The Art Union in England and the United States, 1840–60
Joy Sperling "Art, Cheap and Good:" The Art Union in England and the United States, 1840–60 Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 1, no. 1 (Spring 2002) Citation: Joy Sperling, “‘Art, Cheap and Good:’ The Art Union in England and the United States, 1840–60,” Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 1, no. 1 (Spring 2002), http://www. 19thc-artworldwide.org/spring02/196--qart-cheap-and-goodq-the-art-union-in-england-and- the-united-states-184060. Published by: Association of Historians of Nineteenth-Century Art Notes: This PDF is provided for reference purposes only and may not contain all the functionality or features of the original, online publication. ©2002 Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide Sperling: The Art Union in England and the United States, 1840–60 Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 1, no. 1 (Spring 2002) "Art, Cheap and Good:" The Art Union in England and the United States, 1840–60 by Joy Sperling "Alas, it is not for art they paint, but for the Art Union." William Thackeray, 1844[1] The "Art Union" was a nineteenth-century institution of art patronage organized on the principle of joint association by which the revenue from small individual annual membership fees was spent (after operating costs) on contemporary art, which was then redistributed among the membership by lot. The concept originated in Switzerland about 1800 and spread to some twenty locations in the German principalities by the 1830s. It was introduced to England in the late 1830s on the recommendation of a House of Commons Select Committee investigation at which Gustave Frederick Waagen, director of the Berlin Royal Academy and advocate of art unions, had testified.
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