visiting the Regency ReEngland, 1811–1820 April 23–August 1, 2011 | Library West Hall The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens visiting the Regency he elegant, extravagant, tumultuous Catholic widow Maria Fitzherbert, against the decade knownRe as the English Regency laws of Parliament and without his father’s began formally in February 1811 when Parlia- consent, then periodically abandoned her for a ment, faced with George III’s final descent into string of affairs with actresses and society madness, authorized the King’s estranged ladies. He ate and drank to excess, spent a eldest son, the Prince of Wales (the future fortune on clothes and jewels, and began to T George IV, 1762–1830), to rule in his place. In wear a corset to disguise his growing girth. His “Revisiting the Regency: England, 1811–1820,” legal marriage of state in 1795 with the hoyden- selections from The Huntington’s rich collection ish and coarse Princess Caroline of Brunswick of rare books, manuscripts, prints, drawings, was an immediate and complete disaster: the and watercolors relating to the period com- couple separated within the year, and she lived memorate the 200th anniversary of the Regency a scandalous life apart, first in England and decade. later abroad, kept away from their one child, Charlotte, who died in 1817. The Prince’s The new Prince Regent was amiable, gracious, political friendships were equally fraught: as a witty, open-minded, intelligent, and a generous young man, he was an ardent supporter of the patron of the arts and sciences: he read and Whig politicians and intellectuals who opposed admired Jane Austen and Walter Scott, com- his father’s more conservative Tory administra- missioned paintings from all the major artists of tion. Their optimism at the onset of the Regency his day, attended the theater regularly and turned to bitter anger when the Prince shifted enjoyed friendships with actors and play- his support to the“establishment”Tory govern- wrights, supported public concerts by the new ment and lost his earlier enthusiasm for Philharmonic Society, built lavishly at Carlton political reforms. House and Brighton (albeit with money he did not have), encouraged architect John Nash to Nearing 50 in 1811, his youthful glamour turned improve London’s West End, knighted chemist to florid middle age, the Regent was a mass (by Humphrey Davy and astronomer William now a very large mass) of contradictions. He Herschel, and installed the new gas lighting was also an irresistible target for a brilliant and and a steam-heated kitchen in the Royal savage generation of visual satirists. The popu- Pavilion. He was the greatest royal patron and lar caricatures of George Cruikshank and his art collector since Charles I (1600–1649). fellow artists pilloried the Prince and his world, populating the decade with iconic images of He was also self-indulgent, profligate, promis- that glittering era to which the Regent lent his cuous, emotional, and inconstant. In his early name. 20s, the Prince had married in secret the Roman ICONS OF THE REGENCY Literature, art, music, and the theater enjoyed ar from the scandals and excesses of an astounding burst of creativity in this one short the Prince’s aristocratic Carlton House set, decade. All six of Jane Austen’s famous novels were but an equally indelible part of Regency 1811 1818 first published between and ; Sir Walter England, is Jane Austen’s serene orderly world Scott and Jane Porter created the popular new genre of gracious country-house life and decorous village of historical fiction; a second generation of romantic society. Here is a decade of increasingly refined man- poets followed trails set down by William Words- ners and complex social hierarchies; of ladies La Belle Assemblée worth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge; Lord Byron F poring over the latest issue of Frankenstein became an overnight celebrity; ’s monster to see classically simple Grecian gowns was born in a contest; and William Hazlitt redefined replace brocaded hoop skirts and pow- the art of literary criticism for a growing reading dered hair; of excursions to tour the public. magnificent country houses at fic- From the book or print shop, native Londoners tional Pemberley or very real and those visiting for “the season” might stroll to one Stowe; of watercolor lessons and of the city’s many museums, art galleries, and exhi- the latest novels in three slim bitions. The annual summer shows of the Royal volumes; of youthful ambitions to Academy at Somerset House displayed Sir Thomas waltz at Almack’s, box at Jackson’s Lawrence’s latest Society portraits and other new Salon, flirt at Vauxhall, and meet work by major artists, while the more recently Byron or Brummel. 1804 formed ( ) Society of Painters in Water Colours conferred respectability on this newly fashionable EGENCY ULTURE artistic genre. Even the naturalistic landscape garden R C 18 of the th century, a uniquely English art form, oth worlds merged in London, then as now evolved to incorporate contemporary artistic styles of the cultural and social center of English picturesque, Gothic, and romantic. life. With the strong support of the Regent, London evenings offered a similarly rich vari- architect John Nash undertook a massive ety of theatrical and musical productions. A perfor- urban renewal program for the irregular mance at the Theatres Royal in Drury Lane or Covent Georgian sprawl of the city’s West End, forming the Garden (the two licensed theaters allowed to present familiar spaces we enjoy today. He created the lovely “legitimate”—that is, spoken—drama, in addition to Regents Park from an undistinguished open space, Above:B opera, musicals, and special-effects driven produc- Pri nce cut a broad new avenue (Regent Street) with “shops George, attributed appropriated to articles of taste and fashion” running to George Engelheart. south to Westminster, and designed elegant curves of Watercolor terraced residential housing. The entire project, an 1790. on ivory, ca. early example of town planning in England, took Cover: George more than a decade to complete and marked off Cruikshank, fashionable Mayfair from Soho and the financial “Monstrosities 1816, City to the east. of ” hand-colored engraved print, 12, 1816. Voucher to Almack’s issued March to Anna Elizabeth Grenville, Marchioness of Buckingham, in April 1817. 1,. 1812 George Cruikshank, “The Prince of Whales,” hand-colored engraved print, May tions) might last several hours, and include both a Giovanni” took placed at the Kings Theatre in the 1817 serious play and two lighter offerings. A dramatic Haymarket in , and impresarios labored long but 1811–12 30 register for Drury Lane in lists more than without success to lure Beethoven to London; the different categories of entertainment, from Shake- Philharmonic Society purchased three of his overtures speare and other tragedies to comedy, farce, “Melo for English performance, and commissioned the great Drama,” pantomime, oratorio, grand romance, ballet, Ninth Symphony. historical play, and “Burlesque Tragick Opera.” While actors like John Kemble or Sarah Siddons were AR EACE 18 W &P already public figures in the th century, Edmund 1814 here was, however, another darker Kean redefined “celebrity” along modern lines in Richard III Othello world in England during this turbulent with his electrifying debuts in and ; decade. Until Wellington’s victory over Coleridge thought “seeing him act is like reading 1815 Napoleon at Waterloo in , the nation had been Shakespeare by flashes of lightning.” 20 18 relentlessly at war for more than years; some saw For music lovers, the later th century had the long struggle against post-Revolutionary France already developed privately sponsored (and expen- as merely the final stages of a second Hundred Years’ sive) subscription concerts, a large and diverse War of international competition with an old enemy. audience for opera, musical evenings in pleasure T This was a world war, fought on the seas and around gardens like Vauxhall and Ranelagh, a Lenten tradi- the globe. In Europe, the British fought mainly in tion of Handel’s oratorios, and much enthusiastic Portugal and Spain, where Napoleon had overthrown amateur music-making in clubs, societies, and the Bourbon kings and placed his brother on the taverns. In this already rich environment, the Regent 1808–13 throne. In these peninsular campaigns ( ) of lent his patronage to a new Philharmonic Society fierce guerilla warfare, the British army aided by Por- founded in 1813, the first to be organized by profes- tuguese forces and Spanish partisans gradually sional musicians to promote and perform serious expelled the French, driving them back across the symphonic and other orchestral works. The first Pyrenees after a last stand at Vitoria. Peace after staged English performance of Mozart’s “Don 1814 Napoleon’s initial abdication in proved short- Thomas Rowlandson, “Vauxhall Microcosm of London Gardens,” from , 1815 1808–11? lived; not until Waterloo in June London: T. Bensley, [ ]. was he defeated and sent into perma- nent exile by the British victors. By then another front had opened and Not all signs of the closed across the Atlantic, in Britain’s 1812 future were so pessimistic, War of with the United States, as advances in science and fought over the impressments of technology gradually American seamen and the interrup- changed the face of every- tion of American trade. day life. The Regency era Great Britain by 1815 had saw gas lighting begin to gained a world-wide empire, but at illuminate dark London the cost of massive casualties, a stag- streets, candlelit homes, and gering national debt, and severe steam-powered factories. political repression under a conserva- Railroads and steamships, tive Tory government worried that still in their infancy, nevertheless promised a the fever for revolutions might spread across the chan- revolution in transportation and commerce.