Collecting Murillo in Britain and Ireland
By: edited by Isabelle Kent
Publisher: Centro de Estudios Europa Hispánica
Published: 2020
Place of publication: Madrid, Spain
Language: eng
Number of pages: 346
ISBN-13: 9788415245964
Subjects: Appreciation; Art; Collectors and collecting; History; Influence; Biography
Description: The art of Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617?1682) captured the British imagination in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Wealthy collectors competed for the choicest pictures, artists imitated his styles and adopted his subjects, and much ink was spilled in praise of the painter. While Murillo?s popularity waned in the twentieth century, his legacy lives on in the great public collections of British and Irish museums ? unrivalled outside of Spain.0This book explores the collectors, connoisseurs, travellers and artists who brought Murillo?s art to prominence in the British Isles. Twelve distinguished academics and curators examine in rich detail how the taste for this artist grew and changed over the course of two centuries. They reassess collectors from Robert Walpole and Lawrence Dundas to John Meade, William Eden and Alfred Beit in light of the great value they placed on the Spaniard?s works, and consider in depth early scholarship by Richard Ford and William Stirling Maxwell. The complex networks of diplomats, travellers and expats in Madrid and Seville are scrutinised by scholars whose complementary approaches highlight the great interest in Murillo?s art in the period. Using a wealth of archival material, much of it unpublished, the authors have cast new light on these individuals, their collections and their relationship with an artist who helped shape British tastes for over a century.0Publication in association with The Wallace Collection.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 294-313) and index.