The Regency was a period of crucial importance in the history of collecting Old
\nMaster paintings in England. As the owners of aristocratic collections in France
\nand Italy were forced by the political upheavals following the French Revolution
\nto part with their inherited possessions, Old Masters arrived on the London
\nart market in unprecedented quantity and quality. This book presents seven
\ncase studies of English collectors of the period, tracing the ways in which their
\ncollections were formed, and analysing the taste that guided them. Also discussed
\nhere are the ways in which these new owners displayed their acquisitions and how
\nthey sought to organise them into a new unity.
\nPeter Humfrey examines in detail seven notable Regency collectors – the 4th
\nEarl Darnley, the 2nd Earl Grosvenor, Amabel de Grey, Sir Richard Colt Hoare,
\nPhilip John Miles, Samuel Rogers, and the 5th Earl Cowper. All were of course
\nfrom the upper ranks of society. They nevertheless show, as well as many other
\nsimilarities, a number of telling differences. They were from both the higher and
\nlesser nobility, and from the gentry; they acquired their fortunes (and collections)
\nthrough inheritance, but also made them anew; predictably, most of the collectors
\nwere men, but one to be discussed here was a woman; some chose to house their
\ncollections in central London, but others at their seats in the country; and within
\nthe parameters of fashionable taste, the seven show rather different priorities in
\ntheir choices of schools, scale, and subject matter. No doubt, too, the collectors
\nselected here were motivated by different considerations, and fashion, financial
\ninvestment, and political and social self-promotion – in addition, presumably, to
\naesthetic pleasure – must all have played a part.
\nFor each case study an Appendix lists the paintings they acquired. Together
\nthe appendices may serve to give a general idea of the prevailing taste among
\ncollectors during the Regency period. Among the Italian paintings, the Carracci and
\ntheir Bolognese followers (Domenichino, Albani, Guido Reni, Guercino) feature
\nprominently. Other highly sought-after Old Masters included Poussin, Claude and
\nDughet, and no less attractive to the Romantic generation were the contrastingly
\nwild landscapes of Salvator Rosa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Regency was a period of crucial importance in the history of collecting Old Master paintings in England. As the owners of aristocratic collections in France and Italy were forced by the political upheavals following the French Revolution to part with their inherited possessions, Old Masters arrived on the London art market in unprecedented quantity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":51444,"template":"","meta":[],"product_cat":[2948,2953],"product_tag":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n