The People's Galleries: Art Museums and Exhibitions in Britain, 1800--1914 (The Association of Human Rights Institutes series) - Hardcover

Waterfield, Giles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300209843 ISBN 13: 9780300209846

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2015

Synopsis

This innovative history of British art museums begins in the early 19th century. The National Gallery and the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) in London may have been at the center of activity, but museums in cities such as Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, and Nottingham were immensely popular and attracted enthusiastic audiences. The People's Galleries traces the rise of art museums in Britain through World War I, focusing on the phenomenon of municipal galleries. This richly illustrated book argues that these regional museums represented a new type of institution: an art gallery for a working-class audience, appropriate for the rapidly expanding cities and shaped by liberal ideals. As their broad appeal weakened with the new century, they adapted and became more conventional. Using a wide range of sources, the book studies the patrons and the publics, the collecting policies, the temporary exhibitions, and the architecture of these institutions, as well as the complex range of reasons for their foundation.

About this title

Review:

"...comprehensive and exceptionally well-researched analysis... What Giles Waterfield's book does, quietly and non-polemically, is to rescue the zeal and enthusiasm of those who opened great civic art museums from the condescension of art history."-- Charles Saumarez Smith, Literary Review-- (10/01/2015)

"...a sophisticated work of scholarship that tells a detailed and fascinating story. As instructive and entertaining as the Victorian museums with which it is concerned, it will be an invaluable resource for many years to come."--Susan Owens, TLS-- (04/08/2016)

About the Author:

Giles Waterfield is director of Royal Collection Studies, associate lecturer at the Courtauld Institute of Art, and an independent curator.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0300209843
• ISBN 13: 9780300209846
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304