Description
By (author) Bryant, Julius
Short /annotation:
The first book to consider the V&A as a work of art in itself and to present a wide variety of visual material relating to the Museum”s 19th-century interiors, much of it previously unpublished.
:
The building of the Victoria and Albert Museum, begun in 1857, is the most elaborately designed and decorated museum in Britain. This book is the first to consider the V&A as a work of art in itself, presenting drawings, watercolours and historic photographs relating to the museum’s 19th-century exteriors and interiors. Much of this visual material is previously unpublished and is outside the canon of Victorian art and design.
The V&A’s first Director, Henry Cole, conceived the museum’s building as a showcase for leading Victorian artists to design and decorate. This book reveals for the first time the ways in which Cole’s expressed policy to ‘assemble a splendid collection of objects representing the application of Fine Arts to manufacture’ was applied to the fabric of the building, as he engaged leading painters such as Frederic Leighton, G.F. Watts and Edward Burne-Jones, as well as specialists in decoration such as Owen Jones and Morris and Company, to decorate and design for a building raised by engineers using innovatory materials and techniques.
This book represents a fascinating, untold chapter in the history of British 19th-century art, design, architecture and museums, and provides an essential key to understanding the evolution of the museum’s early collections and identity.
Table of contents:
Part I: Introduction: 1 Building the Museum; 2 The Museum as a Work of Art; 3 A Summary Timeline; Part II: Designs and Decoration: A Parkland Setting; The South Kensington Museum; The Refreshment Rooms; The Ceramic Stairs and Galleries; The Lecture Theatre; The Paintings Galleries and the North Staircase; The North Court; The South Courts; The ”Kensington Valhalla”; The Oriental Courts; The Prince Consort”s Gallery; The National Competition Gallery; Frederic Leighton”s Frescoes; The East Staircase; The National Art Library; The Cast Courts; The Grand Entrance and the Long Gallery; The Pantheon of British Art; The Henry Cole Wing; Exhibition Road; Endnotes; Index
Biographical note:
Julius Bryant is Keeper of Word and Image at theVictoria and Albert Museum, with responsibility for Paintings, Prints, Drawingsand Photographs, the National Art Library and the Archive of Art and Design.From 2005 to 2017 he was also the V&A’s lead curator for exhibitions onJames ‘Athenian’ Stuart, on William Kent and on John Lockwood Kipling (all incollaboration with the Bard Graduate Center, New York City, as co-curator andsenior research fellow). He is author of Alec Cobbe: Designs forHistoric Interiors (V&A, 2014), editor of Art and Design forAll: The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A, 2011) and co-editor of Word& Image: Art, Books and Design from the National Art Library (V&A,2015).
Primary cover copy:
The building of the Victoria andAlbert Museum, begun in 1857, is the most elaborately designed and decoratedmuseum in Britain. This book is the first to consider the V&A as a work ofart in itself, presenting drawings, watercolours and historic photographsrelating to the museum’s 19th-century exteriors and interiors. Much of this visualmaterial is previously unpublished and is outside the canon of Victorian artand design.
The V&A’s first Director, HenryCole, conceived the museum’s building as a showcase for leading Victorianartists to design and decorate. This book reveals for the first time the waysin which Cole’s expressed policy to ‘assemble a splendid collection of objectsrepresenting the application of Fine Arts to manufacture’ was applied to thefabric of the building, as he engaged leading painters such as FredericLeighton, G
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