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| Charles Lock Eastlake |
Susanna Avery-Quash, Julie Sheldon
Art for the Nation
The Eastlakes and the Victorian Art World
The National Gallery, 2011
Review by Giovanni Mazzaferro
Translation from Italian by Francesco Mazzaferro
N.B. On Sir Charles
Lock Eastlake also in this blog: Giovanni Mazzaferro, Lotto
in the Marche: a Comparison Between the Notebooks of Charles Lock Eastlake
(1858) and Giovanni Morelli (1861); Susanna
Avery-Quash, Julie Sheldon, Art for the Nation. The Eastlakes and the Victorian
Art World; Susanna
Avery-Quash, The Travel Notebooks of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake; Susanna
Avery-Quash and Corina Meyer, 'Substituting an approach to historical evidence
for the vagueness of speculation': Charles Lock Eastlake and Johann David
Passavant's contribution to the professionalization of art-historical study
through source-based research
Between July and October 2011, the National Gallery dedicated an exhibition to Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, the first Director of the National Gallery [1] (a first thing to take in mind: the National Gallery was founded in 1824. Eastlake became Director in 1855; before that date there was no Director, but only Keepers and Trustees. When the Directorate was created, Eastlake was named; he would remain in office until his death in 1865. Of course, it would look like trivial to talk about this publication as a book made by an institution to self-celebrate itself. Here, however, the truth is that we are talking about a person of an absolute quality in the European connoisseurship, but also in the history of art techniques and the history of museology. When Eastlake took over the National Gallery, the museum possessed 265 paintings, against 1200 in the Uffizi, 1400 in the Louvre and 1833 in the Prado (p. 134). In the 10 years of his management, the Director bought another 171 paintings, which he (literally) went to select one by one all over Europe; and even more importantly, he transformed the British Museum from an amateur-like organized structure into an efficient gallery with a modern organization.
On the occasion of the exhibition two volumes were released. Art for the Nations. The Eastlakes and the Victorian Art World is the one we are reviewing. At the same time, the Walpole Society published an edition, in nothing short of stunning, about Eastlake’s journey notebooks (a mine of invaluable information). In both cases, Susanna Avery - Quash had a crucial role, in the first volume to duet with Julie Sheldon. And Avery Quash also edited the video presentation of the exhibition, which we propose below.
In this text we are deliberately omitting everything that directly affects Eastlake’s travel and his notebooks, which will be the subject of a further analysis: see Susanna Avery Quash, The Travel Notebooks of Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, The Walpole Society, 2011
Charles Lock Eastlake (not to be confused with his nephew, carrying virtually the same name, if it were not for 'e' vocal in Locke: Charles Locke Eastlake) was born as an academic painter. This is a detail not to be overlooked, because the first public assignments (which will lead him to simultaneously hold the positions of President of the Royal Academy and Director of the National Gallery) date back to 1843, when Charles, born in 1793, was fifty years old. It can be said, therefore, in a sense, that Eastlake had two lives (which overlap only for a limited number of years): the first as an artist, the second as a public person and an official of the Victorian institutions. You cannot understand the second life without taking account of the first.
Here we cannot write extensively in full about all aspects. The book is so inspiring and full of ideas that we would risk writing another one. Let us try to devise fundamental concepts, striving to be clear.
The formative years are spent in Italy. Charles moved here at twenty-three years, in 1816 and he remained there for the next fourteen ones. They were, of course, years devoted to study and painting. The artistic career of Charles, including paintings of biblical and historical subject (those considered of a higher level at his time, and by Eastlake himself), genre paintings, economically more rewarding subjects (like the hagiographical illustrations of the Roman countryside 'banditti' - the robbers – which made much of an impression to the English gentlemen) and landscape paintings (in Eastlake’s art production, the genre which is most appreciated today) progressed well after all. But these are the years that allow the English painter to develop solid skills from other points of view. Many of these skills are also due to the fertile contact, on Italian soil, with the German language culture.
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| Charles Lock Eastlake, The Colosseum fron the Esquilino (1822) Tate Gallery, London |
It can perhaps be considered as a provocation, but in fact we can say that, if Eastlake managed to get to the National Gallery, he did it greatly thanks to his knowledge of the German world. His friendship with the Prussian ambassador to the Holy See permitted the English painter to mingle with German artists, writers and philosophers. Among the artists, he made the acquaintance with the Nazarenes and their attention to their return to the painting of Old Masters and fresco techniques. From Germany he borrowed a lot, in terms of the philosophy of art, museology, and art history.
With regard to the philosophy of art: “Although he refrained from embracing the transcendental idealism that underlay much of Germans aesthetics, including Kant’s metaphysics, Eastlake certainly contended with the highly significant theme of distinctness and individuality of character, then prevalent with these German thinkers. Such a notion was a first given expression in Germany by, among others, the Prussian reformer Wilhelm von Humboldt. It was subsequently taken up first in the Weimar circle of Goethe and Friedrich Schiller and later by their Romantic successors, notably Friedrich von Schlegel” (p. 28).
In Rome Eastlake made acquaintance with Johann David Passavant, with whom he would be tied by a long-term friendship. Painter, but above all an art historian, Passavant wrote a Tour of a German artist in England (1833), which curiously will be translated into English by Elizabeth Rigby (the future wife of Eastlake); he will be curator of the Städel Museum in Frankfurt; the two will be in contact throughout their lives (with reciprocal visits). Also in Rome it is likely that Eastlake met with Karl Friedrich von Ruhmour, the most famous German art historian of that time. In 1828, Eastlake was in Germany and the Netherlands, for a tour dedicated to the view of Old German and Flemish Masters (his wife reports: "His route was determined by Sir Joshua’s [n.d.r. Reynolds] tour through Flanders and Holland, and he made it a point to follow in his steps and verify as far as possible his descriptions” [2] ). He visited the large and modern art collections in Germany: Berlin, Potsdam, Dresden and Düsseldorf. He met for the first time Gustav Waagen, another friend of a lifetime, in the following years, too, as Passavant, the director of the museums first in Berlin and then in St.Petersburg.
1) Art techniques. We do not know what was the causal factor at the origin, whether a professional curiosity, the influence of the Nazarenes, or the debate that took place right in those years in Italy, between Rome and Florence, following the publication in 1821 of the Libro dell'Arte (Book of the Art) by Cennino Cennini - and the related controversies, promptly published in the Antologia Viesseux journal [3], with the renewed interest in the events of the 'discovery' (according to Vasari) of oil painting - or finally the attention to Italian but also Flemish primitives, but at any rate the study of art techniques will be the leitmotif of the whole life of Eastlake. And - if I may say so - it remains a legacy of him even today, if you go to the National Gallery and take an audio-guide, there is no single painting of which the technique of execution will not be described (an approach much less common in Italy).
2) Colour. Deeply rooted in the artistic techniques is the study of colour, of the drawing up of the same, but also of colour combinations. Eastlake studied Goethe (again, the German world) and in 1840 will translate his Theory of colours. Inspired by the Theory of Colours, Sir Charles (called ‘Sor Carlo’ in Italy) Eastlake would even decide on the colour tones of the walls of the National Gallery, when he will become Director.
3) Primitives. To be precise, to Eastlake what we now call “Primitives” mean the “Old Masters”, the painters before Raphael. To explain it better: Eastlake is a man of his time, is an oil painter, not a Nazarene, and when it will have to be decided how to redecorate Westminster Palace (see below), he will initially be contrary to the fresco technique. His "high" painting might be placed between Raphael and the colourism of Titian and Rubens. Forget about any excessive enthusiasm for the Old Masters. But Eastlake has also borrowed from the German-speaking world, from Ruhmour, Passavant, Waagen (and of course, prior to them by our Lanzi) the concept of artistic schools and art historicism, which leads him (even for the technical interests mentioned earlier) to systematically study the Old Masters.
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| Charles Lock Eastlake, Hagar and Ishmael (1830) Royal Academy of Arts, London |
For all these reasons, when, appointed as member of the Royal Academy, Eastlake returns to England in 1830, he is still a painter, but above all he is a unique figure in the world of English art: "Since Eastlake’s experiences in continental Europe had made him a rare authority in England, he was perhaps the only person capable of interpreting foreign thinking for an English-speaking audience" (p. 35).
The following years saw Eastlake consolidate his artistic career, but also his reputation in England as an expert in art. There is an entirely fortuitous episode that, in its own very specific effects, will change his life as a whole, as well as in many ways the fate of art history: the burning of Westminster Palace. The old Parliament goes totally in flames. As from 1836 a new one is built, in Neo-Gothic style. It is the triumph of the Gothic Revival. Not only in England, there are countless examples of new parliaments and public buildings hosting councils or representative bodies, built (after the British case) in Neo - Gothic [4]. At the same time of the reconstruction of the building, also the problem of its internal decoration needs to be solved. Neither the rebuilding of Westminster, nor the question of the decoration of the building are merely matters of styles. There is a new world power that wants to displays itself visually. The point is whether to operate by calling foreign artists to London or to prove that British artists are able to do for themselves. In 1841, the Parliament appointed a Select Committee whose aim is ‘to take into consideration the Promotion of the Fine Arts of this country in connection with the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament. This significant enterprise represented the first effort of a British government to promote the British School of painting since before the Reformation’ (p. 39). The Committee in turn elects a Fine Art Commission, to take care of this. The Commission consists of 29 members, with Prince Albert (the consort of Queen Victoria) as President. The Secretary is Charles Eastlake (who, incidentally, is the only artist part of the Commission). The first decisions are clear: Westminster has to be decorated again with frescoes, and the subject of the frescoes has to be related to English history.
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| John Partridge, The Fine Arts Commissioners, 1846 National Portrait Gallery, Londra |
Now, given his acquaintance with the Nazarenes, you might think that Eastlake had promoted the fresco technique. This is however not the case. Let us not forget that Eastlake was an oil painter: he feared greatly that the fresco technique would not be suited to the cool English climate and, above all, that there were would not be local artists able to run satisfactorily the task. The decision is, therefore, of a political nature; of course, one of its main inspirers was Prince Albert. That said, once a decision on the technique is reached, the danger is only one. Prince Albert is German, is well aware of the Nazarenes, and suggests that German painters execute the frescoes. To the English Members of the Parliament this is unacceptable. Somebody is needed who knows the Nazarenes, not only masters their techniques, but can teach them to contemporary British artists and is an expression of the Anglo-Saxon world: Eastlake is perfect. It's amazing, knowing the reservations expressed at the beginning, to read the neo-Secretary writing in the Appendix to the First Report to the Select Committee on the Fine Arts, in an essay titled On the Origin of the Modern German School of Fresco Painting:
“…Let us now consider how far we, as Englishmen, can share these feelings and aims. If the national ardour of the Germans is to be our example, we should dwell on the fact that the Arts in England under Henry the Third, in the 13th century, were as much advanced as in Italy itself; that our Architecture was even more characteristic and freer from classic influence […] Thus, in doing justice to the patriotism of the Germans, the first conviction that would press upon us would be, that our own country and our own English feelings are sufficient to produce and foster a characteristic style of art; that although we might share much of the spirit of the Germanic nations, this spirit would be modified by our peculiar habits; above all, we should entirely agree with the Germans in concluding that we are as little in want of foreign artists to represent our history and express our feelings, as of foreign soldiers to defend our liberties. Even the question of ability […] is unimportant. […] Ability, if wanting, would of necessity follow. In the Arts, as in arms, discipline, practice, and opportunity, are necessary to the acquisitions of skill and confidence: in both want of experience may occasion failure at first: but nothing could lead to failure more effectually than the absence of sympathy and moral support on the part of the country” [5]
This book is titled Art for the Nation. I do not think there can be an expression that better sums up the meaning of what is written above. Eastlake is a Victorian artist, proud to be English, and fully aware that he is working for the image of the country. He is a soldier who uses the pen and (less and less) the brush. Now, it is not the case of assessing stylistically here the result of the Westminster decoration; rather, it is worth emphasising the flowering of works dedicated to artistic techniques in the middle years of the English XIX Century, just as a result of the efforts of the Commission. These texts - mind you - had an enormous importance in the history of art (and art techniques) not only in England, but all over the world .
Mary P. Merrifield. Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting (1849).
The chart you see below is taken from Google Ngram Viewer and displays the recurrence of the words "Old Masters", one consecutive to the other, in the corpus of English language literature by Google. We could discuss it at length, but one thing is certain: the curve rears up from the end of the 1930s of the XIX century. All of this has to do with the policy of promoting arts by the British government (we cannot forget the role of Sir Robert Peel, then Prime Minister), is caused by the debate on the Westminster decorations, but is mostly the merit of Charles Lock Eastlake. The right man at the right time.
In 1843, in the midst of this debate, Eastlake is appointed Keeper (Curator) of the National Gallery, which had been established 19 years before. It was not a fortunate experience. In fact, the organizational structure of the National Gallery was still very cumbersome and Eastlake became the precise target of the pen of many journalists. He resigned in 1847. He resigns, but does not give up. I am reminded of the phrase that we just read :
“In the Arts, as in arms, discipline, practice, and opportunity, are necessary to the acquisitions of skill and confidence: in both want of experience may occasion failure at first: but nothing could lead to failure more effectually than the absence of sympathy and moral support on the part of the country”.
In 1849, at 56 years, Eastlake married Elizabeth Rigby (who was 40 years old). Now, the story of Elizabeth would deserve to be told in great detail, like that of Charles, but we are forced to be brief. And the only thing we can say is that, even if on the human level their marriage was tarnished by the loss of their child, theirs was indeed a happy marriage. Elizabeth is an intelligent and educated woman, coming from an upper middle class family (however, fallen into disgrace); she is a failed painter, but a proven translator; she is always ready to speak publicly and privately in defence of her husband. The two are inseparable. We owe to the Memoir by Elizabeth (understandably written with a laudatory tone) many details about the life and the work of Charles [6]. There is no doubt, in any case, that the proximity of the wife let Eastlake acquire even greater strength in working life. A successful marriage
In 1850 Eastlake was appointed President of the Royal Academy. He has in his hands the education of future British artists. Aside from a newfound efficiency of the organization, it does not seem, however, that the teaching methods will prove fundamentally altered, or that there are flagrant openings to new stylistic trends that are not precisely those typical of the Academy. Apparently, for example, the approval for the Pre-Raphaelites was not especially high (pp. 111-115), although an area of comparison there could have existed: the latter in fact referred to the Old Masters, whom Eastlake knew more than any other. But the Pre-Raphaelites challenged academic learning systems and Eastlake was first and foremost a man of institutions.
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| Charles Lock Eastlake on a page of the magazine The Illustrated London News |
In 1855, at the end of a long debate (even in parliament) on how to manage the institution, Charles is appointed as the first Director of the National Gallery. You cannot say that Eastlake is properly given carte blanche, in the sense that he must always report at least annually on its work to the Trustees of the Gallery (a task that he always performed with great diligence), but surely the creation of a Directorate permits to overcome many of the limitations with which our ex-painter (his latest paintings are of the late 1840s) had been confronted before. The contemporary presidency of the Royal Academy and National Gallery was unprecedented in Britain, but not a problem for Charles. “To Eastlake, the Academy and the Gallery were not in competition but were rather equal and co-dependant part of a larger scheme by which the nation’s artistic life would be enhanced. He saw there was dual roles, that of the Academy being to create a national school, and that of the Gallery to form a national collection” (p. 98). Offered to accept the assignment, Eastlake negotiated from a position of strength: “His requests were for personal executive power, the guarantee of a specified sum of money [note of the editor: for the National Gallery, to purchase paintings] and assistants of his own choosing. He made a condition of his appointment that two particular men be appointed at the same time: Ralph Nicholson Wornum as Keeper and Otto Mündler as Travelling Agent” (p. 135). Once again the rumour circulates that, if there were no other compelling candidates, the German Prince Albert would appoint the German Waagen ( as we have seen before, a friend of long standing of Eastlake ) as Director. Once again, an Englishman is needed with knowledge of the European world. Again, Eastlake is the right man at the right time.
In ten years (when he becomes Director, he is 62) Eastlake completely transforms the National Gallery. Takes care of everything, directly or through a third party:
the arrangement of the paintings, which are now divided by painting schools and not anymore by physical scale. He abolishes the old concept of " quadreria " and moves to the modern art gallery ;
the picture frames (frames of different types are used, depending on the school to which the works belong, based on considerations about the appropriate matching);
lighting of the rooms; the more modern side is preferred to a lighting coming from above;
the colours used on the walls of the halls; to decide about them, Eastlake follows some indications from Goethe's study on the Theory of Colours (which – as mentioned before - he had translated into English in 1840);
although officially the new catalogues are edited by Wornum, Eastlake conceives a new type of catalogues (in particular, it is worth mentioning various editions of the National Gallery 's Foreign Schools Catalogue, in which the conciseness of the information of previous versions (author, date of birth and death, title) gives way to a historical and stylistic framing of author and work, never forgetting about techniques of implementation) ;
in the Gallery appear the entries of paintings (often on the frames). The practice is derived from Germany, as some of those mentioned above. The public has the opportunity to get, directly on the wall, that information that he would have previously obtained before only purchasing the catalogue (old style).
Of course, the list could be much longer, but the truth is that the name of Eastlake is inextricably linked to the extraordinary number of masterpieces that he purchased for the National Gallery in ten years as Director. The objective of Eastlake (and the Victorian Empire) was very simple: to create a museum where the evolution of schools in all European countries and of course in England could be represented. This has to be kept in mind, because it helps explaining why some paintings (maybe judged qualitatively inferior compared to others, but more significant because they filled gaps in the collection) and not others were purchased. That said, the strategy is extremely simple. Eastlake uses his Travelling Agent, Otto Mündler (obviously a German) to monitor the market (Mündler is a connoisseur of the absolute level). Then every year, two months a year, in summer, Eastlake tours Europe with his wife and visits especially his beloved Italy, and makes sure he can see the paintings. Sometimes even more than once, after some time, to recalibrate his judgment. Eastlake goes everywhere.
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| The passport of Charles Lock Eastlake |
In deciding on purchases, he uses his extraordinary skills as a connoisseur. The authors cite a passage from Eastlake himself from the second edition of a collection of his writings (Contributions to the Literature of the Fine Arts) , published by the widow in 1870 (p. 152) :
“…[Connoisseurship] comprehends a familiarity with the characteristics of epochs, schools, and individual masters, together with a nicer discrimination which detects imitations from original works… The studies of the connoisseur may, however, take a wider range, and be directed… in addition to a practical and habitual acquaintance with specimens, and a discrimination of their relative claims, to penetrate the causes of the world’s admiration. On the whole, therefore, he may be said to combine the views of the philosophical artist with an erudition to which the artist seldom aspires”
The whole history of Eastlake, the years of Roman education, the focus on the techniques, his acquaintances (especially) in Germany, the first-person view of tens of thousands of art pieces and whatever else explain the qualities of the same connoisseur. It must be said, however, that the man owes a lot - and he admits it on several occasions - to the scientific method of Giovanni Morelli, whom he personally knows, admires as the greatest expert in the world and from whom he does not hesitate to seek advice if in doubt. [7]
The activity of connoisseur of Eastlake and his travels as director of the National Gallery (and, to be precise, even a few years earlier) are witnessed by his notebooks, now preserved in the archives of the institution of which he was Director. Of them 36 have lasted up to our days. While they are not all (we are missing four or five), their content is a mine of unimaginable wealth. Susanna Avery Quash, as we said at the beginning, has edited a splendid critical edition, sponsored by the Walpole Society, which will be discussed in a forthcoming post shortly.
It seems almost natural, at this point, that Eastlake passed away in Italy. Charles continued every year to perform his travels, and so did it in the summer of 1865, at 72 years old. But this time he gets sick almost immediately, and is forced to stay in Milan (where, of course, he continues to see paintings that are brought to its attention by the major Italian antiquarians). He goes on between highs and lows for several months, until the situation worsens. In an attempt to mitigate the rigors of winter, Eastlake is brought by his wife to Pisa, where he dies, on Christmas Eve of that year.
Speaking of the death of her husband, Elizabeth Rigby wrote a few lines, of course revealing pain, regret, and perhaps remorse: “No fatigues or discomforts deterred him from visiting the remotest parts of Italy: wherever the prospect was held out of securing (and in most cases rescuing) a work of interest, he patiently made his way… These foreign duties eventually entailed circumstances… which shortened his precious life” (p. 179).
It may seem that Elizabeth did not want her husband to travel anymore, given the age, and surely must have had qualms, but if there is one thing that cannot be doubted is that these journeys were a factor that kept the couple together, as the widow suggests on another occasion: “The fortunate necessity of travelling in quest of pictures was the best restorative for mind and body, after the fatigues of a London official life”.
And at the end , the image that we like to keep in mind, saluting, for now, the Eastlakes, is that of a happy couple, who could have safely remained at home, honoured and respected, but that decided nevertheless to visit any remote village of the just united Italy for the sake of art, but above all to make Victorian England greater. Charles and Elizabeth were able to repay in full the trust that had been given them.
NOTES
[1] Art for the Nation. Sir Charles Eastlake at the National Gallery. 27 July to 30 October 2011
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/eastlake
[2] "The very idea of keeping a notebook was inspired by the example of Sir Joshua Reynolds, whom Eastlake venerated, not only as a father of the English School of painting but as a writer and thinker of distinction; also, like Eastlake, he came from Devon. Eastlake's tour of northern European galleries made in 1828 followed in the footsteps of Reynolds, whose notes of a journey made in 1781 had been published in 1797 as The Journal of a Tour through Flanders and Holland: quoted by Susanna Avery-Quash, The Travel Notebooks of Sir Charles Eastlake, The Walpole Society, 2011, p. 12.
[3] Gli scritti d'arte della Antologia di G.P. Viesseux 1821-1833 (The art writings in the Antologia Viesseux), 6 volumes, edited by Paola Barocchi, S.P.E.S. editore, 1975-1979
[4] Please refer to Francesco Mazzaferro. How to Keep the Austro-Hungarian Empire Together: the Disputes on the National Style(s) and the Role of Albert Ilg, published in this blog.
[5] Quoted from an anthology of the writings of Eastlake, published in 1848 under the title Contributions to the Literature of the Fine Arts. This library owns a digital reprint by Kessinger Publishing
[6] The Memoirs are published as an introduction to the second edition (enlarged) of the Contributions to the Literature of the Fine Arts, edited and published by his widow in 1870.
[7] In 1891 Elizabeth Rigby (who died in 1893) published the obituary of Giovanni Morelli in the Quarterly Review (vol 173, p. 235-52 ) and , significantly, explained the meaning of connoisseurship using exactly with the same words used quoting the husband in 1870.
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