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In Pursuit Of CHARLES EASTLAKE’S JOURNEY IFRnOM PPLYMOuUTrH sTO uTHiE tNAToIONfAL AGALrLERt Y EXHIBITION GUIDE SIR CHARLES EASTLAKE, FIRST DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY Charles Eastlake (1793 – 1865), painter, scholar and arts administrator, was born in Plymouth, Devon, a county that produced many great British painters. This exhibition investigates Eastlake’s artistic development and his subsequent activities as a central figure of the Victorian art world, best remembered for his roles as President of the Royal Academy and as the first Director of the National Gallery, London. EASTLAKE IN PLYMOUTH Eastlake’s family and its circle did much to foster the arts in Plymouth. Eastlake’s father, George, who was Admiralty Law Agent in the city, set up the Plymouth Proprietary Library (which still exists on North Hill) in 1810, while the mayor Henry Woollcombe, a family friend, founded the Plymouth Institution in 1812. From 1815, this body held art exhibitions, to which the young Eastlake lent his portrait of the Emperor Napoleon captive on board HMS Bellerophon off Plymouth Sound. Later, during the 1840s, Eastlake’s nephew William helped revive the Plymouth Society of Artists and Amateurs. Eastlake received his art education from two Plymouth-born painters, Samuel Prout and Benjamin Haydon, and learned much from the teachings of a third Devonian, Sir Joshua Reynolds, who had been the first President of the Royal Academy. Significantly, J. M. W. Turner made several sketching tours in Devon. He came first in 1811 on commission, and returned in 1813, when he sketched in the company of Eastlake and another Plymouth painter, A. B. Johns. Eastlake maintained close ties with Plymouth and in 1832 was presented with the Freedom of the City. He enjoyed staying at Hillside (now Hillside Court) in the parish of Plympton- St-Mary, a property he inherited in 1845 from his eldest brother William. Cover image: Gerolamo dai Libri (about 1474-1555?), TheVirgin and Child with Saint Anne , 1510-18 (detail). Oil on canvas. © The National Gallery, London Opposite: Francis Grant (1803-1878), Portrait of Eastlake , 1853. Pen, ink and wash on paper. © The National Gallery, London Following: Charles Eastlake (1793-1865), Contemplation , about 1836. Oil on canvas. © Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter 2 FIRST TRAVELS IN EUROPE The fact that Plymouth was a thriving port, where news of great European events was first received before reaching London, perhaps fed Eastlake’s desire to explore the Continent. As an aspiring artist he may also have been keen to study Italian light and the Old Masters. After the Napoleonic wars ended, Eastlake made a short trip to France in 1815, and then set off for Italy in 1816, on profits made as a result of exhibiting his portrait of Napoleon. Unusually, Eastlake stayed abroad for 14 years, only returning briefly to Plymouth on the death of his father in 1820 and to visit his brothers in 1828. He spent his time touring Europe in part to find pictorial motifs. His scenes of bandits and peasants were particularly popular, although today his landscapes are thought more accomplished. As well as taking detailed notes in a series of travel notebooks about the pictures he saw, he discussed his ideas on art theory and practice in correspondence with his patron, Jeremiah Harman; his artistic mentor, Sir Thomas Lawrence; and the Plymouth art patron and family friend, Henry Woollcombe. Later he put this knowledge to good use in various administrative posts. Letter from Eastlake to Jeremiah Harman, sent from Rome on 23 October 1828 (detail). © Plymouth City Council (Museums and Archives) 5 RISE AS AN ARTS ADMINISTRATOR Due to his meticulous scholarship and good organisational skills, Eastlake, on his return to London in 1830, soon came to the notice of those interested in promoting art in the public sphere, such as Prince Albert and the politician Sir Robert Peel. Eastlake’s knowledge of practices at other European museums was seen by many as advantageous at a time when the British government, in seeking to reform its art institutions, was looking in part to foreign models for guidance. In 1841, Eastlake was appointed Secretary of the Fine Arts Commission, with responsibility for finding artists to paint murals to decorate the new Houses of Parliament. It was hoped that this project would help revive a contemporary school of British painting.Then, in 1850, he was elected President of the Royal Academy, a post to which he was annually re-elected until his death 15 years later. Eastlake’s association with the National Gallery began with his appointment as Keeper (a post he held from 1843 to 1847). He became a Trustee automatically when he was elected President of the Royal Academy. Finally, in 1855, after the Gallery had been reconstituted, Eastlake, aged 62, became its first Director. At this point he abandoned his career as a painter. T.H. Sheherd, Trafalgar Square with theWilkins Building in the background , 1850. Coloured engraving. © The National Gallery, London 6 Jacopo Bassano (active about 1535; died 1592) The Good Samaritan , about 1562-3 Oil on canvas. © The National Gallery, London AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY: ACQUIRING OLD MASTERS The National Gallery was founded in May 1824 to rival European galleries and to provide an educational resource for artists. Its growth during its first 30 years was haphazard, dictated largely by the tastes of its aristocratic Trustees, who wished the Gallery to remain a select treasure house of acknowledged masterpieces. As part of government reforms to improve Gallery administration, Eastlake was appointed as its first Director in 1855, with Otto Mündler, a Bavarian picture dealer, assisting asTravelling Agent. Under the new rules, an annual picture purchasing grant of £10,000 (the equivalent of £500,000 today) was established, and an acquisitions policy was formulated – from now on the Gallery would strive to represent the whole history of Western European painting. During his decade as Director, Eastlake went to extraordinary lengths to pursue this aim. To hunt down paintings for the nation (and occasionally for his own private collection) he attended numerous London auctions and undertook annual trips abroad, often accompanied by his wife and manservant. His notebooks reveal the ‘tricks of the trade’ he learned and the hazards he overcame. Initially, he purchased early Italian art, but later on he acquired pictures from other periods and schools. Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/9?-1682), AWaterfall in a Rocky Landscape (detail), probably 1660-70. Oil on canvas. © The National Gallery, London. 8 EASTLAKE’S INTEREST IN BRITISH ART Perhaps best remembered for his acquisition of continental Old Masters, Eastlake sought in many ways, but with more limited success, to promote British art. Following in the footsteps of Reynolds, the Plymouth-born first President of the Royal Academy, Eastlake, as its seventh president, gave formal lectures or ‘Discourses’ to its art students. Eastlake also worked alongside established British painters during his quarter-century as Secretary of the Fine Arts Commission, during which time he commissioned scenes from British history and literature for the new Houses of Parliament. At the National Gallery, Eastlake was responsible for the British School collection. Works by Reynolds and William Hogarth were represented from its founding in 1824. Examples by Thomas Gainsborough and John Constable were presented in the 1830s, while Robert Vernon’s bequest in 1847 included pictures by William Mulready and John Linnell (now at Tate Britain). During his directorship, Eastlake bought portraits by Reynolds and Gainsborough, and Turner’s work became well represented as a result of the settlement of his contested will in 1856, when the Gallery received 19,000 of his drawings, watercolours and paintings. Due to a chronic shortage of space, most British pictures were not hung in the Gallery but at Marlborough House and then at the South Kensington Museum. Joseph Mallord WilliamTurner (1775-1851), Margate(?) from the Sea , about 1835-40. Oil on canvas. ©The National Gallery, London.Turner Bequest, 1856 9 INNOVATIONS AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY Eastlake bought pictures from periods of art that previously had been neglected, including early Italian art, and was also innovative in the way he cared for and displayed the collection, often drawing on the practice of German museums. He had his many new acquisitions restored, usually by specialists in Italy. Once the paintings had arrived safely at the National Gallery, he thought carefully about how to frame them in what he considered historically appropriate frames and usually put them behind glass to protect them from pollution. Eastlake also experimented with the lighting in the galleries and the colour of the walls to find tones that were best suited to the pictures. As early as 1853, Eastlake planned an arrangement in which pictures were no longer displayed thematically or according to perceived greatness but historically, by date and country. Although lack of space prevented Eastlake from fully realising this vision, during his directorship certain rooms were arranged, for the first time, along such lines. Thus the new gallery designed by James Pennethorne in 1861 displayed only Italian Renaissance masterpieces. Eastlake also did much to improve the information provided about the collection. From 1856, informative catalogues appeared, and labels giving the artist’s name and the title and date of the work were introduced too. Engraving of a new room at the National Gallery (detail). From Illustrated London News , 15 June 1861. © The National Gallery, London 10 Contemporary view of Room 9 at the National Gallery. © The National Gallery, London EASTLAKE’S LEGACY Eastlake’s last visit abroad began in July 1865. Almost 72 years old, he was still gamely undertaking demanding journeys on behalf of the Gallery. On this occasion, he never made it home, dying in Pisa on Christmas Eve.
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