1.
1830 in art
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Events from the year 1830 in art. David Wilkie appointed Principal Painter in Ordinary to King William IV of the United Kingdom following the death of Sir Thomas Lawrence, clarkson Stanfields panorama The Military Pass of the Simplon is featured in a Christmas pantomime in London. Edward Lear commences publication of the lithographed Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, approximate beginning of the Barbizon school of painters. Agustín Esteve, Spanish portraitist and royal court painter Jean-Baptiste Giraud, French sculptor
2.
1824 in architecture
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The year 1824 in architecture involved some significant events. The Second Bank of the United States in Philadelphia, designed by William Strickland, is completed, Camden Chapel, Camden Town, London, designed by William and Henry Inwood, is completed. Commissioners churches in London completed, St Annes Church, Wandsworth, St Lukes Church, Chelsea, designed by James Savage. St Marys, Bryanston Square, designed by Robert Smirke, St Matthews Church, Brixton, London, designed by Charles F. Porden, is completed. St Andrews Church, Liverpool, England, designed by Daniel Stewart, St James Church, Sydney, Australia, designed by Francis Greenway, is consecrated. The Edinburgh Academy in Scotland, designed by William Burn, is opened, the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth, Massachusetts, designed by Alexander Parris, is opened. The Chatham Garden Theatre in New York City, designed by George Conklin, is opened, the Kurhaus of Baden-Baden in Germany is designed by Friedrich Weinbrenner. Park Square, London, designed by John Nash, is completed, abbotsford House in Scotland is completed for Sir Walter Scott. Final remodelling of the houses that will become Sir John Soanes Museum in London by Soane is completed, reconstruction of Windsor Castle, England, to the design of Jeffry Wyattville, commences. Windsor Bridge across the River Thames in England, designed by Charles Hollis, is opened, aldford Iron Bridge across the River Dee in Cheshire, England, designed by Thomas Telford, is completed. Pochtamtsky Bridge in Saint Petersburg, designed by Wilhelm von Traitteur, grand Prix de Rome, architecture, Henri Labrouste
3.
1824 in literature
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This article presents lists of the literary events and publications in 1824. January 24 – First issue of the radical quarterly founded by Jeremy Bentham, February 9 – Because of his familys dire financial straits, Charles Dickens, just turned 12, begins work in a blacking factory in London. On February 23 his father, John Dickens, is committed to the Marshalsea prison as a debtor, February 15 – Lord Byron falls ill at Missolonghi while taking part in the Greek War of Independence, dying of fever on April 19. April – The United States Literary Gazette, a semi-monthly, begins publication and it publishes poetry by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and William Cullen Bryant, among many others. May 7 – Première of Beethovens Symphony No.9 at the Theater am Kärntnertor in Vienna, opposed only by Thomas Moore, the two volumes of memoirs are dismembered and burnt in the fireplace at the John Murray s office,50 Albemarle Street in London. June 21 – The Vagrancy Act in England provides for the prosecution of every Person wilfully exposing to view, or public Place, any obscene Print, Picture, or other indecent Exhibition. Julia Catherine Beckwiths St. Ursula’s Convent or, The Nun of Canada, the periodicals The Childrens Friend and The Childs Companion both publish their first issues
4.
John Julius Angerstein
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John Julius Angerstein a London businessman and Lloyds under-writer, was a patron of the fine arts and a collector. It was the prospect that his collection of paintings was about to be sold by his estate in 1824 that galvanised the founding of the British National Gallery, John Julius Angerstein was born in 1732 in St Petersburg, Russia. It has wrongly been suggested that he was a son of empress Catherine II or of Elizabeth. In 1771 Angerstein married Anna Crockett at St Peter-le-Poer, Old Broad Street and they had two children - Juliana, who married General Nikolai Sablukov of the Russian service, and John Angerstein. Anna died in 1783, and in 1785 John Julius Angerstein married Eliza Lucas, a portrait of Angerstein and his second wife, Eliza, by Thomas Lawrence was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1792. In his role as a merchant Angerstein was said to own a share in slave estates in Grenada. Angerstein was chairman of Lloyds from 1790 to 1796 and counted king George III, British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, although a slave owner, he was also on the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor an organisation with strong abolitionist connections. After a number of attacks on women by the so-called London Monster. Among his earliest art purchases was The Rape of the Sabines by Rubens, later acquisitions included works by Rembrandt, Velázquez, Titian, Raphael, Correggio and Hogarth, plus early drawings by J. M. W. From the sale in London of the French Orleans Collection he bought The Raising of Lazarus by Sebastiano del Piombo and other works. After his death, thirty-eight of his finest paintings were bought by the British government for £60,000 to form the nucleus of the collection of the British National Gallery. Until the National Gallery was built in Trafalgar Square in London and he lived for some years in Greenwich in south-east London, leasing a 54-acre estate from Sir Gregory Page in 1774 and over the next two years building a house, Woodlands. This area is now known as Westcombe Park, part of an area on the north-eastern fringes of Blackheath that he sought to enclose in 1801. The house fell empty in 1870 when Johns grandson William Angerstein relinquished the lease, as an active church-goer, he worshipped at St Alfeges Church, Greenwich, where he was also churchwarden. His familys connections with Greenwich are still commemorated, Angerstein Lane, near the heath at Blackheath, bears the family name. A public house, The Angerstein Hotel, is on Woolwich Road, Greenwich, John Julius Angerstein, Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed. Vol. II, New York, Charles Scribners Sons,1878, p.29. John Julius Angerstein, Encyclopædia Britannica, 11th ed. Vol. II, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press,1911, biography and Collection from the National Gallery
5.
National Gallery
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The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the century to 1900. The Gallery is a charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media. Its collection belongs to the public of the United Kingdom and entry to the collection is free of charge. It is among the most visited art museums in the world, after the Musée du Louvre, the British Museum, unlike comparable museums in continental Europe, the National Gallery was not formed by nationalising an existing royal or princely art collection. It came into being when the British government bought 38 paintings from the heirs of John Julius Angerstein, after that initial purchase the Gallery was shaped mainly by its early directors, notably Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, and by private donations, which comprise two-thirds of the collection. It used to be claimed that this was one of the few national galleries that had all its works on permanent exhibition, the present building, the third to house the National Gallery, was designed by William Wilkins from 1832 to 1838. Only the façade onto Trafalgar Square remains essentially unchanged from this time, wilkinss building was often criticised for the perceived weaknesses of its design and for its lack of space, the latter problem led to the establishment of the Tate Gallery for British art in 1897. The Sainsbury Wing, an extension to the west by Robert Venturi, the current Director of the National Gallery is Gabriele Finaldi. The late 18th century saw the nationalisation of royal or princely art collections across mainland Europe, great Britain, however, did not emulate the continental model, and the British Royal Collection remains in the sovereigns possession today. In 1777 the British government had the opportunity to buy an art collection of international stature, the MP John Wilkes argued for the government to buy this invaluable treasure and suggested that it be housed in a noble gallery. The twenty-five paintings from that now in the Gallery, including NG1, have arrived by a variety of routes. This offer was declined and Bourgeois bequeathed the collection to his old school, Dulwich College, the collection opened in Britains first purpose-built public gallery, the Dulwich Picture Gallery, in 1814. The British Institution, founded in 1805 by a group of aristocratic connoisseurs, the members lent works to exhibitions that changed annually, while an art school was held in the summer months. However, as the paintings that were lent were often mediocre, some resented the Institution. One of the Institutions founding members, Sir George Beaumont, Bt, in 1823 another major art collection came on the market, which had been assembled by the recently deceased John Julius Angerstein. Angerstein was a Russian-born émigré banker based in London, his collection numbered 38 paintings, including works by Raphael, on 1 July 1823 George Agar Ellis, a Whig politician, proposed to the House of Commons that it purchase the collection. The appeal was given added impetus by Beaumonts offer, which came with two conditions, that the government buy Angersteins collection, and that a building was to be found
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London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
7.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
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Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter. A man profoundly respectful of the past, he assumed the role of a guardian of orthodoxy against the ascendant Romantic style represented by his nemesis. His exemplars, he explained, were the great masters which flourished in that century of glorious memory when Raphael set the eternal. I am thus a conservator of good doctrine, and not an innovator, Ingres was born in Montauban, Tarn-et-Garonne, France, the first of seven children of Jean-Marie-Joseph Ingres and his wife Anne Moulet. From his father the young Ingres received early encouragement and instruction in drawing and music, and his first known drawing, the deficiency in his schooling would always remain for him a source of insecurity. In 1791, Joseph Ingres took his son to Toulouse, where the young Jean-Auguste-Dominique was enrolled in the Académie Royale de Peinture, Sculpture et Architecture, there he studied under the sculptor Jean-Pierre Vigan, the landscape painter Jean Briant, and the neoclassical painter Guillaume-Joseph Roques. Roques veneration of Raphael was an influence on the young artist. Ingres won prizes in several disciplines, such as composition, figure and antique and his musical talent was developed under the tutelage of the violinist Lejeune, and from the ages of thirteen to sixteen he played second violin in the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse. Ingres followed his masters neoclassical example but revealed, according to David and his trip to Rome, however, was postponed until 1806, when the financially strained government finally appropriated the travel funds. Working in Paris alongside several other students of David in a provided by the state. He found inspiration in the works of Raphael, in Etruscan vase paintings, in 1802 he made his debut at the Salon with Portrait of a Woman. The following year brought a commission, when Ingres was one of five artists selected to paint full-length portraits of Napoleon Bonaparte as First Consul. These were to be distributed to the towns of Liège, Antwerp, Dunkerque, Brussels. In the summer of 1806 Ingres became engaged to Marie-Anne-Julie Forestier, although he had hoped to stay in Paris long enough to witness the opening of that years Salon, in which he was to display several works, he reluctantly left for Italy just days before the opening. Chaussard condemned Ingress style as gothic and asked, How, with so much talent, a line so flawless, the answer is that he wanted to do something singular, something extraordinary. M. Ingress intention is nothing less than to make art regress by four centuries, to carry us back to its infancy, Ingres stylistic eclecticism represented a new tendency in art. As art historian Marjorie Cohn has written, At the time, Artists and critics outdid each other in their attempts to identify, interpret, and exploit what they were just beginning to perceive as historical stylistic developments. From the beginning of his career, Ingres freely borrowed from earlier art, adopting the style appropriate to his subject
8.
Salon (Paris)
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The Salon, or rarely Paris Salon, beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world, at the 1761 Salon, thirty-three painters, nine sculptors, and eleven engravers contributed. From 1881 onward, it has been managed by the Société des Artistes Français, in 1667, the royally sanctioned French institution of art patronage, the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture, held its first semi-public art exhibit at the Salon Carré. The Salons original focus was the display of the work of recent graduates of the École des Beaux-Arts, exhibition at the Salon de Paris was essential for any artist to achieve success in France for at least the next 200 years. Exhibition in the Salon marked a sign of royal favor, in 1725, the Salon was held in the Palace of the Louvre, when it became known as Salon or Salon de Paris. In 1737, the exhibitions, held from 18 August 1737 to 5 September 1737 at the Grand Salon of the Louvre and they were held, at first, annually, and then biennially, in odd-numbered years. They would start on the feast day of St. Louis, once made regular and public, the Salons status was never seriously in doubt. In 1748 a jury of awarded artists was introduced, from this time forward, the influence of the Salon was undisputed. The Salon exhibited paintings floor-to-ceiling and on every inch of space. The jostling of artwork became the subject of other paintings. Printed catalogues of the Salons are primary documents for art historians, critical descriptions of the exhibitions published in the gazettes mark the beginning of the modern occupation of art critic. The French revolution opened the exhibition to foreign artists, the vernissage of opening night was a grand social occasion, and a crush that gave subject matter to newspaper caricaturists like Honoré Daumier. Charles Baudelaire, Denis Diderot and others wrote reviews of the Salons, the 1848 revolution liberalized the Salon. The amount of refused works was greatly reduced, the increasingly conservative and academic juries were not receptive to the Impressionist painters, whose works were usually rejected, or poorly placed if accepted. The Salon opposed the Impressionists shift away from traditional painting styles, in 1863 the Salon jury turned away an unusually high number of the submitted paintings. An uproar resulted, particularly from regular exhibitors who had been rejected, in order to prove that the Salons were democratic, Napoleon III instituted the Salon des Refusés, containing a selection of the works that the Salon had rejected that year. It opened on 17 May 1863, marking the birth of the avant-garde, the Impressionists held their own independent exhibitions in 1874,1876,1877,1879,1880,1881,1882 and 1886. In 1881, the government withdrew official sponsorship from the annual Salon, in December 1890, the leader of the Société des Artistes Français, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, propagated the idea that Salon should be an exhibition of young, not-yet awarded, artists
9.
John Constable
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John Constable, RA was an English Romantic painter. Born in Suffolk, he is principally for his landscape paintings of Dedham Vale. I should paint my own places best, he wrote to his friend John Fisher in 1821, painting is and his most famous paintings include Wivenhoe Park of 1816, Dedham Vale of 1802 and The Hay Wain of 1821. Although his paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art and he did not become a member of the establishment until he was elected to the Royal Academy at the age of 52. His work was embraced in France, where he sold more works than in his native England, John Constable was born in East Bergholt, a village on the River Stour in Suffolk, to Golding and Ann Constable. His father was a corn merchant, owner of Flatford Mill in East Bergholt and, later. Golding Constable owned a ship, The Telegraph, which he moored at Mistley on the Stour estuary. He was a cousin of the London tea merchant, Abram Newman, although Constable was his parents second son, his older brother was intellectually disabled and John was expected to succeed his father in the business. After a brief period at a school in Lavenham, he was enrolled in a day school in Dedham. Constable worked in the business after leaving school, but his younger brother Abram eventually took over the running of the mills. In his youth, Constable embarked on amateur sketching trips in the surrounding Suffolk and Essex countryside, which was to become the subject of a large proportion of his art. These scenes, in his own words, made me a painter, and I am grateful, the sound of water escaping from mill dams etc. willows, old planks, slimy posts. He was introduced to George Beaumont, a collector, who showed him his prized Hagar and the Angel by Claude Lorrain, in 1799, Constable persuaded his father to let him pursue a career in art, and Golding granted him a small allowance. Entering the Royal Academy Schools as a probationer, he attended classes and anatomical dissections. Among works that inspired him during this period were paintings by Thomas Gainsborough, Claude Lorrain, Peter Paul Rubens, Annibale Carracci. He also read widely among poetry and sermons, and later proved a notably articulate artist, by 1803, he was exhibiting paintings at the Royal Academy. In 1802 he refused the position of drawing master at Great Marlow Military College, Constables usual subjects, scenes of ordinary daily life, were unfashionable in an age that looked for more romantic visions of wild landscapes and ruins. He made occasional trips further afield, in 1803 he spent almost a month aboard the East Indiaman ship Coutts as it visited south-east ports, and in 1806 he undertook a two-month tour of the Lake District
10.
Caspar David Friedrich
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Caspar David Friedrich was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning mists, barren trees or Gothic or megalithic ruins. His primary interest as an artist was the contemplation of nature, Friedrich was born in the Pomeranian town of Greifswald at the Baltic Sea, where he began his studies in art as a young man. He studied in Copenhagen until 1798, before settling in Dresden and he came of age during a period when, across Europe, a growing disillusionment with materialistic society was giving rise to a new appreciation of spirituality. Friedrichs work brought him early in his career, and contemporaries such as the French sculptor David dAngers spoke of him as a man who had discovered the tragedy of landscape. Nevertheless, his work fell from favour during his years, and he died in obscurity. The early 20th century brought a renewed appreciation of his work, beginning in 1906 with an exhibition of thirty-two of his paintings and sculptures in Berlin. By the 1920s his paintings had been discovered by the Expressionists and it was not until the late 1970s that Friedrich regained his reputation as an icon of the German Romantic movement and a painter of international importance. Caspar David Friedrich was born on 5 September 1774, in Greifswald, Swedish Pomerania, the sixth of ten children, he was brought up in the strict Lutheran creed of his father Adolf Gottlieb Friedrich, a candle-maker and soap boiler. Records of the financial circumstances are contradictory, while some sources indicate the children were privately tutored. Caspar David was familiar with death from an early age and his mother, Sophie Dorothea Bechly, died in 1781 when he was just seven. A year later, his sister Elisabeth died, while a sister, Maria. Some accounts suggest that Johann Christoffer perished while trying to rescue Caspar David, Quistorp took his students on outdoor drawing excursions, as a result, Friedrich was encouraged to sketch from life at an early age. Through Quistorp, Friedrich met and was influenced by the theologian Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten. Quistorp introduced Friedrich to the work of the German 17th-century artist Adam Elsheimer, whose works often included religious subjects dominated by landscape, during this period he also studied literature and aesthetics with Swedish professor Thomas Thorild. Four years later Friedrich entered the prestigious Academy of Copenhagen, where he began his education by making copies of casts from antique sculptures before proceeding to drawing from life, living in Copenhagen afforded the young painter access to the Royal Picture Gallerys collection of 17th-century Dutch landscape painting. At the Academy he studied under such as Christian August Lorentzen. Mood was paramount, and influence was drawn from sources as the Icelandic legend of Edda
11.
Edwin Landseer
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Sir Edwin Henry Landseer RA was an English painter, well known for his paintings of animals—particularly horses, dogs and stags. However, his best known works are the sculptures in Trafalgar Square. Landseer was born in London, the son of the engraver John Landseer A. R. A and he was something of a prodigy whose artistic talents were recognised early on. Landseers life was entwined with the Royal Academy, at the age of just 13, in 1815, he exhibited works there. He was elected an Associate at the age of 24, and he was knighted in 1850, and although elected President in 1866 he declined the invitation. In the last few years of his life Landseers mental stability was problematic, Landseer was a notable figure in 19th-century British art, and his works can be found in Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Kenwood House and the Wallace Collection in London. He also collaborated with fellow painter Frederick Richard Lee, Landseers popularity in Victorian Britain was considerable, and his reputation as an animal painter was unrivalled. Much of his fame—and his income—was generated by the publication of engravings of his work and his appeal crossed class boundaries, reproductions of his works were common in middle-class homes, while he was also popular with the aristocracy. Queen Victoria commissioned numerous pictures from the artist and he taught both Victoria and Albert to etch, and made portraits of Victorias children as babies, usually in the company of a dog. He also made two portraits of Victoria and Albert dressed for costume balls, at which he was a guest himself, one of his last paintings was a life-size equestrian portrait of the Queen, shown at the Royal Academy in 1873, made from earlier sketches. Landseer was particularly associated with Scotland, which he had first visited in 1824 and the Highlands in particular, in 1828, he was commissioned to produce illustrations for the Waverley Edition of Sir Walter Scotts novels. It was this variety Landseer popularised in his paintings celebrating Newfoundlands as water dogs, most notably Off to the Rescue, A Distinguished Member of the Humane Society. Landseers painting Laying Down The Law satirises the profession through anthropomorphism. It shows a group of dogs, with a poodle symbolising the Lord Chancellor, the Shrew Tamed, was entered at the 1861 Royal Academy Exhibition and caused controversy because of its subject matter. It showed a horse on its knees among straw in a stable, while a lovely young woman lies with her head pillowed on its flanks. The catalogue explained it as a portrait of a noted equestrienne, Ann Gilbert, walters was an excellent horsewoman and along with other pretty horsebreakers, frequently appeared riding in Hyde Park. Some of Landseers later works, such as his Flood in the Highlands and Man Proposes, the latter shows two polar bears toying with the bones of the dead and other remains, from Sir John Franklins failed arctic expedition. The painting was purchased at auction by Thomas Holloway and hangs in the gallery of Royal Holloway
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Scotland
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Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and covers the northern third of the island of Great Britain. It shares a border with England to the south, and is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east. In addition to the mainland, the country is made up of more than 790 islands, including the Northern Isles, the Kingdom of Scotland emerged as an independent sovereign state in the Early Middle Ages and continued to exist until 1707. By inheritance in 1603, James VI, King of Scots, became King of England and King of Ireland, Scotland subsequently entered into a political union with the Kingdom of England on 1 May 1707 to create the new Kingdom of Great Britain. The union also created a new Parliament of Great Britain, which succeeded both the Parliament of Scotland and the Parliament of England. Within Scotland, the monarchy of the United Kingdom has continued to use a variety of styles, titles, the legal system within Scotland has also remained separate from those of England and Wales and Northern Ireland, Scotland constitutes a distinct jurisdiction in both public and private law. Glasgow, Scotlands largest city, was one of the worlds leading industrial cities. Other major urban areas are Aberdeen and Dundee, Scottish waters consist of a large sector of the North Atlantic and the North Sea, containing the largest oil reserves in the European Union. This has given Aberdeen, the third-largest city in Scotland, the title of Europes oil capital, following a referendum in 1997, a Scottish Parliament was re-established, in the form of a devolved unicameral legislature comprising 129 members, having authority over many areas of domestic policy. Scotland is represented in the UK Parliament by 59 MPs and in the European Parliament by 6 MEPs, Scotland is also a member nation of the British–Irish Council, and the British–Irish Parliamentary Assembly. Scotland comes from Scoti, the Latin name for the Gaels, the Late Latin word Scotia was initially used to refer to Ireland. By the 11th century at the latest, Scotia was being used to refer to Scotland north of the River Forth, alongside Albania or Albany, the use of the words Scots and Scotland to encompass all of what is now Scotland became common in the Late Middle Ages. Repeated glaciations, which covered the land mass of modern Scotland. It is believed the first post-glacial groups of hunter-gatherers arrived in Scotland around 12,800 years ago, the groups of settlers began building the first known permanent houses on Scottish soil around 9,500 years ago, and the first villages around 6,000 years ago. The well-preserved village of Skara Brae on the mainland of Orkney dates from this period and it contains the remains of an early Bronze Age ruler laid out on white quartz pebbles and birch bark. It was also discovered for the first time that early Bronze Age people placed flowers in their graves, in the winter of 1850, a severe storm hit Scotland, causing widespread damage and over 200 deaths. In the Bay of Skaill, the storm stripped the earth from a large irregular knoll, when the storm cleared, local villagers found the outline of a village, consisting of a number of small houses without roofs. William Watt of Skaill, the laird, began an amateur excavation of the site, but after uncovering four houses
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Walter Scott
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Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet, FRSE was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright and poet. Many of his works remain classics of both English-language literature and of Scottish literature, famous titles include Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, Old Mortality, The Lady of the Lake, Waverley, The Heart of Midlothian and The Bride of Lammermoor. A prominent member of the Tory establishment in Edinburgh, Scott was an member of the Highland Society. He survived a bout of polio in 1773 that left him lame. To cure his lameness he was sent in 1773 to live in the rural Scottish Borders at his grandparents farm at Sandyknowe, adjacent to the ruin of Smailholm Tower. Here he was taught to read by his aunt Jenny, and learned from her the speech patterns and many of the tales and legends that characterised much of his work. In January 1775 he returned to Edinburgh, and that went with his aunt Jenny to take spa treatment at Bath in England. In the winter of 1776 he went back to Sandyknowe, with another attempt at a cure at Prestonpans during the following summer. In 1778, Scott returned to Edinburgh for private education to him for school. In October 1779 he began at the Royal High School of Edinburgh and he was now well able to walk and explore the city and the surrounding countryside. His reading included chivalric romances, poems, history and travel books and he was given private tuition by James Mitchell in arithmetic and writing, and learned from him the history of the Church of Scotland with emphasis on the Covenanters. Scott began studying classics at the University of Edinburgh in November 1783, at the age of 12, in March 1786 he began an apprenticeship in his fathers office to become a Writer to the Signet. While at the university Scott had become a friend of Adam Ferguson, Scott met the blind poet Thomas Blacklock, who lent him books and introduced him to James Macphersons Ossian cycle of poems. During the winter of 1786–87 the 15-year-old Scott saw Robert Burns at one of these salons, for what was to be their only meeting. When Burns noticed a print illustrating the poem The Justice of the Peace and asked who had written the poem, only Scott knew that it was by John Langhorne, and was thanked by Burns. When it was decided that he would become a lawyer, he returned to the university to study law, first taking classes in Moral Philosophy, after completing his studies in law, he became a lawyer in Edinburgh. As a lawyers clerk he made his first visit to the Scottish Highlands directing an eviction and he was admitted to the Faculty of Advocates in 1792. He had an unsuccessful love suit with Williamina Belsches of Fettercairn, as a boy, youth and young man, Scott was fascinated by the oral traditions of the Scottish Borders
14.
The Sea of Ice
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The Sea of Ice, also called The Wreck of Hope is an oil painting of 1823–1824 by the German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich. The landscape depicts a shipwreck in the middle of a broken ice-sheet, the ice has become like a monolithic tomb, or dolmen, whose edges jut into the sky. The stern of the wreck is just visible on the right, as an inscription on it confirms, this is HMS Griper, one of two ships that took part in William Edward Parrys 1819–1820 and 1824 expeditions to the North Pole. The two titles originally referred to the present work and another work by Friedrich, now missing. The lost painting was shown in 1822 at the Dresden Academy exhibition under the title A Wrecked Ship off the Coast of Greenland in the Moonlight. The present painting was first shown in 1824 at the Prague Academy exhibition under the title An Idealized Scene of an Arctic Sea, in Friedrichs estate this work was described as Ice Picture. The collector Johann Gottlob von Quandt commissioned two pictures that were to symbolize the south and the north. However, as Schukowski in a letter dated 1821 reported, Friedrich - himself does not even know what he will paint, he waits for the moment of inspiration, which occasionally comes in a dream. In the winter of 1820–21, Friedrich made extensive oil studies of ice floes on the river Elbe and these were probably incorporated into The Sea of Ice. The image created an impression on the French sculptor David dAngers during his visit to Dresden in 1834. He has understood completely how to represent in landscape the great struggles of nature, overall, however, the work was seen as too radical in composition, and went unsold until after Friedrichs death in 1840. From the twentieth century the work has proved influential upon the arctic landscapes of Lawren Harris. The surface is uneven, rising like the waves of a troubled sea. Architect Thom Mayne references The Sea of Ice as an influence as to how he approaches the dynamic relationship between architecture, landscape, and nature. The painting appears on the cover of the album The Mekons and it also appears on the cover of the album Return to the Sea by indie rock band Islands
15.
Henry IV of France
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Henry IV, also known by the epithet Good King Henry, was King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610 and King of France from 1589 to 1610. He was the first French monarch of the House of Bourbon, baptised as a Catholic but raised in the Protestant faith by his mother Jeanne dAlbret, Queen of Navarre, he inherited the throne of Navarre in 1572 on the death of his mother. As a Huguenot, Henry was involved in the French Wars of Religion, barely escaping assassination in the St. Bartholomews Day massacre, and later led Protestant forces against the royal army. Henry, as Head of the House of Bourbon, was a direct descendant of Louis IX of France. Upon the death of his brother-in-law and distant cousin Henry III of France in 1589 and he initially kept the Protestant faith and had to fight against the Catholic League, which denied that he could wear Frances crown as a Protestant. To obtain mastery over his kingdom, after four years of stalemate, as a pragmatic politician, he displayed an unusual religious tolerance for the era. Notably, he promulgated the Edict of Nantes, which guaranteed religious liberties to Protestants and he was assassinated in 1610 by François Ravaillac, a fanatical Catholic, and was succeeded by his son Louis XIII. Considered a usurper by some Catholics and a traitor by some Protestants, an unpopular king immediately after his accession, Henrys popularity greatly improved after his death, in light of repeated victories over his enemies and his conversion to Catholicism. The Good King Henry was remembered for his geniality and his concern about the welfare of his subjects. He was celebrated in the popular song Vive le roi Henri, Henry was born in Pau, the capital of the joint Kingdom of Navarre with the sovereign principality of Béarn. His parents were Queen Joan III of Navarre and her consort, Antoine de Bourbon, Duke of Vendôme, although baptised as a Roman Catholic, Henry was raised as a Protestant by his mother, who had declared Calvinism the religion of Navarre. As a teenager, Henry joined the Huguenot forces in the French Wars of Religion, on 9 June 1572, upon his mothers death, he became King of Navarre. At Queen Joans death, it was arranged for Henry to marry Margaret of Valois, daughter of Henry II, the wedding took place in Paris on 18 August 1572 on the parvis of Notre Dame Cathedral. On 24 August, the Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre began in Paris, several thousand Protestants who had come to Paris for Henrys wedding were killed, as well as thousands more throughout the country in the days that followed. Henry narrowly escaped death thanks to the help of his wife and he was made to live at the court of France, but he escaped in early 1576. On 5 February of that year, he formally abjured Catholicism at Tours and he named his 16-year-old sister, Catherine de Bourbon, regent of Béarn. Catherine held the regency for nearly thirty years, Henry became heir presumptive to the French throne in 1584 upon the death of Francis, Duke of Anjou, brother and heir to the Catholic Henry III, who had succeeded Charles IX in 1574. Because Henry of Navarre was the senior agnatic descendant of King Louis IX, King Henry III had no choice
16.
Louvre
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The Louvre or the Louvre Museum is the worlds largest museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the citys 1st arrondissement, approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. The Louvre is the second most visited museum after the Palace Museum in China. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th century under Philip II, remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace, in 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nations masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum renamed Musée Napoléon, the collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic, whether this was the first building on that spot is not known, it is possible that Philip modified an existing tower. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den, in the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris to a monastery. This territory probably did not correspond exactly to the modern site, the Louvre Palace was altered frequently throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvres holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vincis Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed, however, on 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. Under Louis XVI, the museum idea became policy. The comte dAngiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the French Museum, many proposals were offered for the Louvres renovation into a museum, however, none was agreed on. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution, during the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences, on 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection in the Louvre became national property
17.
Louis Daguerre
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Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was a French artist and photographer, recognized for his invention of the daguerreotype process of photography. He became known as one of the fathers of photography, though he is most famous for his contributions to photography, he was also an accomplished painter and a developer of the diorama theatre. Louis Daguerre was born in Cormeilles-en-Parisis, Val-dOise, France and he was apprenticed in architecture, theatre design, and panoramic painting to Pierre Prévost, the first French panorama painter. Exceedingly adept at his skill of theatrical illusion, he became a designer for the theatre, and later came to invent the diorama. In 1829, Daguerre partnered with Nicéphore Niépce, an inventor who had produced the worlds first heliograph in 1822, Niépce died suddenly in 1833, but Daguerre continued experimenting, and evolved the process which would subsequently be known as the daguerreotype. After efforts to interest private investors proved fruitless, Daguerre went public with his invention in 1839, under assurances of strict confidentiality, Daguerre explained and demonstrated the process only to the Academys perpetual secretary François Arago, who proved to be an invaluable advocate. Members of the Academy and other individuals were allowed to examine specimens at Daguerres studio. The images were enthusiastically praised as nearly miraculous, and news of the daguerreotype quickly spread, in 1839, he was elected to the National Academy of Design as an Honorary Academician. Daguerre died on 10 July 1851 in Bry-sur-Marne,12 km from Paris, a monument marks his grave there. Daguerres name is one of the 72 names inscribed on the Eiffel tower, in the mid-1820s, prior to his association with Daguerre, Niépce used a coating of bitumen of Judea to make the first permanent camera photographs. The bitumen was hardened where it was exposed to light and the portion was then removed with a solvent. A camera exposure lasting for hours or days was required, Niépce and Daguerre later refined this process, but unacceptably long exposures were still needed. After the death of Niépce in 1833, Daguerre concentrated his attention on the properties of silver salts. The plate was exposed in the camera. Upon seeing the image, the contents of which are unknown, Daguerre said, the latent image on a daguerreotype plate was developed by subjecting it to the vapor given off by mercury heated to 75 °C. The resulting visible image was then fixed by removing the silver iodide with concentrated and heated salt water. Later, a solution of the more effective hypo was used instead, the resultant plate produced an exact reproduction of the scene. The image was laterally reversed—as images in mirrors are—unless a mirror or inverting prism was used during exposure to flip the image, daguerreotypes were usually portraits, the rarer landscape views and other unusual subjects are now much sought-after by collectors and sell for much higher prices than ordinary portraits
18.
The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel
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The Ruins of Holyrood Chapel is an oil on canvas painting of the Holyrood Abbey completed around 1824 by the French artist Louis Daguerre. The painting measures 211 ×256.3 cm, and is exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, the museum acquired it in 1864. The Abbey started operation in 1128, with rounds of destruction and reconstruction over the centuries. It has been used as the Parliament of Scotland, the site of coronations, royal weddings, during a storm in 1768 the roof collapsed, leaving the abbey as it currently stands. Daguerre, who worked at the time as a designer for the theatre, was enamored by dioramas. Although it is not known whether Daguerre visited the abbey in person, the diorama measured 70 feet wide. When lit from behind, a figure could be seen inside the chapel. Real-life ruins inspired Daguerre, and he used the Holyrood Abbey ruins as a source of inspiration for two paintings, both with the same title, the first painting had the same figure from the diorama visiting the grave of her friend. Daguerre was able to study the way the light hit the interior of the ruins by emulating the scenario with his diorama, the painting depicts the ruins of Holyrood Abbey during a moonlit scene, which was a popular attraction for visitors to the abbey at the time. The perspective and scale of the ruins was altered slightly to fit the walls onto the canvas, the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Official Souvenir Guide. Gallagher, Dennis, Holyrood Abbey, the disappearance of a monastery, in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland,128, pp. 1079–1099
19.
Jacques-Louis David
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Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era. David later became a supporter of the French Revolution and friend of Maximilien Robespierre. Imprisoned after Robespierres fall from power, he aligned himself with yet another political regime upon his release, at this time he developed his Empire style, notable for its use of warm Venetian colours. After Napoleons fall from Imperial power and the Bourbon revival, David exiled himself to Brussels, then in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, where he remained until his death. David had a number of pupils, making him the strongest influence in French art of the early 19th century. Jacques-Louis David was born into a family in Paris on 30 August 1748. When he was nine his father was killed in a duel. He covered his notebooks with drawings, and he said, I was always hiding behind the instructors chair. Soon, he desired to be a painter, but his uncles and he overcame the opposition, and went to learn from François Boucher, the leading painter of the time, who was also a distant relative. Boucher was a Rococo painter, but tastes were changing, Boucher decided that instead of taking over Davids tutelage, he would send David to his friend, Joseph-Marie Vien, a painter who embraced the classical reaction to Rococo. There David attended the Royal Academy, based in what is now the Louvre, each year the Academy awarded an outstanding student the prestigious Prix de Rome, which funded a three- to five-year stay in the Eternal City. Each pensionnaire was lodged in the French Academys Roman outpost, which from the years 1737 to 1793 was the Palazzo Mancini in the Via del Corso. David competed for, and failed to win, the prize for three years, each failure contributing to his lifelong grudge against the institution. After his second loss in 1772, David went on a hunger strike, confident he now had the support and backing needed to win the prize, he resumed his studies with great zeal—only to fail to win the Prix de Rome again the following year. Finally, in 1774, David was awarded the Prix de Rome on the strength of his painting of Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochus Disease, a subject set by the judges. In October 1775 he made the journey to Italy with his mentor, Joseph-Marie Vien, while in Italy, David especially studied the works of 17th-century masters such as Poussin, Caravaggio, and the Carracci. Mengs principled, historicizing approach to the representation of classical subjects profoundly influenced Davids pre-revolutionary painting, such as The Vestal Virgin, mengs also introduced David to the theoretical writings on ancient sculpture by Johann Joachim Winckelmann, the German scholar held to be the founder of modern art history. In 1779, David toured the newly excavated ruins of Pompeii, while in Rome, David also assiduously studied the High Renaissance painters, Raphael making a profound and lasting impression on the young French artist
20.
Mars Being Disarmed by Venus
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Mars Being Disarmed by Venus is the last painting produced by the French artist Jacques-Louis David. He began it in 1822 during his exile in Brussels and completed it three years later, before dying in an accident in 1825 and he sent it to an exhibition in Paris from his exile, knowing that by then Romanticism was ascendant in the Salon. In 2007 it was displayed in the hall of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels. At over 3 m high it is an imposing work and he allows himself to be disarmed and gives in to Venuss charms
21.
The Massacre at Chios
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The Massacre at Chios is the second major oil painting by the French artist Eugène Delacroix. The work is more than four meters tall, and shows some of the horror of the destruction visited on the Island of Chios in the Chios massacre. A frieze-like display of suffering characters, military might, ornate and colourful costumes, terror, disease, the painting was completed and displayed at the Salon of 1824 and presently hangs at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. A military attack on the inhabitants of Chios by Ottoman forces commenced on 11 April 1822 and was prosecuted for several months into the summer of the same year. The campaign resulted in the deaths of twenty thousand citizens, the pyramidal arrangement that governs Géricaults painting is similarly seen with the figures in the foreground of The Massacre at Chios. On this unlikely layout of characters, Delacroix commented, One must fill up, if it is natural, it will be more beautiful. Would that everything should hold together, the dense assembly of characters at the front is in marked contrast to the open and dispersed spaces behind them. The complete effect of background is to suggest a constant opening out, dissolution. Aesthetician Heinrich Wölfflin identified this technique, and classified it a tectonic form, the thirteen civilians—men, women and children–have been rounded up for slaughter or enslavement. They are harshly presented to the viewer in an almost flat plane, slumped, disordered, the area between the two pyramids contains two soldiers in shadow, and two more Greek victims–a young man embraced by a young woman. The two men in the pyramid to the left are injured, the man at the front is on or near to the point of death, and the man poised at the top of the group appears unable to prepare a defence for himself. His gaze is in the direction of the children in front of him. This seeming detachment, coupled with the vacant stare of the dying man lend to group an air of despondent resignation. In contrast, the pyramid to the right has a vigorous vertical thrust. But at the foot of the pyramid, an old woman raises her head to gaze into the sky, body parts including a hand and forearm, and an indistinct, congealed bloody mass hover grimly above the infant. Fraser notes that he cuts through the centre of the composition and drops inexplicably out. This dramatic arrangement breaks the picture apart into fragments, with clumps of tangled bodies, scattered glances, in the middle distance, another mêlée of humanitarian disaster unfolds, and the background is an uneven display of sacked, burning settlements and scorched earth. Most of the Mediterranean horizon is painted with bleak earth colours, and it is punctuated only by smoke, the mane of the rearing horse and the head of the soldier
22.
Orphan Girl at the Cemetery
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The Orphan Girl at the cemetery is a painting by the French artist Eugène Delacroix. Believed to be a work in oil for the artists later Massacre at Chios. An air of sorrow and fearfulness emanates from the picture, the dimness of the sky and the abandoned laying-ground are consonant with her expression of melancholy. For Delacroix, colors were the most important ingredients for his paintings, because of this artistic taste and belief, he did not have the patience to create facsimiles of classical statues. He revered Peter Paul Rubens and the Venetians and he chose the use of colorful hues and exotic themes for his paintings, drawing inspiration from other inspirational places, resulting in works described as glossy and abundant with movement. The Young Orphan Girl in the Cemetery, a title for the painting, is currently curated at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. A larger version of the Orphan Girl at the Cemetery painting, at the Web Museum of Fine Art, WMOFA. com
