Two hundred years of women benefactors at the National Gallery: an exercise in mapping uncharted territory

This article sheds fresh light on women who have been important benefactors to the National Gallery from its foundation in 1824 to the present (2020), largely in terms of donating paintings but also through financial aid to support the acquisition of paintings and frames, building work, staff posts, publications, exhibitions, and various public events. Through a mixture of case-studies and basic data analysis, the following set of core questions is addressed: (1) Who were the Gallery’s women donors? (2) Which paintings did they give and in what other ways have they been generous to the Gallery? (3) What patterns within their donating can be discerned? (4) What were their motivations for their gift giving? (5) Why have their donations been easy to lose sight of? (6) What is the Gallery doing now, ahead of its 200th anniversary in 2024, to draw attention to the significant contributions of its women donors past and present? It is hoped that the information compiled here will act as a useful reference point for others in the field when probing similar types of provenance records and will encourage readers to share information to help us fill persisting gaps in our data

'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

During Charles Eastlake’s directorship of the National Gallery (1855-65), the collection was transformed into a visual survey of the history of western European painting. He acquired hitherto unrepresented schools of painting and implemented new ways to display and catalogue them. His knowledge was indebted to interactions with leading figures of the art world, especially on the Continent. This article explores his early and seminal friendship with Johann David Passavant, who became director of the Städel Museum, Frankfurt, focusing on their unpublished correspondence of the mid-1840s, preserved in Frankfurt University Library and the National Art Library, London. The article shows how their discussions increased their understanding of the origins and early development of oil painting and honed their art-historical methods of working into an empirical, source-based and collaborative practice. These matters were important for the impact they had on Eastlake’s pioneering book Materials for a History of Oil Painting (1847) and on Eastlake and Passavant’s work as museum directors

Artists Work in Museums: Histories Interventions Subjectivities

Artists Work in Museums: histories interventions and subjectivities brings together artists, historians and museum professionals to explore the history and contribution of artists working in museums as members of staff. It examines how the museum has functioned as a specific site of cultural production and subjective engagement for artists and designers in their role as directors, curators, project managers, and educators. Drawing on specific case studies and interviews, the essays document the historically contingent, problematic character of the artist museum professional, and his/her agency within the museum system

William Hazlitt’s Account of ‘Mr Angerstein’s Collection of Pictures’

Hazlitt’s account of the Angerstein Collection was published anonymously in 1822, two years before Lord Liverpool purchased thirty-eight pictures from it to form the nucleus of the National Gallery. This paper considers Hazlitt’s essay within the wider context of writing about art collections in the early nineteenth century, which was then a new and developing field, and compares it with other publications on Angerstein’s pictures to highlight the distinctive qualities of Hazlitt’s art criticism

John Gibson’s Friendship with Charles Eastlake and its Importance in Securing Gibson’s Reputation in London

This article traces the fifty-year friendship between John Gibson and the artist and writer Charles Eastlake. It focuses on their views on sculptural theory and practice, how Eastlake helped to secure Gibson’s reputation in London, and the impact their friendship had on the development of several British art institutions

Crossing Borders to engage People through Art: Education and Outreach at Southampton City Art Gallery, 1974–2008

Southampton City Art Gallery is a much admired place of energy and activity. This article investigates the ambitious educational provision developed by Southampton’s art gallery for three decades from the appointment of its first Keeper of Education in 1974. It aims to record a significant moment in the history of UK museum education and to consider approaches that may be useful for museums today as they seek to re-connect audiences with art after a testing period of non-physical access due to the global pandemic. It shares new research undertaken for the exhibition, Creating a National Collection: The Partnership between Southampton City Art Gallery and The National Gallery (Southampton, 28 May-5 September 2021), the major outcome of an Art Fund Curatorial Traineeship project between the two institutions (2019–21)