Art Collecting And Middle Class Culture From London To Brighton 1840 1914

This study explores the interplay between money, status, politics and art collecting in the public and private lives of members of the wealthy trading classes in Brighton during the period 1840–1914. Chapters focus on the collecting practices of five rich and upwardly mobile Victorians: William Coningham (1815–84), Henry Hill (1813–82), Henry Willett (1823–1905) and Harriet Trist (1816–96) and her husband John Hamilton Trist (1812–91). The book examines the relationship between the wealth of these would-be members of the Brighton bourgeoisie and the social and political meanings of their art collections paid for out of fortunes made from sugar, tailoring, beer and wine. It explores their luxury lifestyles and civic activities including the making of Brighton museum and art gallery, which reflected a paradoxical mix of patrician and liberal views, of aristocratic aspiration and radical rhetoric. It also highlights the centrality of the London art world to their collecting facilitated by the opening of the London to Brighton railway line in 1841. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, museum studies and British history.

"This study explores the interplay between money, status, politics and art collecting in the public and private lives of members of the wealthy trading classes in Brighton during the period of 1840-1914. Chapters focus on the collecting practices of five rich and upwardly mobile Victorians: William Coningham (1815-1884), Henry Hill (1813-1882), Henry Willett (1823-1905) and Harriet Trist (1816-1896) and her husband John Hamilton Trist (1812-1891). The book examines the relationship between the wealth of these would-be members of the Brighton bourgeoisie and the social and political meanings of their art collections paid for out of fortunes made from sugar, tailoring, beer and wine. It explores their luxury lifestyles and civic activities including the making of Brighton museum and art gallery, which reflected a paradoxical mix of patrician and liberal views, of aristocratic aspiration and radical rhetoric. It also highlights the centrality of the London art world to their collecting facilitated by the opening of the London to Brighton railway line in 1841. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, museum studies and British history"--

This study provides new interpretations of the little-known but fascinating Palazzo Trinci frescoes, relating them for the first time both to their physical context and to their social, political, and cultural environment. Chapters show how a humanist agenda subverted the historical and mythical associations more frequently used to promote powerful families, to point the Trinci family in new directions. It also shows how the artists involved adapted established civic, religious, and chivalric imagery in support of these ideas. The book argues that the resulting decorations are highly unusual for the period, in their serious political and social purpose. Positioning the Trinci as bringers of peace, not war, the family is now associated with culture and education and presented as willing to encourage debate about the character of the virtuous ruler and the nature of good government. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history and Renaissance studies.

The Victorian Art School documents the history of the art school in the nineteenth century, from its origins in South Kensington to its proliferation through the major industrial centres of Britain. Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s Glasgow School of Art, together with earlier examples in Manchester and Birmingham demonstrate an unprecedented concern for the provision of plentiful light and air amidst the pollution of the Victorian city. As theories of design education and local governance converged, they also reveal the struggle of the provincial city for cultural independence from the capital. Examining innovations in the use of new technologies and approaches in the design of these buildings, The Victorian Art School offers a unique and explicitly environmental reading of the Victorian city. It examines how art schools complemented civic ‘Improvement’ programmes, their contribution to the evolution of art pedagogy, the tensions that arose between the provincial schools and the capital, and the role they would play in reimagining the relationship between art and public life in a rapidly transforming society. The architects of these buildings synthesised the potential of art with the perfection of the internal environment, indelibly shaping the future cultural life of Britain.

Illustrates how Edwardian houses were built, how they were used, and what they meant at the time.

The 19th century in Western culture was a time of both confidence and turbulence. Industrial developments resulted in a number of benefits from a growing middle class to efficiency, convenience and innovation across a range of fields from engineering to architecture. Alongside these improvements, the century began with the extended period of the Napoleonic Wars and was further disrupted by rebellions and revolutions both within Europe and in India, South America and other parts of the world. Slavery was abolished and urbanization increased dramatically. These myriad developments were reflected throughout the period in the proliferation of types of furniture, along with their categorization as 'industrial art' at the international exhibitions and world fairs and the increasingly adventurous range of materials that were sometimes used in their construction. Nonetheless, a strong antiquarian/historicist strand also prompted interest in the revival of past styles in areas of art and design, including furniture. Drawing upon a wealth of visual and textual sources, this volume presents essays that examine key characteristics of the furniture of the period on the themes of Design and Motifs; Makers, Making, and Materials; Types and Uses; The Domestic Setting; The Public Setting; Exhibition and Display; Furniture and Architecture; Visual Representations; and Verbal Representations.

Drawing on expressive and material culture, Young shows that money was not enough to make the genteel middle class. It required exquisite self-control and the right cultural capital to perform ritual etiquette and present oneself confidently, yet modestly. She argues that genteel culture was not merely derivative, but a re-working of aristocratic standards in the context of the middle class necessity to work. Visible throughout the English-speaking world in the 1780s -1830s and onward, genteel culture reveals continuities often obscured by studies based entirely on national frameworks.