, and endangered, heritage and future.

Bristol City Art Gallery

 

Cheltenham Art Gallery

 

 

Birmingham City Art Gallery

 

 

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.

 

 

Manchester City Art Gallery.

 

 

Bolton Art Gallery

 

 

Harris Art Gallery, Preston.

 

 

York City Art Gallery.

 

 

Ferens Art Gallery, Hull.

 

 

Cartwright Hall, Bradford.

 

David Addison. May 19th, 2015.

Provincial Picture collecting – a neglected subject.

 

It is with a great sense of excitement that I welcome recent attention being paid to Art Dealers archives with the acceptance of two major collections – the first by the National Gallery in London of the Agnews archive and the second by the deposit of the Colnaghi archives at Waddesdon Manor. The Getty Provenance Index, based at the Getty Foundation in Los Angeles, is also working on the archives of other dealers, although the on-line index only appears to deal with picture-sales up to 1840.  Up until now the main concern of art historical research concerned with problems of provenance has been concerned with the picture sales of the major auction houses such as Christies – and of a relatively few ‘major’ collectors. The important thing about both Agnews and Colnaghi is that they dealt with collectors large and small – and through their hands went paintings from many collections in this country and abroad. Importantly they are a link between art collecting activity in the provinces and in London – a nineteenth century provincial auction might very well be linked with a London auction – or a major London based collector might be alerted by Agnews or Colnaghi to a provincial sale.

 

Christie’s Auction 1808

Both Agnews and Colnaghi are particularly important in relation to understanding picture collecting from the early nineteenth century onwards. With the demise of those firms there is a real danger that vitally important information relating to the provenances of paintings – of works passing through their hands over the past two hundred years – will be lost. It is to the great credit of those firms and those who intervened that their records have been deposited with research institutions in this country whose holdings are available to researchers.

National Gallery, London

Waddesdon Manor, Windmill Hill Research Centre 

A major concern of mine is the study of picture collecting in the provinces – my contention being that the nature, extent and culture of picture collecting in Britain can only be understood by exploring and recording the minor as well as major collectors and collecting activity – and the records of Agnews and Colnaghi are vital to that search. Beyond that it is important to research dealers and auction houses in the country as a whole, not just London. To this end important information is often only found in the columns of local newspapers and in provincial exhibitions.  For myself I have concentrated on Bristol and Gloucestershire in the early to mid-nineteenth century. I have come across isolated examples of similar research, and publication, done in the past – notably C.P.Darcy’s ‘The Encouragement of the Fine Arts in Lancashire, 1760-1860’, published by the Chetham Society in 1976, and ‘The Rise of English Provincial Art’ by Trevor Fawcett published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1974. There are other publications which have been concerned with exploring the place of a rising middle class in major industrial provincial centres – often using as source material  provincial art societies and their exhibitions – which also go some way into the subject of provincial art collecting. But there is much to do throughout the country if we are to begin to understand the importance of picture collecting, by collectors large and small in Britain, in the cultural and social history of Britain.

David Addison. May 18th 2015.

The last couple of months have been somewhat hectic with my Art Appreciation talks at the Ashmolean. I did a four afternoon session on Italian Renaissance paintings, followed immediately by four weeks on ‘The Great Outdoors’ – then a week later a Study Afternoon on the current Henry Moore & Francis Bacon exhibition (which I titled ‘Unlikely Twins’) and lastly a full afternoon ‘Tea-Lecture’ on the artist William Rothenstein.  So let’s unpack all that!

It is important to remember that, apart from the big lectures, my aim is to work in the Ashmolean galleries talking about, discussing, exploring, and arguing about, the works in the Ashmolean collection – hence ‘Art Appreciation’ rather than ‘Art History’.

Italian Renaissance Painting

In this series of ‘explorations’ we talked about how the works were produced, the role of the skilled artisan (the ‘artist’), the place and role of the Patron, the intended physical siting of the work, and the social and cultural context. In this latter respect it became clear that the context of early Italian painting was essentially ‘religious’ – and a particular work proved a rich point of exploration – that work is ‘The Birth of the Virgin Mary’ by an anonymous artist of the 14th century.

The Birth of the Virgin Mary : Master of the Ashmolean Predella : Italian 14^th cent : Ashmolean

What emerged were a number of interesting points. Firstly, that this was tempera paint on panel, as opposed to oil paint on canvas of later Italian work. Secondly, that this was a panel from a large altar-piece – and that many art galleries throughout the world also have such parts of an altar-piece, cast aside when later centuries found them not to their liking. Thirdly, that what appeared to be a biblical story is in fact no such thing, but draws upon the popular, and Church approved, late medieval book ‘The Golden Legend’ where much of our ‘history’ of saints as well as biblical figures derives.  Our forays into later Italian Renaissance painting led to an appreciation of a changing society, where things of this world became more important, that patronage was no longer confined to the Church, and that the discovery of oil-paint enabled larger paintings to be produced on canvas which was much lighter than a wooden panel.

The Great Outdoors

This series of afternoons explored what was meant by, literally, outside the door – and therefore it was not a series that concentrated just on landscape.  The development of landscape painting was, of course, important – such figures as the Dutch 17^th century Ruisdael family – or the Welsh late 18^th century painter Thomas Jones, and on to the work of people like Turner and the French School of Corot to the Pissarro family. But courtyard, farmyard, and urban scenes were also analysed and discussed.

A Draw-Well with Cattle before Beverwijk Church : Salomon van Ruysdael : Dutch 17^th cent : Ashmolean

A View of Dolo on the Brenta Canal : Canaletto : Italian 18^th cent : Ashmolean

Queen’s Grove, St John’s Wood : Robert Bevan : British early 20^th cent : Ashmolean

‘Unlikely Twins’

After a brief discussion of the British art scene after the second world war we spent our time in the Bacon/Moore exhibition – discussing and exploring influences, similarities and dissimilarities, and the way each tackled the human form.

Henry Moore : Three Piece Recloning Figure No 1 : 1961/2 : Yorkshire Sculpture Park

Henry Moore : Pink and Green Sleepers : 1941 : Tate Gallery

Francis Bacon : Seated Figure : 1961 : Tate Gallery

Francis Bacon : Lying Figure No 1 : 1959 : Leicester

William Rothenstein

This afternoon talk followed on from one earlier in the year I gave on the origins and influence of the Slade School of Fine Art. William Rothenstein, a product of the Slade in the late 19^th century, went on to become a major and influential figure in the art world – from his contacts in France with such people as Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec , and the sculptor Auguste Rodin. We followed William Rothenstein’s career from being the son of a wealthy Jewish textile family in Bradford, through the Slade/Paris years, to being a founder member of the, then, progressive New English Art Club – along the way wooing his friends at Oxford with his wit, his enthusiasm, and his ability with portraiture, and on to being a War Artist and then the reforming Principal of the Royal College of Art. Discovering along the way his firm roots with his wife, Alice Knewstub, and his family, John and Michael, plus the haven of peace they found in their home in the South Cotswolds, Iles Farm at Far Oakridge.

William Rothenstein : Self-Portrait : 1890 : Sheffield

William Rothenstein : Mother & Child, Candlelight : 1909 : Cheltenham AG&M