Private Collecting, Exhibitions, and the Shaping of Art History in London: The Burlington Fine Arts Club Contributor(s): Pierson, Stacey J. (Author) |
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ISBN: 036733142X ISBN-13: 9780367331429 Publisher: Routledge OUR PRICE: $56.04 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: June 2019 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Art | Collections, Catalogs, Exhibitions - General - Art | History - Modern (late 19th Century To 1945) - Art | Museum Studies |
Series: Histories of Material Culture and Collecting, 1700-1950 |
Physical Information: 0.6" H x 6.8" W x 9.5" (0.90 lbs) 222 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: The Burlington Fine Arts Club was founded in London in 1866 as a gentlemen's club with a singular remit - to exhibit members' art collections. Exhibitions were proposed, organized, and furnished by a group of prominent members of British society who included aristocrats, artists, bankers, politicians, and museum curators. Exhibitions at their grand house in Mayfair brought many private collections and collectors to light, using members' social connections to draw upon the finest and most diverse objects available. Through their unique mode of presentation, which brought museum-style display and interpretation to a grand domestic-style gallery space, they also brought two forms of curatorial and art historical practice together in one unusual setting, enabling an unrestricted form of connoisseurship, where new categories of art were defined and old ones expanded. The history of this remarkable group of people has yet to be presented and is explored here for the first time. Through a framework of exhibition themes ranging from Florentine painting to Ancient Egyptian art, a study of lenders, objects, and their interpretation paints a picture of private collecting activities, connoisseurship, and art world practice that is surprisingly diverse and interconnected. |