A STROLL THROUGH TATE BRITAIN This two-hour talk is part of a series of twenty talks on the works of art displayed in Tate Britain, London, in June 2017. Unless otherwise mentioned all works of art are at Tate Britain. References and Copyright • The talk is given to a small group of people and all the proceeds, after the cost of the hall is deducted, are given to charity. • Our sponsored charities are Save the Children and Cancer UK. • Unless otherwise mentioned all works of art are at Tate Britain and the Tate’s online notes, display captions, articles and other information are used. • Each page has a section called ‘References’ that gives a link or links to sources of information. • Wikipedia, the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Khan Academy and the Art Story are used as additional sources of information. • The information from Wikipedia is under an Attribution-Share Alike Creative Commons License. • Other books and articles are used and referenced. • If I have forgotten to reference your work then please let me know and I will add a reference or delete the information. 1 A STROLL THROUGH TATE BRITAIN 1. The History of the Tate 2. From Absolute Monarch to Civil War, 1540-1650 3. From Commonwealth to the Georgians, 1650-1730 4. The Georgians, 1730-1780 5. Revolutionary Times, 1780-1810 6. Regency to Victorian, 1810-1840 7. William Blake 8. J. M. W. Turner 9. John Constable 10. The Pre-Raphaelites, 1840-1860 West galleries are 1540, 1650, 1730, 1760, 1780, 1810, 1840, 1890, 1900, 1910 East galleries are 1930, 1940, 1950, 1960, 1970, 1980, 1990, 2000 Turner Wing includes Turner, Constable, Blake and Pre-Raphaelite drawings Agenda This Term 1. A History of the Tate, discussing some of the works donated by Henry Tate and others. 2. From Absolute Monarch to Civil War, 1540-1650 3. From Commonwealth to the Start of the Georgian Period, 1650-1730 4. The Georgian Period, 1730-1780 5. Revolutionary Times, 1780-1810 6. Regency to Victorian, 1810-1840 7. William Blake (1757-1827) and his Influence 8. J. M. W. Turner (1775-1851) 9. John Constable (1776-1837) 10. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, 1840-1860 Next Term 2 1. The Aesthetic Movement, 1860-1880 2. The Late Victorians, 1880-1900 3. The Edwardians, 1900-1910 4. The Great War and its Aftermath, 1910-1930 5. The Interwar Years, 1930s 6. World War II and After, 1940-1960 7. Pop Art and Beyond, 1960-1980 8. Art in a Postmodern World, 1980-2000 9. The Turner Prize 10. Summary 2 THE GEORGIAN PERIOD: 1730-1780 • Monarchs • 1714-1727 George I, Elector of Hanover, 50 Catholic passed over, spoke German, French, Latin, Italian and Dutch and later English, prudent, reserved, deep understanding of foreign affairs • 1727-1760 George II • 1760-1820 George III • Art Related Themes • The Royal Academy • The Golden Age • The Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions • The Early Sublime • George I was Prince Elector of Hanover: he was born and brought up in northern Germany. His mother, Sophia of Hanover, was granddaughter of James I of England through her mother. He became second in line to the British throne after about fifty Catholics higher in line were excluded by the Act of Settlement 1701 and the Acts of Union 1707, which restricted the succession to Protestants. During George's reign, the powers of the monarchy diminished and Britain began a transition to the modern system of cabinet government led by a prime minister. Towards the end of his reign, actual political power was held by Robert Walpole, now recognised as Britain's first de facto prime minister. George died of a stroke on a trip to his native Hanover, where he was buried. • George II was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain and was born and brought up in norther Germany like his father. George exercised little control over British domestic policy, which was largely controlled by the Parliament of Great Britain. As elector, he spent twelve summers in Hanover, where he had more direct control over government policy. He had a difficult relationship with his eldest son, Frederick, who supported the parliamentary opposition. During the War of the Austrian Succession, George participated at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743, and thus became the last British monarch to lead an army in battle. In 1745, supporters of the Catholic claimant to the British throne, James Francis 3 Edward Stuart ("The Old Pretender"), led by James's son Charles Edward Stuart ("The Young Pretender" or "Bonnie Prince Charlie"), attempted and failed to depose George in the last of the Jacobite rebellions. Frederick died unexpectedly in 1751, nine years before his father, and so George II was ultimately succeeded by his grandson, George III. History tended to view him with disdain, concentrating on his mistresses, short temper and boorishness but most scholars now agree that this was an exaggeration and he had an influence on foreign policy. • George III was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. He was born in Britain, spoke English as his first language, and never visited Hanover. His life and with it his reign, which were longer than any other British monarch before him, were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India. However, many of Britain's American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence. Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In the later part of his life, George III had recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness. Although it has since been suggested that he had the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. After a final relapse in 1810, a regency was established, and George III's eldest son, George, Prince of Wales, ruled as Prince Regent. On George III's death, the Prince Regent succeeded his father as George IV. The United States viewed him as a tyrant and in Britain as the scapegoat for the failure of imperialism but recently his role has been reassessed by scholars in a more positive light. George III was dubbed "Farmer George" by satirists, at first to mock his interest in mundane matters rather than politics, but later to contrast his homely thrift with his son's grandiosity and to portray him as a man of the people Under George III, the British Agricultural Revolution reached its peak and great advances were made in fields such as science and industry. There was unprecedented growth in the rural population, which in turn provided much of the workforce for the concurrent Industrial Revolution. George's collection of mathematical and scientific instruments is now housed in the Science Museum, London. He had the King's Observatory built in Richmond-upon-Thames for his own observations of the 1769 transit of Venus. 3 Johan Zoffany, The Portraits of the Academicians of the Royal Academy, 1771-72, Royal Collection Johan Zoffany (1733-1810), The Portraits of the Academicians of the Royal Academy, 1771-72, Royal Collection Royal Academy • In England the Royal Academy was not set up until 1768 • It has moved over the years. It started in Pall Mall and moved to the Old then New Somerset House, then the National Gallery, then Burlington House. • The first president was Sir Joshua Reynolds (who gave 15 annual Discourses over 21 years). • It taught art, it held a Summer Exhibition and it appointed 40 Academicians. • Once set up, the Royal Academy was powerful and controlled fine art from training to exhibiting Zoffany Group Portrait • This is a painting by Johan Zoffany showing the original academicians. Zoffany was a German painter active in England and was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy and a court painter. He lived at Strand-on-the-Green and is buried at St Anne’s Church, Kew near to Thomas Gainsborough. He is best known as ‘the first and last Royal Academician to have become a cannibal’. He was shipwrecked 4 on the Andaman Islands (south of Burma) when returning from Lucknow in central North India; the starving survivors drew lots and a young sailor was duly eaten. • Note the working symbols, the classical casts and the simple use of packing cases as seats. They are discussing the nude not drawing emphasising the key importance of the intellectual element of drawing or ‘designo’ as first defined by Renaissance artists in Florence. The model in the foreground adopts the pose of Spinario, a famous classical statue. The flames of the candles show Newton’s spectrum of colours emphasising the scientific and technical in art and the pre- eminence of British intellect. The students sit at the semi-circular bench and each has an individual candle and there is one central light. There are two male models and various casts of bodies and body parts including a female torso bottom right into which the Academician and dandy Richard Cosway thrusts his cane. • Zoffany depicts himself far left at the bottom, the only artist holding the tools of the trade. • Mock School of Athens with Reynolds (Plato) and William Hunter • Two female founder academicians but only as portraits.