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Righting the Victorian Artist: The Redgraves' "A Century of Painters of the English School"and the Serialization of Art HistoryAuthor(s): Julle F. CodellSource: Oxford Art Journal, Vol. 23, No. 2 (2000), pp. 97-119Published by: Oxford University Press

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Julie Codell

of a seemingly rderly, unified et of meanings, causes, and explanations.5Characteristically isconnected, ensationalistic episodes, anecdotes defied amaster narrative. he theory f new historicism' ffers ome insights nto theauthorial manipulation f fragments, marginalia, nd 'the processes by whichthe past s constructed r invented'. As Louis Montrose notes, new historicism

recognizes he permeability etween history nd text, the historicity f textsand the textuality f history',6 nd treats exts as material objects and eventswith their own authority nd power. New historicism nvisions histories nplace of History nd foregrounds he anecdote.7 As Clare Colebrook argues,the anecdote superficially ppears to be 'the recording f an event at its mostsimple and particular evel - prior to the interpretative ork of the critic,dramatist r novelist', but its narrativity, owever implicit, s always alreadythere, juxtaposing discontinuities without linking or synthesizing hem.Anecdotage s 'not a pre-discursive real": on the contrary, t is one of thosestories or symbols which can circulate n a culture and gain resonance', thus'enabling a history which is non-linear nd sensitive to discontinuities nddisturbance', n 'enabling' to which will return below.8

The Oxford nglish Dictionary efines the anecdote as secret, gossipy,unproven, private r hitherto unpublished arrative r details of history'. t s'the narrative f a detained ncident, r of a single vent, told as being n itselfinteresting r striking', nd thus t s distracting, ispersive, nd discontinuouswith other elements of the narrative. Furthermore, the anecdote wasassociatedwith biography orVictorians.9 homas Carlyle inked necdotes toartists' biographies, filled with 'Gossip, Egotism, Personal Narrative(miraculous or not), Scandal, Raillery, Slander, and suchlike; the sum-totalof which . . . constitutes that other grand phenomenon still called"Conversation" . . . Even in the highest works of Art, our interest, s thecritics complain, s too apt to be strongly r even mainly f a Biographic ort.In the Art, we can nowise forget he Artist.'10

The Redgraves had to construct their master narrative out of thediscontinuities, fragments, and inconsistencies that had defined earlierbiographical histories. Their strategy was to abandon strict chronologicalorder, replacing t with the serialized narrative f Victorian iterature whoseevents were splicedback and forth n time and presented n instalments ithinan overarching emporal movement 'forward'. Expanding the anecdote'sresidual discontinuity nto a novelistic erialization, hey could reiterate heirthemes and insist on the dominance of cultural nstitutions ver individualproduction. I propose to analyse the Redgraves' narrative o explore its'enabling' of a non-chronological istory xploitative f discontinuities n thecreation of a new national art history made up of conflicting inary trands:collectivity nd individualism; rofessional uthority nd public taste; market

values and aesthetic worth. Their serialization f art history nd biographystructured collective and institutional history hat superseded individualgenius in favour of a persistent, radual, and increasingly omplex culturalproduction nfolding n an expanding imeto produce national rtistic wealth.This art history hereby gained a new moral purpose not tied to artists'individual behaviour but rather coupled with Victorian values of progress,delayed gratification, nd art as a sign of cultural capital and national well-being.1

The Redgraves onstructed history nd authority round the subject of theprofessionalization f art-making. This brings up a second area of newhistoricist investigation, elf-fashioning, he process of submitting he self tothe social order.12 While self-fashioning as clear application o such genres s

5. HaydenWhite, New Historicism:Comment', n H. Aram Vesser ed.), TheNewHistoricism(Routledge: ondon nd New York,1989),p. 301.

6. Cited n Jeffrey . Cox and LarryJ. Reynolds (eds.), NewHistorical Literary tudy:Essayson Reproducing exts,Representing istory(Princeton niversity ress: Princeton, 993),p. 4.

7. Cox and Reynolds, Reproducing exts, p. 4;Jeremy Hawthorn, Cunning assages: NewHistoricism, ultural Materialism nd Marxism n the

Contemporary iterary ebate (Arnold Press:London nd New York, 1996),p. 4.

8. Claire Colebrook, New Literary istories: Newhistoricism nd contemporary riticism ManchesterUniversity ress:Manchester, 997),p. 216.

9. OED,vol. 1, p. 320, col. 1

10. ThomasCarlyle, Biography', n HenryW. Boynton ed.), Selections(Allyn nd Bacon:Boston nd New York, 1895),pp. 45-6.

11. The issue of national identity asbeenaddressed n part by WilliamVaughan, TheEnglishness of British Art', Oxford rt Journal,vol. 13, no. 2, 1990,pp. 11-23, andJohnGage, The British chool nd the British chool',in Brian Allen (ed.), Towards ModernArt World

(YaleUniversity ress: London nd New Haven,1995),pp. 109-20; Morris aves, Inquiry ntothe Real and Imaginary bstructions o theAcquisitions f the Arts n England: heComedy f the English chool of Painting', heHuntington ibrary Quarterly, ol. 52, no. 1,

Winter 1989,pp. 125-38; and Robert Collsand Philip Dodd (eds.), Englishness: olitics ndCulture, 1880-1920 (Croom Helm: London,1986).The most usefulstudy f Victorianserializations Linda K. Hughes nd MichaelLund, The Victorian erial (University Press of

Virginia: harlottesville nd London, 1991).12. 'Self-fashioning' as coined by StephenGreenblatt, ited n Cox and Reynolds, . 5.

98 OXFORD ART JOURNAL 23.2 2000

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Righting he Victorian rtist

13. For an examination f artists' professionalsocieties, ee Julie . Codell, Artists'Professional ocieties:Production,Consumption, nd Aesthetics', n Brian Allen

(ed.), Towards Modem rt World, p. 169-87.14. FrederickW. Fairholt, omes,Works,ndShrinesofEnglish rtists ithspecimensf heirstyles o which s addedRamblesn RomeVirtue:London, 1873),p. 132.

15. Frederick W. Hilles and PhilipB. Daghliancite this erm rom Walpole's letters n their'Advertisement', ol. 4, p. vii, of the 1969Arno Pressreprint dition f RalphWornum's1849edition f Walpole. Wornum's ditionconstitutes olumes1-3. Volume 4 consists fHilles's and Daghlian's dition f Walpole'sunpublished otesfor he AnecdotesYaleUniversity ress: New Haven, 1937;reprintedArno Press, 1969).16. Cunningham, reatEnglish ainters.Arranged nd ed. with n intro. by WilliamSharp Walter Scott: London, 1886),p. viii.

17. Parkinsoncatalogue n Susan P. Casterasand Ronald Parkinson eds.), RichardRedgrave,1804-1888 (YaleUniversity ress: New Havenand London, 1988),p. 166.

18. Hilary raser, The Victoriansnd RenaissanceItaly Blackwell:London, 1992),pp. 45-7, andFrancisHaskell,Rediscoveriesn Art CornellUniversity ress: thaca, 1976),p. 101.

19. Vasari,Livesof heArtists. rans. GastonDuc DeVere (ModernLibrary: ew York,1959),pp. 20-9. On page 29, for example,VasaridamnedPaolo Uccello for becoming'solitary, ccentric,melancholy nd poor'.20. Patricia ee Rubin, Giorgio asari: rt ndHistoryYale University ress: New Haven andLondon, 1995),p. 5.

autobiography, he collectivebiography as also a site of national ndprofessionalelf-fashioningn theRedgraves' ands. he social rder appearedin their narrative s the professional ehaviour f artists, eparate romindividual ocial and moral behaviours hich bsessed arlier biographers.That their arrative evolved pon the emerging oncept f professionalism

indexes new social, national, nd economic roles for artists. RichardRedgrave's ositions s art administrator nd educator explain n part hisattention o professional nstitutionspreviously bsent from biographicalhistories. Directing heir text to specialists n 1866 (artists, ollectors,connoisseurs),heRedgravesaunched defence f he Academy ith irulentattacksagainst ommissionsinvestigatingheAcademy ndagainst heBritishInstitution or ts failure o consult rtists. n 1890 they ubsequently e-politicizedheir ext, e-directingt to students f rt nd he newdisciplinefart history. will explore ifferences etween hetwo editions f 1866 and1890 as measures f changed ttitudes oward rtists, atronage, pectator-ship, nd the professionalismf British rtists.13

Vasari and pre-Victorian ollective rtists' biographies n EnglandIn 1873 Frederick airholt alled GeorgeVertue England's asari,withoutwhomHoraceWalpole ouldnot havewritten is Anecdotesof ainting, 762-80, which emained popular hroughout he nineteenth century.14 alpolereferred o his writing f the Anecdotes s his 'Vasarihood'. AllanCunningham, he author f three volumes f artists' ives,was called theScottish asari.16 onald Parkinson escribed he Redgraves'A Century fPainterss 'in the tradition f biographicalrt history egun y Vasari'.17

Hilary raser ndFrancis askell ave documented hemany ubjects romVasari that populatedVictorianhistory nd narrative paintings. asari'sarguments bout rtistic progress ppealed o Victorians ho saw themselves

asthe improved ulmination f the past n allthings ultural.18 asari ffectedthree opics.His very ecording f his contemporaries homhe raised oideality levatedItaly o the tatus f pan-Europeanultural con. Collectivebiographiesttempted o do for English rtists hatVasari ad donefor talianartists: o elevate them and establish ultural hegemony ver Europe.Secondly, asari'sbiographies ere saturated by the intent o promote'professional' rt-making, reed rom rtisanalidentity o construct nstead neducated,well-read, ntellectual, rosperous, nd socially cceptable lassofartists. inally, is progress' as the ranshistoricalransmissionfknowledgefrom master o pupil n an ever-increasingodyof technical killspassed nand mproved eneration y generation, n idea expanded y the Redgraves.

Contradicting his themes, however, was Vasari's anecdotal content of

stories, quotes', and rumours. Vasari s well known for the theme of the boygenius who startles is elders by a mere sketch displayed n front f someonequalified o help him capitalize on his gift. He praised or damned artists ortheir eccentricity, nti-social ehaviour, nd envy. His artist types ncluded hehard-worker, he eccentric, nd the careless absent-minded rtist.19

Patricia Rubin argues that, following lassicalhistorians, asari defined hewriting f history s an exercise of judgement based on the presentation finstructive examples', to elevate the visual arts through pantheon of artisticheroes, using biography s a panegyric.20 ne of Vasari's rhetorical tropeswith which he began many chapters was the hyperbole of the special artistchosen by god or nature and above the social order. The triumvirate fRaphael, Michelangeloand Leonardo was thus dealized and heroized. Vasari

OXFORDART JOURNAL23.2 2000 99







Julie Codell

tied artists to the social order through conventions, such as virtue, hard work,study, and honour. Apprenticeship also placed them within the social order

through the transmission of knowledge. His norms corrected earlier 'less

flattering, less prestigious, and less empowered stereotypes: the saturnineeccentric of literary tradition and the mechanic or artisan of the trade

hierarchy' and 'brought the exceptional into the realm of the normal . . . takenfrom established standards . . . thereby integrated into a coherent, if flexible,system of values'.21 For Vasari, as Svetlana Alpers points out, artists

participated 'in this progress of art only by virtue of making a contribution' to'a continuous, autonomous and also a conscious progress', without sacrificingtheir own unique style or maniera.22

The development of collective biographies in England constituted a

continuing discourse about Vasari's topics, as well as about historical 'truth'and authorial roles. Vertue's notes were organized by Walpole whose work, inturn, was later augmented and updated by others. Walpole criticized his

predecessor Bainbrigge Buckeridge for publishing mere gossip, and hedefended Vertue as a true historian who checked his sources.23 Subsequenteditors of Walpole's Anecdotes ommented on Walpole's historical accuracyand anecdotage.24 Cunningham criticized Edwards and Walpole, while the

Redgraves attacked Cunningham and praised Walpole and Edwards as reliable.Not surprisingly, the assessments were less about historical accuracy, whichwas defined and deployed in several politicking ways, than about contested

subjects, such as styles and the role of the Royal Academy in the fit betweenindividual genius and collective progress.

In his 'Vasarihood', Walpole bought Vertue's 40-volume manuscript fromhis widow in 1757 and proceeded 'to compose anew every article' and check'the original fountains from whence he [Vertue] drew his information'.

Walpole insisted that Vertue 'did not deal even in hypothesis, scarce in

conjecture',25 but he titled his revision of Vertue's work 'anecdotes' rather

than 'lives', in light of what he felt was an insufficient critical mass of artproduction.26 But Walpole was optimistic about 'a new aera' in which 'Geniusis countenanced, and emulation will follow . . . it daily makes improvementsin arts and sciences . . . produced by wealth and happiness'. He believed thatfree enterprise permitted the arts to thrive and that the fortunes of artmeasured a nation's well-being and its citizens' freedom from 'tyranny'.27

Walpole expanded Virtue's text to include his contemporaries, such asWilliam Hogarth who was 'in a class by himself that great and original genius',more as 'a writer of comedy with a pencil, than as a painter'.28 Yet Walpolewas critical of Hogarth: 'as a painter he had but slender merit'.29 For Walpole,Hogarth's value was his demonstration that art flourished in a laissez-faire

economy and under a parliamentary government. Walpole mentioned women

artists singling out Anne Seymour Damer, his cousin, as a 'female genius'whose busts 'are not inferior to the antique'.30

Edward Edwards in 1808 considered himself a 'biographical collector'. Headded new artists to Walpole's text but continued a rather haphazard style ofentries.31 Edwards insisted that in the twenty years between the publication of

Walpole's first and last volumes, 'the arts have made more rapid advancestowards perfection in Great Britain, than ever was known in any other countryduring so short a space of time'. Praised by Henry Fuseli and Edward Dance,Edwards was satirized by John Hoppner for including sign painters and clockpainters among his 'artists'.32 He also included foreign artists and gave specialattention to Richard Wilson.33

His intended readers, 'the artist, the connoisseur, and the gentleman', may

21. Rubin, Vasari, p. 21-3.

22. SvetlanaAlpers, Ekphrasis nd aestheticattitudes in Vasari's Lives', Journal f the Warburg

and Courtauld nstitutes, ol. 23, 1960, pp. 211-13.

23. Walpole's predecessor as BainbriggeBuckeridge, An Essaytowards n English SchoolofPainting. . W. Lightbown ed.) (CornmarketPress: London, 1969; orig. pub. London,1706).24. Later ommentators nd editors f Walpoleincluded dward Edwards 1810), JamesDallaway 1827-29), and RalphWornum(1849, 1862, 1876, 1881, 1888).25. Walpole, Anecdotesof Painting n England(London,1762-80), vol. 1, pp. x-xi. I amusing hethree-volume 969 Arno Pressreprintedition f Wornum's dition f Dallaway'sedition26. Walpole,ArnoPressreprint, ol. 1, pp. xi-xiii.

27. Walpole, Arno Press reprint, ol. 1,pp. xii-xiii.

28. Walpole, Arno Press reprint, ol. 3, p. 1.

29. Walpole, Arno Press reprint, ol. 3, pp. 6-7.

30. Walpole's praise f Damer appears nDallaway's dition, . 4, p. xix, published n1826. Anecdotesof Painting n England: with omeAccountof the Principal Artists; nd incidental Noteson Other Arts; Collectedby the Late Mr. George

Vertue; igestednd

Publishedfromis

Originalmss.

by The HonourableHorace Walpole; with considerableadditions by The Rev. James Dallaway. 5 vols.

(JohnMajor:London, 1826-28). Other womenartistsWalpole ncluded n the 5-volume 826-28 Dallaway ditionwere: SusannaHornebraud,Livinia irlinks, nne Carlisle,ArtemesiaGentileschi, rs. Hoadley,LadyLucan,MaryBeale a very ongentry), nne Killigrew,MaryMore, ElizabethNeale, SusanPenelopeRose.

31. Anecdotesof Painters who have resided r beenborn n England; with Critical remarks n theirProductionby Edward Edwards,deceased,LateTeacher of Perspective, nd Associate, n the RoyalAcademy; ntended s a Continuation o the Anecdotes

of Painting by the Late Horace Earl of Oxford, ntro.

R. W. Lightbown Leigh nd Sotheby,W. J.andJ. Richardson, . Faulder, . Payne, ndJ. White: London, 1808;facsimilie dition,Cornmarket ress: London, 1970).32. Lightbown, necdotes,Introduction', .pp. 18-19 (unpaginated).33. Edwards,Anecdotes,. 83.

100 OXFORD ART JOURNAL23.2 2000







Julie Codell

has gathered or is nstruction... he can only dd a little ore nformationo the ommonstock, or hebenefit f his uccessors.43

The English rtist was epitomized by Hogarth: a lover of rough ready wit,broad humour, and social merriment'.44 Cunningham argued for 'a

significance s wide for the word painter as for the word poet' to admitHogarth o the pantheon f greats.45 n the threshold f Hogarth's ppearanceCunningham was inspired to describe a dramatic, heroic Vasarian moment,'when a man appeared who sought asting fame - and found t - in moralsentiment, nervous satire, sarcastic humour, and actual English life'.46Reynolds merited another Vasarian announcement: Few men of genius areallowed to be born or baptized n an ordinary way; some commotion n naturemust mark he hour of their birth, ome strange nterposition must determinetheir name - the like happened to young Reynolds'.47

Cunninghamwas antagonistic o academic painting nd to the hierarchy fgenres: 'We would long for humbler things for scenes in which all couldsympathize for fireside ooks and familiar faces'.48 His anti-academic

perspective llowed him to appreciate William Blake, a troubling rtist or heRedgraves.49He was less tolerant of women artists han his predecessors.IncludingAnne Seymour Damer among the anointed, he still nsisted hat herwork was 'rude in execution' and without 'poetic feeling', 'dignity', and'intellectual capacity'.50

One reviewer of Cunningham's ivesdenigrated he very ubject of artists'lives as barren, 'comparatively neventful', having scarcely any influenceupon the more important nterests f society'. What saved the Lives, n thereviewer's opinion, were 'the frequent nterspersion f anecdote, muchjudicious quotation from good writers, and a prominent exhibition of hispersonages n their literary nd social capacities', although is anecdotes were'sometimes trivial, rrelevant, nd superfluous'. The reviewer questionedCunningham's mention of market values, the prominence of portraiture, isinclusion of Blake (considered insane by the reviewer), his preference ofWilson over Reynolds, and his favourable ssessment f Hogarth's genius.51This critical response underscores Cunningham's ives s a watershed etweeneighteenth- nd nineteenth-century ssumptions bout the validity f artists sworthy iographical ubjects. Cunningham's opularity eflected n emergingraised public awareness about the importance f artists s subjects of culturaland national identity, espite the persistence f anecdotage.

Amidst the discourse on biography nd anecdotage, t is not surprising ofind a parody of artists' collective biographies. Walter Thornbury's 1861BritishArtistsfrom ogarth oTurner ontained chapter ntitled, A Shipfull ofNobodies', a ghost hip an imageborrowed from Hogarth's hipload of forgedold masters) oaded with forgotten rtists from out of the dark past . . .steering straight or a still darker future'. Its occupants included 'BiagioRebecca, an artist f talian xtraction, who ... thought imselfsomebody, sin cocked-hat and laced cuff he daubed Patience, Virtue, and all theirallegorical sisterhood, over the staircases nd ceilings of Windsor'.52 Othertravellers were Sir Godfrey Kneller and Benjamin West ('the monarch ofmediocrity'), whom Thorbury disliked.53Thorbury parodied Damer 'thatlovely genius, the Honourable Mrs. Damer, his model of whom s now in theBritish Museum', and Walpole who 'bespoke, in a blundering, urposelessway, after he manner of noble amateurs n these things, oused by dilettantitalk, may say, ntoxicated with frivolous Art chat about Vatican galleries'.54

Thornbury's arody had a serious purpose, as well. His chapter on Blake

43. Cunningham, ives, ol. 1, pp. 4-5.

44. Cunningham, ives, ol. 1, p. 70.







51. T. Lister, Review of Allan Cunningham,Livesof hemost minent ritish ainters, culptors,andArchitects',dinburgh eview, ol. 59, no.119, April 1834,p. 48-57.

52. Walter Thornbury, ritishArtistsfromHogarth o Turnerbeing SeriesofBiographicalSketches. vols. (Hurst nd Blackett: ondon,

1861),vol. 2,

pp.1-2.

Hogarth's hipof

forgeries ppeared n The St.James vening ost,7-9 July 737, cited n Ronald Paulson,Hogarth's raphic WorksYale University ress:New Haven nd London, 1965),vol. 1, p. 24.

53. Thornbury's ttack n West, Sketches,vol. 2, p. 100.

54. Thornbury, ketches,ol. 2, pp. 8-10.

102 OXFORDART JOURNAL23.2 2000







Righting heVictorian rtist

55. Thorbury, Sketches,ol. 2, p. 27.

56. Thorbury, Sketches,ol. 2, pp. 145-52.

57. Thornbury, ketches,ol. 2, p. 318.

58. John imbs, Anecdoteivesof WilliamHogarth, irJoshuaReynolds,homasGainsborough,Henry useli, ir Thomas awrence ndJ. M.W. TurnerRichardBentley: ondon, 1865),pp. V-Vi.

59. William Epstein, (Post)Modern ives:Abducting heBiographicalubject', nW. Epstein ed.), ContestingheSubject: ssaysnthePostmodernTheoryndPracticeofBiographyndBiographicalriticismPurdue University ress:West Lafayette, 991), p. 222.

60. Richard nd SamuelRedgrave, CenturyfPainters f heEnglish chool. vols. Smith,Elder: London, 1866)and 1 vol. (Sampson,

Low,Marston nd Co.:

London, 1890).There

was a deluxe edition n 1871in ten volumeswith portraits f artists nd reproductions ftheir works, resented o Peter A. B. Widenerin 1899 and described n TheNational nionCatalog s 'probably nique', vol. 484, p. 489.Biographicalnformationappears n S. Redgrave'sDictionary, 878, alsocited n Parkinson's essayin Casteras nd Parkinson, ichardRedgrave,p. 166. The Phaidon 1947reprint f the ACenturyf Painters(mistakenly itledA CenturyfBritish ainters) dited by Ruthven odd is a mixof mostly he 1890with omeof the 1866edition n ts chapters, lthough odd says t staken solelyfrom he 1890 edition. Todd editedrather capriciously, emoving he technicalinformation nd criticism f

Pre-Raphaelitism.There was also a posthumous 893 editionwhich dded reproductions rompublic ndprivate ritish ollections o the 1890 text. Ontheir public areers, ee essays y E. Bonyton,A. Burton, nd 0. Millar n Casteras ndParkinson, edgrave.

criticized heEnglish orbeing ommercial, bstinate, ambitiousplanters fcolonies n ill-conquered laces', and who mistreated isionaries, uch asBlake, hornbury's ero: it shames s that eshould till e unknown, hensuchmen as - and- lord t in Art, nd forsooth et t immortalized y thegraver'.5 Yet, Thornbury's ext promoted melodramatic, entimental

anecdotes e.g. Blake's deathbed onversation ith his wife), platitudes,gossip, nd cant. His chapter n George Morland ontrasted the younggenius'with he dying ainter f forty, homeless nd penniless . . lovedorrespected y no one'.56Mildly ationalistic,Thornburyttacked he taste orGreek rt and dentified othic rchitecture ith the Englishmind nd theEnglish limate'.57

Despite hornbury's atire, necdotagehrived. ohn imbs's 865 AnecdoteLivesof WilliamHogarth, irJoshuaReynolds,homasGainsborough,enry useli,SirThomasawrencendj. M.W.Turnerncluded 00 anecdotes ith uch itlesas 'Midnight Modem Conversation', Baptism of Reynolds', ReynoldsRebuked y Goldsmith', Advantage f a Handsome itter', nd Harlow'sConceitExposed' n anearly 00-page ook ntended or he general eader.58

Yet while rtists emaineddentified ithanecdotagend ensationalism,heywere increasingly ising nto biographicalmportance. s WilliamEpsteinnotes:

The ntrance f biographicalubject ntowritten iscourse s still momentous ccasion, nevent hat an, mong ther hings, eaffirmultural minence, ontextualizeocial ction, lterliterarypinion, eputize oliticalnfluence,r nstruct conomiconduct, nd his dmissionsprocedure, hichs alwaysn risis, s constantlyifnot ften onsciously)urveilledn ndthrough iographicalecognition,hich,n his espect, unctionss the generic gency f heproprietaryowers.59

The RedgravesTheRedgravesarried ut ll the asksEpstein ists oconstruct ndlegitimateemerging olitical, ultural, ocial, nd economic oles of artists n nationalculture, s well as to surveil nd reconstruct hepublic mageof the artistaccording o the Redgraves'dealof the professionalrtist. ikeDallawayndCunningham, he Redgraves rote to challenge necdotage, lthough heynever ompletely liminatedt. Bythe 1860s,however, herewasno longersimply succession f authors claiming o improve n the veracity f theirpredecessors. hroughout he texts xamined bove s threaded discourseabout heworth nd nature f artists' iographiesnd their istinction romanecdotes nd from history: Walpole calledBainbrigge gossip, Edwardscalled himself 'biographical ollector', Dallawayfilled n Walpole's'incidental tories', lmes's itle mbraced anecdotage, unningham ppraisedWalpole's detachedbiographies', hornbury arodied necdote, nd Timbs

distinguished etween iography nd anecdote.These two genres egan oseparate nto distinct eadershipsnd functions, nd those Victorians uch sCarlyle hodismissednecdotebegan o shift heir ttention o the elation fbiographyohistory. amuel nd Richard edgrave's Centuryf aintersf heEnglish chool;with heCritical otices of heirworks, nd an account of the Progressof Art in England took collective biography to a new level of nationalidentificationnd narrative complexity. esigned o be 'a continuation oVertue and Walpole' based on information they gleaned from their ointadministrative oles selecting British oils and watercolours for the 1862International xhibition, A Century f Painters as thus born out of culturalpolitics. Both brothers had illustrious careers in the public domains ofgovernment nd art administration.60









65. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, pp. 20-1.

66. Carlyle, On History', elections,p. 69-70.

67. MichelFoucault,TheOrderof Things: nArchaeologyf heHuman ciences(Vintage ooks:New York, 1970), pp. 368-70; see alsoStephen ann The Sense of the Past: Image,Text, and Object n the Formation f HistoricalConsciousnessn Nineteenth-Century ritain',in Vesser ed.), TheNewHistoricism,p. 103-104.

68. Bann, Sense of the Past', p. 103.

their works, and thus echnical, esthetic, nd professional, nd not anecdotal,social, or psychological.

For the Redgraves, in the beginning was the end. Their introduction,curiously, was about the loss of the past and the wholesale destruction f artworks by careless handling nd the fire of London. The Redgraves echoed

Vasari's lament for artists ost to posterity. They surveyed practices ofdarkening Old Masters, forgeries, nd copies later passed as originals, hoddyconnoisseurship mong vain aristocrats nd arrivisteslike, careless storage, ndCromwell's takeover.65 No one was spared - collectors, painters, dealerswere all guilty f past fraud nd destruction f art. This dramatic opening onthe loss and abuse of art created a niche for the Redgraves. To complementart's loss through atural disaster nd human mismanagement, he Redgravesoffered heir authority o correct prior opinion, apply the proper criteria,canonizeworthy ontributors, reach about conservation, nd define nce andfor all the true source of British rtistic production. They erased the past inorder to ground British rt n a new originary mythology.

Such a sense of oss was part of the Victorian enterprise f history: Carlyle,

too, recognized that for History the most important part is lost withoutrecovery . . into the dark untenanted places of the Past where, in formlessoblivion, our chief enefactors .. lie entombed'. History, orhim, was a kindof ontological ur-text; every culture had history, nd it was the 'root of allscience . . . the first istinct product of man's spiritual nature; his earliestexpression f what can be called Thought .. a lookingboth before nd after',a consciousness of time and 'the essence of innumerable Biographies', notmerely he aggregate f biographies.66 he Redgraves, oo, attempted o distilthe essence of biographies the English artistic haracter, he collectivitybehind genius to make the whole of English rt history much more than thesum of its biographical arts.

Michel Foucault argues that he search for history, reaction o a sense of

loss, is itself prevented by this loss from having any cosmological unity:'emptied of history', modern Europeans sought o recover

a historicityinked ssentially oman sic]himself. ut hishistoricitys immediatelyambiguous.incemanposits imselfn hefield f positive nowledgenly n o far s hespeaks,works, nd ives, an hishistory ver e anything ut he nextricableexus f differenttimes, hich re foreign ohim nd heterogeneousnrespect f ne another?

Foucault argues that historians during he Enlightenment ursued general awsof history, while nineteenth-century istoricism pursued human historicity':'interpretations f history rom the standpoint f man envisaged as a livingspecies, or from the standpoint f economic laws, or from that of culturaltotalities'.67 Nineteenth-century istorians were 'without history', as every-thing lse was being sited n its own history animals, anguage, etc., - andeach history was discontinuous with human history which then became, inFoucault's view, a history f the conditions of production. A history f artproduction was what the Redgraves authorized nd it encompassed not justtechnical matters, which they emphasized for the first ime in collectivebiographies, ut also production n its professional ites- societies, the RoyalAcademy, collective institutions hat for them legislated and validated therealm of the 'professional'.

Stephen Bann points out that Foucault's dialectical model of loss andretrieval recognizes that Victorians did not simply discover history: they'needed to discover history, r, as it were, to remake history' on their ownterms.68 The Redgraves did not find or even seek general laws and their








Julie Codell

inconsistencies nd contradictions, s I will later examine them, mark theirproximity to anecdotage, an 'enabling' proximity that left them freestrategically o determine he canon without the restraint f consistency rthe need to make exceptions. The Redgraves negotiated a space betweenscientized, general laws and anecdotal chaos by tying ndividual ives to a

collectivity f developments, enres, nstitutions, nd movements.The question, arises, however, as to just how archival he Redgraveswere.Despite their promise of correcting pinion, they did little rchival work andprivileged ome predecessors ver others inconsistently. hey did not hesitateto speak in the first person about their acquaintances with artists nd theirmemories of works and colleagues. They engagedanecdotes about artists theycriticized, uch as Blake,whom they onsidered mad, which provoked hem oinclude an anecdote about a neighbour inding he Blakes sitting n the nudereading Paradise ost.69 heir stylelessness ontributed o their authority s itappeared 'objective'. If Richard Redgrave's daughter Frances was correct nher assessment f the book's lack of popularity n 1866, it may be because herfather nd uncle were following he historicist ntention to be critical, o be

colourless, and to be new', in Lord Acton's words.70 Perhaps with theRedgraves n mind, William Sharp n 1886praised Cunningham's ives ecause'they re biographical ecords . . not mere critical issertations, ninterestingto the uninitiated'.71 n 1866 the Redgraves wrote for the initiated andmanipulated their narrative o appear factual and historical n tone, if notconsistently o in content.

Their assessments f their predecessors were invested nd they ccasionallyjuxtaposed several predecessors' conflicting ccounts to discredit hem.72 heRedgraves admired Edwardes's 'irreproachable character and honestjudgement', but criticized him for including picture dealers, cleaners, andrestorers . . drawing masters, r second-rate mezzotintists, nd copyists' ndpraised Walpole for having 'given us the best connected ccount of the

foreigners'.73 hey reserved heir harshest ttack for Cunningham ecause he'abuses the Royal Academy' and included gossip and scandal-mongering ndescribing he jealousy between Turner and David Wilkie.74 Cunningham,who argued for the professional ature of artists' work and the importance ftheir ives, and who tied their ives to their work as the Redgraves laimed todo, nevertheless ecame a straw man for he Redgraves' defence of the RA asthe source of British rt production nd future xcellence.

The Redgraves had their heroes and points of origin s their predecessorshad had. The so-called British characteristics f independence, directobservation of nature, attention o daily life, and artistic originality withouteccentricity ere embodied in Hogarth, sturdy' and 'honest':

69. Blake's madnessappears n Redgraves,1866,vol. 1, pp. 442-4 and the nudity aleonp. 442.

70. Acton s cited nBann,

Senseof thePast',p. 102; F. M. Redgrave, ichard edgrave, .B.,

R.A.,AMemoirCompiledfromisDiary Casselland Co.: London, 1891),p. 283, citesreviewsof the book and claims hat he only fault oundwith t was its overt defence f the RA.

71. Sharp,GreatEnglish ainters, . vii, citedalsoin WilliamVaughan, The Englishness fBritish rt', p. 23.

72. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 322.

73. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 78 on Edwardsand p. 25 on Walpole; italicsmine. Their isterElizabethwasgoverness o the daughters fWalpole's descendent, he 3rd Earl of Orford,so there mayhave been a personal eason or

his admiration f Walpole; see ElizabethBonython, Richard nd SamuelRedgrave ndtheir Family', . 3, in Casteras nd Parkinson,Richard edgrave.74. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 107.

75. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, pp. 45-8. Thesocially ormative rtist ecame distinctlyVictorianmodel n later popular nd familybiographies. ee J. F. Codell, The Public Imageof Victorian rtists:Family iographies', ournalofPre-Raphaelitetudies, .s. vol. 5, no. 1, Fall1996,pp. 4-29, and Victorian rtists' FamilyBiographies: omesticAuthority, heMarketplace nd the Artist's Body', L. Hughesand J. Law(eds.) Biographicalassages:ssaysn

Victoriannd ModernistBiographyUniversity fMissouri:Columbia, 000), pp. 65-108.

Began o think or imself here sthe rue master-key began o ook t the world roundhim nstead f t dark anvases .. 'to admire ature eyondhefinest roductionsf rt'.Herewas the manwanted; hereformerhe rt needed; ne whowas determined ot o

follow, ut o ead .. one whowould reak ltogether ith he ldboth n ubject nd practice,and ake new eparturen nother ourse .. the ge ofpuerilities assing way, nd ruthandgood ense revived yhim a new manner, hich as to result n great chool f portraitpainters, riginatingndderived rom im.

Taking up his homely, unidealizedportrait, nd its difference rom that of theperiwigged worthies of his predecessors', the Redgraves in their Vasarianpraise assured their readers that while Hogarth was without a wig in themornings when he painted, he wore one in the afternoons hen he socialized,'as he would repudiate singularity' nd was thus no bohemian.75








Julie Codell

contributions were predominantly rofessional and institutional, uch asMartin Shee or William Dyce.

British rtists lso reversed the aesthetic wellspring f art; they replacedOld Master imitation with direct observation of nature. To be an artprofessional, then, meant a turning away from traditions, a curious

contradiction etween the academy as perpetrator f traditions, dentifiedwith Continental academy practice, and the anti-establishment empiricism fthe British artist: 'But in the history of British Art, the great merit ofGainsboroughwas, to have broken us entirely oose from old conventions',going even further han Wilson to give 'himself up wholly to Nature'.83Constable was 'the first who wholly mancipated imself rom he schools . .His art s purely nd thoroughly nglish English n subject, English n feeling,English n treatment nd execution'.84 The rhetorical repetition f 'English'was probablynot ost on their eaders. Constable's nature was English ature;he never visited Italy; he did not even care for he mountain nd the torrent fhis own land, but he loved the flat pastures nd the slow streams f his nativeSuffolk', nd his subjects are 'entirely nglish . . locally English, no doubt,

but still purely English'.85Artistic individuality as crucial to the Redgraves'motive:

83. Redgraves, 866,vol. 1, p. 169.

84. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 382.

85. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, pp. 382-8.

86. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 174.

87. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, pp. 445-6.

88. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, pp. 125-6.

89. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, pp. 90-101; theyalso attacked uskin n 1890 for his mistaken'assessment f Frederick Walker, 1890, p. 390.

90. Redgraves, 866,vol. 1, pp. 62-4.

91. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 631.

to take hose ewwhohave one honour o our chool r nfluencedts progress, nd ry oexplainheirmerits nd he auses of heir uccess .. it s characteristic fEnglishmenhatthey re people fmarked ndividualitynd ndependenthought.. althoughhere s amarked ational tyle, et hemanner s as varied s the men f mark t ncludes.86

For example, although apable of 'most mad, most strange maginings', nd'hardly of this world', Blake was still worthy of inclusion for 'the verywildness of his imagination nd contempt for rules helping o emancipate rtfrom he trammels f conventionality'.87

This quintessentially nglish artistic rait forced a dialectical relationshipbetween the English rtist nd the Academy, although he Redgraves nsistedthat the fit between individual genius and the RA was a close one. In thechapter on the hero of their work, Turner, avid Academician andunconventional genius both, they approached a Vasarian trope: 'Otherpainters ave arrived t excellence n one treatment f Nature . . These weremen that played n one key, often making he rarest melody. But Turner's artcompassed all they did collectively, nd more than equalled each in his ownway'.88They attacked Ruskin's presumption hatTurner earned nothing romthe Academy. Turner, hey rgued, oved the Academywhere he learned uchgood techniques that his early paintings have no crack in them. Turner'sacademic colleagueselected him an RA Visitor everal times and an Associateat the youngest ge possible and elevated him quickly, efuting ohnRuskin's

claim that Turner's contemporaries misunderstood im: his talent nd geniuswere fully ppreciated by his brother rtists, nd received all the honour thattheir choice could give'.89

Despite their trumpeting riginality, heRedgraves elieved the major forcepromoting rtists' professionalism as the RoyalAcademy. The rise of Englishartists was the result of the link of professional nion' and 'a great change nthe relations between the art-teacher nd the art-student' marked by thecreation of the RA.90 In 1866 they considered the RA to be a force forprotection gainst professional ealousies inflamed by the high prices of the1860s.91 The investigating Commission's 'numerous little meddlingrecommendations' were those of non-professionals hose ideas included the'simply absurd' principle of exhibition selection and silly ideas about








Julie Codell

TheEnglishchool sconstituted n the ystem f ndividualndependence;ach artist fterhavingearnt hemere echnicallements, hehandicraftf his rt, ractises t lmostirrespectivef he rules nd raditionsf hispredecessors .. the telier ystem f heContinent.. is all but nknown; hile ven ur Academicystem eaves he tudent, fter ehas obtained command f he anguage fhis rt, uite ree s to his mode fusing t, ndhas the merit f ormingrtists fvaried riginality,ecauseuntrammelledy ules nd

systems;f t has also the ault f

eavinghe

risingody

gnorantf

ny eneralode of aw r

precedent oguide hem n heir ractice.'10

Presumably Victorian artists' 'individual independence' was a vastimprovement ver their predecessors' careless independence'. The Redgravesnever resolved the tensions between the value of institutional ducation andthe lengths o which individualitymust overcome conventions: they dislikedTurner's late works, Blake's prophesies, and Pre-Raphaelite myopic details,but defended John Constable's 'snow' and his unique representation fsunlight n natural urfaces. They insisted hat the nature of Englishhabits,and the independence f the English haracter, re in this respect favourable oart progress, ince each man loves to think orhimself', as the ast generationof

landscape paintersdid not

simplyollow Wilson or

Gainsborough,nd the

result of this independence was Constable and Turner: 'Novelty in aim ortreatment eems necessary o art's progress'.'02

The RA taught rt's languagewithout enforcing trict ules ike Continentalacademies:

101. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 121.

102. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 616.

103. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 236.

104. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 276.

105. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 474.

106. Cunningham, ives, ol. 1, p. 198;Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, pp. 101-102.

107. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 304.

for houghnventionndfeeling annot e taught, he anguagenwhich hey re to beexpressed . . by udicious dvice nd eaching ithouthe east nterfering ith hat riginalityor nvention hichs the rue ift f Nature othe born rtist.'03

To veil these contradictions, he Redgraves defined he Academy's roles asproviding 'a sound training, . . . in what may be called the art-language . . . toenable individual rtists o speak their own 'thoughts o the world'.104This

comment aligns the Redgraveswith Foucault's observations f the identity fhuman history as the history of cultural totalities, such as production,'grammars', nd economies, the topics emphasized by the Redgraves s theydesignated he RA a primary ite of British rt production.

The Redgraves never resolved the RA's educational mission with artists'perennial need for independence and self-education. They folded thesecontradictions nto the professional iscourse they njected nto biographicalhistories. The professionalization f art also embraced the public. Theincreasing numbers of exhibition venues, public museums and galleriesmeasured the expanding knowledge of the public but also offered caveat toartists: It is well that rt now rests on a broader basis, though by fashion, rmore frequently he speculations f dealers, artists occasionally btain a false

and ill-earned temporary eputation'.105 he importance of this distinctionmay explain why the Redgraves emphasized technical knowledge, somethingthe public was not as rapidly acquiring. Their inclusion of technicalinformation einforced this internal contradiction. Cunningham describedWilson's process as quick, simple, using few colours, while the Redgravesdevoted pages to Wilson's technique, his many colours, his layering f paint,and how long and well his paintings withstood ime.106They detailed artists'painting methods kinds of brushes, olours isted n detail, and problems nthe deterioration f canvases due to artists' experiments, instances of thefaulty ndifference o processes of painting'.107

But their emphasis on technical knowledge underscored the dialecticsbetween the RA and English artistic ndividualism. The technique of pre-









108. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 234

109. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, pp. 593-4.

110. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, pp. 600-601.

111. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 267.

112. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 200.

113. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 359.

114. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, pp. 398-9.

115. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 341.

116. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 323.

117. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 435.

Hogarthian oreigners as lost but ts oss was compensated y the daringexperimentation f British rtists. Individualindependence' ronicallyed to'faulty ndifference' o technique nd threatened he survival f art, as itmarked more professional rtist. n another ronic wist, British rtists'technical eficiencies permitted rogress nd encouraged xperiments, nd

the English chool, fter floundering whilewith perishing aterials, alselyused, and methods f painting ll-understood,s at last againmaking oundadvances, nd has maintained reputation s a school f colour,which ouldnever have resulted from the methods of West, Copley and theirpredecessors', ll of whomwere foreign.108 hile the new middleman, hecolourman, ppeared n the profession obear away he echnicalknowledgefrom rtists, nglish rtists nsisted n their ole as thinkers, ather hanartisans. skedwhathis medium was, Opie replied hat t washis brain,reply heRedgraves imultaneouslyamented nd condoned.109

Given he complexity f the transference f technical knowledge nd theirony f ts oss being imultaneous ith he rise of English chool, nd theemergence f an essentialEnglish rtistic haracter, heRedgraveshifted he

burden f restoration o consumers nd awayfrom rtists. hey uggestedways fpreserving adly ainted orks rom ust nd damp ndexpoundedndetail he problems ith ituminous olours, nnualvarnishingnd types fvarnishes, aglyph, nd he dangers f shutting houseup or over-protectingpaintings y denying hem light which causes their colours to changedramatically.110heRedgraves escribed ow best o build gallery, hetherprivate r public, s if addressing eaderswho could do this. Consumers ndspectators ould have to bear some responsibility or the preservation fBritish rt.

Fraternity as as vital o professionalismstechnical kill ndindependenceofthought. hey raisedmembers f hanging ommittees, hooften acrificetheir wn works or hose f their rother rtists', uch s Leslie.11Romneyand Wright, oked ogether n one chapter, were antisocial oward heirfellow cademiciansnd uffered romjealousy, uspicion,ndparanoia. heythus ailedoremedy heir neven rt ducation hrough he hared nowledgeavailable o sociable rtists.West's 'gentle nddignifiedife' became modelfor his brother rtists. ince henwehave ewer f he roystering chool,whomistakedebauchery nd wildness orgenius; nd the artist asrisen n thesocial scale'.112

Emphasizing sociable rtist he Redgraves xcused rtists' aults. They'passed vermost f the tories f wildriot nd excess hat marked he hortlife f the painter' GeorgeMorland while mplying eaders'familiarity iththem), nd argued gainst henotion hatMorland's freaks nd follieswereentirely indrances'. ome 'follies', they nsisted, evealedhis gifts f

observation.13 homasGirtin's dlenesswas not really pent n badcompanybut in the respectable ketching ociety; lthough he repeated tories f'Girtin's ntemperance nd irregularity', aused hem o 'fear here must esome ausefor ensure', hey ecidedGirtin asmerely hy ndmore t easewith ow society.14 he sociable Alfred halon was a true Englishmannheart, hough is manner was French. He was an accomplished usician,witty, with a keen sense of satire, which, f provoked, oundonly amomentary xpression; ull f anecdote nd the gossip f his profession'.115

Rivalrieswere no barrier o friendship mong cohorts (e.g. betweenNorthcote ndOpie).116ohnMartin, nemy f he RA,remained riends ithmany of its members."7 he Redgraves isputed heir predecessors' ndRuskin's escriptions f mutual ostility mong rtists ndemphasizednstead








Julie Codell

the fraternity mong painters. They did not mention Bohemian behaviourexcept to explain t away, as in the cases of Morland or Turner. Artists nd thebusiness world appeared coherent with one another: Wilkie was 'a man ofbusiness nd canny t a bargain, s his diary hows'.118

After insisting on the English artistic character, the Redgravesxenophobically dispatched lingering foreign nfluences: Giovanni Ciprianiwas inane, Angelica Kauffmann, ovely and popular, was poor in figuraldrawing 'If any progress were to be made in Art the British chooldid well toforget her'); Johann offany's best qualities of his art were obtained n thiscountry', nd Francesco Zuccarelli was insipid and stale.19 They repeatedlyquestioned the benefits f travel abroad, whether, for example, 'the Italianjourney was at all beneficial to' William Collins.120Morland successfullyresisted foreign nfluence, roving that there was a store of subjects n ourown scenery, nd a public to appreciate hem; that without seeking nspirationin Italy or Greece, . . . an artist might ucceed and be original'.121 ravelseduced Barry into classicism and led West astray into scholasticconventionality nd 'talmudic traditions'. 2

The Redgraves' attitude oward foreigners as part of a complex responseto the growing presence of Continental rtists n the 1850s and 60s and ofAsian art in the 1860s. Biographies of Continental and Japanese artistsappeared in the Art-Journal nd other magazines. The successful FrenchGallery, which also exhibited Flemish nd Dutch art n the 60s (and German,Italian, Spanish, nd Scandinavian rt n the 70s), opened in 1853 in Pall Mall.By the 1860s foreign rtists began showing t the RA, the Crystal alace, andthe Institute f Painters n Water Colour. Perhaps the Redgravesfelt hat heinfluence f French rtists uch as Pierre Edouard Frere, Jean Millet, and JulesBreton, whom the art critic Tom Taylor proclaimed fit models for Britishpainters n 1863, was an obstacle to a national style. At mid-century hepublichad access to a steadily ncreasing ritical and biographical iterature bout

foreign rtists nd increasing xhibitions f their works.123The Redgravesdenigrated he few women they mentioned, uch as Angelica

Kauffmann, nd ignored others completely r barely mentioned hem n theirhusbands' ives: Henrietta Ward in the 1890 edition was mentioned n EdwinWard's biography, s 'herself painter'.124Mary Moser, one of the foundersof the Royal Academy, was simply described as 'an academician', treated npassing once as Mrs Lloyd and once as George Moser's daughter who 'onlypractised art as an amusement'.25 Kauffmann, lso an RA founder, wasdescribed only as having arrived n this country ust before the foundation fthe Academy'.126Maria Cosway was dismissed s over-rated, 'clever artist'who 'painted miniatures well, but not professionally', n untrue ssertion.127The Redgraves dismissed women artists s amateur or incompetent. For the

Redgraves, he dominance of the RA as the vehicle for professional alidationrequired erasing ts two founding emale members and all women practisingart-making or a living.

But competence and contribution were not consistently pplied. TheRedgraves' canon was rather capricious and expressed the kind of 'enabling'described by new historicists: arrative hat purports o pre-empt nconsist-encies yet employs those nconsistencies o express an implicit narrative. hestarkest example of such enabling s the nclusion of minor male artists oftenadmittedly o in the Redgraves' own words), in direct opposition to theirstated criteria or nclusion, eferred o as 'it' not our': 'It is not intended oinclude n our work every painter who has produced meritorious pictures . .It is only those who have enlarged he scope of British rt by the originality f

118. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 264.

119. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, pp. 178-82.

120. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 417.

121. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 363.

122. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, pp. 188-9.

123. Howard D. Rodee, France nd England.Some Mid-Victorian iews of One Another'sPainting', azette es Beaux-Arts,ol. 9, no. 1,January 978, pp. 40-1. See alsoJeremy aas,Gambart: rince f heVictorian rt WorldBarrieandJenkins: ondon, 1975), for n assessmentof Gambart's ontribution o the ntroduction fmodem European rt nto England, speciallypp. 123ff.

124. Redgraves, 890,p. 474.

125. Moser s treated s Mrs. Lloyd n

Redgraves, 866,vol.

1, p. 198,and as

GeorgeMoser's daughter n vol. 1, p. 418.

126. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 176.

127. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 423.

112 OXFORD ARTJOURNAL23.2 2000







Julie Codell

Pre-Raphaelite realism which they abhorred, while validating thetopographical radition they admired.

Historical ime was dialectic nd non-chronological or he Redgraves: theymoved from topography nd Girtin, back in time to miniatures, orward obook illustrators, back to early watercolour societies, and then jumpedforward o Turner. A contemporary nd friend f Girtin, Turner was brieflymentioned n the sections on Girtin nd watercolour n adumbration f hisheroic presentation ater n volume II. Watercolour's heraldry acillatedbackand forth in time through its alleged roots in miniature painting andtopography, hus providing t with a collective, almost anonymous edigree.Miniaturists nd topographers were largely obscure figures, uch as ThomasFlatman, Alexander Browne, Charles Boit, Lewis Crosse, all brieflymentioned. This genealogy removed Turner from claims to have originatedthe watercolour processes he adopted n landscapepainting nd demonstratedthat even geniuses worked n collective, nstitutional raditions o which theyadded something riginal.'36 espite the importance f watercolour, Englishart, in fact, began in portraiture', first n miniatures, he other source of

watercolour rt. So elevated was the role of miniaturists hat the Redgraves,despite their frequent warnings hat painters much admired n their ifetimemay no longer deserve high steem, and that popularity was not to be confusedwith quality, ccasionally everse heir tance: we cannot doubt, from what sknown, that their reputation n their own day may be taken as a test of theirmerits'.137 When Turner appears full-blown, watercolour, miniature, ndlandscape unite n one climactic, ynthetic rtist.

The interrupted ialectical story f watercolour was told as a serialization.The serial, 'a continuing story over an extended time with enforcedinterruptions,' was part of, and representative f, a number of Victorianideologicaland cultural practices, a perspective n stories bout life, ntrinsicto Victorian culture', as Linda Hughes and Michael Lund have argued.Victorian readers were excited by each instalment f a series, speculativeabout the outcome of future chapters, nd emotionally ngaged n the process.A form of publication not only for fiction ut for non-fiction (e.g. Carlyle,Newman, Arnold, Ruskin) nd for poetry e.g. Tennyson, Morris, Browning),serial installations were homologous with Victorian economics, moral, andsocial values: growth and maturation through ime for individuals nd fornations; ccretions s investments n the future world of plenitude nd richnessthrough ontinued growth; and delayed gratification hat nduced speculationabout events in the future. Serialization mbodied Victorian notions abouttime and history, paralleled in the historicist elief that cultures changed,developed, and lapsed over time, that separate moments were transitionalwithin the limited temporal perspective of any age but were compoundedteleologically ver an expanded time. Serialization e-enforced niformitar-ianism n Victorian ntellectual ife, way from cataclysmic xplanations n thesciences, as physical and social events were increasingly iewed as slowaccretions over long time periods.138

The Redgraves' application of serialization techniques of splices,interspersions, iscontinuities, non-chronological digressions and multipleskeins f histories (e.g. professional ocieties, Turner, miniatures, opography)served their goal of arguing or nstitutional collectivity s the key to greatnessin British rt. They applied a geological sense of time to art history nd thuscould speculate on their hopes for future progress n art. Rather than thesudden and often disruptive ppearance of genius, as Vasarian tropes definedsuch masters, he Redgraves nsisted on a uniformitarian rt history, radual

136. Redgraves, 866,vol. 1, p. 407.

137. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, pp. 410-16.

138. Hughes nd Lund,Serial, p. 1-10.








RightingheVictorian rtist

139. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, pp. 123and109, respectively.140. Hughes nd Lund, Serial, . 7.

141. Carlyle, On History', p. 71-3.142. Hughes nd Lund, Serial, p. 78-9.

improvement ver time by many major nd minor rtists, evelopments fgenre ndmediamadefrom great umber f multiple ontributions, oneofwhich lone determined hepattern. n oftendigressive arrative(signalledby such phrases s 'But we resume', But we are led aside by thesequestions'139)eralded he 'diversifying ollocation f characters nd plot

lines', as Hughes and Lund describe erialization.140By employing ninstalmentarrangement f chapter opics, heRedgravesevoked he ploddingchronology f antecedent ollective biographies nd introduced nsteadstructure osustain heir heme f collective rtisticproduction archingikea line f army nts. rofessionalism as not accomplishedndividuallyutonlythrough he ollective ssociationf rtists hojudged achother'sworks ndthus maintained true' quality n the face of growing nprofessional ublictaste, onfusedmarket orces, nd government nterference. he Redgraveshadsubplots the limination f foreign ndfemale rtists rom nfluence, henetwork f artists ver decades,the unity f Scottish,Welsh, rish, ndEnglishraces' n British rt. Their arrative mphasizedhediversity, ensity,complexity, nd unevenness f this art history y interweaving tories,

dropping nd picking p various hreads, nd ultimately eparating iographyfrom history nd history rommere chronology o present Dickensianrichness f artisticactivity n Britain ver the past entury.

In 'On History', arlyle rgued hat hecomplexity f historical vents soften ost because recordedhistory s successive,things one were not aseries, but a group'. Carlyle mphasized he synchronicity f events hatdischarged very ause o multiple ffects:'every ingle vent s the offspringnot of one, but of ll other vents, rior r contemporaneous,ndwill n tsturn ombinewith ll others o givebirth o new: it s an ever-living, ver-working haos of Being . . Narrative s linear, ction s solid'. Carlyle'smetaphor orhistory asthe palimpsest.'41hrough heir nterwoven topics,the Redgraves ispersed auses, ffects, rigins, ndlegacies ialecticallyack

andforth n time nd centrifugallyn space o blend ndividuals' ontributionsseamlesslynto nstitutional, ational, nd inevitable' evelopments.

But hiscomplexity hreatened o fall nto haos nd confusion. entral omuchhistorical iterature, hetherhistory ikeCarlyle's he rench evolutionor Victorian ictionubtitledAHistory', s the onfusion f he moment henprotagonists annot comprehend he forces blowing hem around whosemeanings re only slowly revealed. This confusion s heightened yserialization hichsuspends he outcomes f struggles etween orces ndindividuals.142istory, ocial ircumstances,rt prices, nd moral ehaviourwere forces rom which he Redgraves opedto salvage rt to avoid thedestruction escribedn their irst chapter. heirremedy orcountering uchoverpowering orces and smaller forces, such as individual rtists'

misdemeanours, as the Royal Academy nd to a lesser extent otherprofessional rganizations hich rained rtists without trict regulations,maintained hem n a 'brotherhood' ormutual ducation nd collective rtproduction, ndcreated non-competitiverofessionalismnsulliedbymoralor socialdeviations(e.g. Morland r Girtin), ccentrics(e.g. Blake),women,and foreigners ecause its authority nd existence were transhistorical,supraindividual,nd national.

Their ttitude owardnaturalism irrored he nationalistic ntentions ftheir overarching lot. They dentified type of quiet, idyllic andscapeassociatedor hem with onstable squintessentiallynglishncontrast othewild landscapes f Salvatore r the neo-classicalun-drenched ampagna. otsurprisingly,histype f quiet andscape as the ubject f Richard edgrave's








Julie Codell

own landscape painting often described by Victorian critics as Pre-Raphaelite.143 he Redgraveshated excessive iteralness whether historical rnatural, and attacked the 'new' school of realism, under which they yokedtogether Pre-Raphaelitism, he Nazarenes, and Courbet, identifying t withforeign nfluences.They also attacked Ruskin's assertion hat Turner was Pre-

Raphaelite. They admitted ome Pre-Raphaelites have attained . . the firstrank n art; and have painted pictures which ll true overs of art must dmire',but onlyby gnoring heir wn principles.144t s possible hatRuskin's riticismof Redgrave'spaintings n the 1850s aspretensions oPre-Raphaelitism nducedtheir ttack n both Ruskin nd the PRB in A Century f Painters.

Another ource of the richness nd confusionwere the topics about whichthe Redgraves were thoroughly mbiguous and inconsistent. The dialecticbetween economic success and aesthetic quality was expressed n the conflictbetween a successful career and lasting fame that appeared in severalbiographies: Thomas Lawrence's annual income, up to ?20,000, wascontrasted with the Redgraves' 'ultimate' assessment of him: 'We areaware that his contemporaries ad a far higher pinion of Lawrence's powersthan we have expressed . . . We have, however, spoken upon our ownconvictions, ot hastily ormed'.145 ritical of public opinion, the Redgravesargued that West, among the most highly aid, was 'too highly ated in hisday', yet also 'perhaps too much depreciated n ours'.146Nonetheless theyquoted prices and used them as evidence n both directions of worth nd ofmomentary ashion.Here, too, they preferred o see artists not functioningentirely s individual ases, but as caught n larger historical orces.Turner waspraised for the appreciation f prices of his works over thirty ears from woto over eight times the original prices.

However the Redgravesmoved quickly romTurner's prices to criticism fthe new system of pricing art, indicating again, in light of Foucault'scomments, hat human history or them was the history f economies:

143. SusanP. Casteras, "Green Lanes andChequered hade": The Landscapes f RichardRedgrave', n Casteras nd Parkinson, ichardRedgrave,p. 75-7, citesreviews f RichardRedgrave's aintings. uskin escribed he BirdKeeper, 855, as 'mechanical' nd praisedRichard's ittle ed Riding ood, 1856, for tsexact transcription f natural etails.Casteras,rightly think, otes hat imilarities etweenhis work nd PRB works were superficial ndthat Redgrave's tyle receded he PRB. He wasnot then follower f this movement ut wasstylisticallykin o Constable,whomhe praisedin A Centuryf Painters.

144. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 625.

145. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 14.

146. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 198.

147. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 135.

148. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 264.

149. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 365.

150. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, pp. 284-5.

151. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, p. 626.

the ountry eanwhilead dvancednmaterial rosperity.hegreatmanufacturersboundingin urplus apital adfound npictures, ot nly source f pleasure nd personalaggrandisement,ut good nvestment and hey t oncebecame atrons f rt, nd argepurchasers. ence new ystem f hange, new hase n he history f rt, he ffects fwhich ill ave o be weighednour stimate f uture rt rogress.147

They complained hat rt had become 'a profitable usiness o middlemen nddealers, who, given banquet scene, the entry f a royal personage, or indeedany outre r singularwork, can, by dint of sheer advertising uffery, raw largesums of money from the public, whether the art is good or bad'.148Ambivalent oward the buying public as patrons of art, they alled the public'purchasers' nstead.149

Theywere

suspiciousof

public approbationf artists:

'although he art-world, rue to its first ove, hesitated o consider Wilkie'schange of style n improvement, we, who at a distance of time compare thetwo, are able to give a less biased judgement, nd can find many beauties nthese works'.150Focusing gain on institutional rends, he Redgraves elievedthe puffed p market was due to public taste for

showy ictures f low lass, and t a low rice, hich as arisen rom he ormationfArt-unions, ow n peration hroughouthe ength nd breadth f he and: .. pictures hat remanufacturedlmost y ecipe, ndwhich, s shown n ur eviewf heBritishnstitution,illour xhibitionso the xclusionf ess successful fforts fter etter hings.151

They argued that such public demand created a threatening rosperity:

116 OXFORD ARTJOURNAL23.2 2000








152. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, pp. 627-8.

153. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, pp. 609-15.

154. Redgraves, 866, vol. 2, pp. 588-9.

155. Redgraves, 890, p. v.

156. F. M. Redgrave, Memoir, . 282.

157. Redgraves, 890, pp. 473-4.

158. Redgraves, 890, pp. 470-72.

Anotherource f danger o art rises ut f tsvery rosperity .. the high rices ealized yTurner's orks .. the payments o those rtists howere ommissionedopaint n the wallsof he enate House;groundingheir ecision n the argelyncreased ums ther rtists repaid or heir orks ince he ime hose ommissions ere irst iven . . besides he highprices, oubled ith he ast fifteen ears, hat ictures fmerit ealize t Christie's nd otherpublic ales ... [Art] ives leasure nd delightnpossession, nd rising rices how hat he

best rt s a safe nvestment. uthow btain hebest rt? Want f knowledgen the part fpurchasers as raised p class ofmiddlemennd dealers; hese gain dd argelyopricesfor heir ecessary rofits.

While this group may nclude art overs, with the many, rt s no more thansource of self-glorification n possession, and a safe and improving nvestmentfor the future'. In the end, these changes adversely ffected rtists, s they'beget n the artists hemselves he spirit f covetousness . . artists hould bepaid at least as well as other professionswho require no higher ndowments,no longer previous tudy nor harder probation re reputation s achieved . .But art must be practised or the love of t, and not for gain, f art s to maketrue progress'.152

Arguing or the importance of artists' ives, the Redgraves envisioned rtitself s animistic: As individuals, owever, will require medical and surgicalaid, so occasionallymust pictures, whether rom ccident or premature ecay;it may be difficult n an age of quacksto choose a skilledphysician, nd it is anequally anxious affair o have to make choice of a good restorer.' TheRedgraves dopted the role of a skilled physician' f the English chool who'has witnessed ts birth nd seen its advance to manhood, with a short eviewof its present tate and future prospects', and in so doing aligned themselveswith doctors who were similarly eeking professional tatus.153 n volume 2,chapter 18, 'Preservation of Pictures', they chastized 'the painter, whoindifferently mploys n their production ad materials, ad vehicles, nd badexecution'. Later when these works were exposed to light, dust, gas, smoke,

they uffer 'premature ld age and decay .. shrivelling heir kins nd dryingup their juices', harmed by 'conceited restorers'. Anthropomorphizingpaintings, he Redgraves rgued that the painter f the ast century ook verylittle thought for the immortality f his own progeny, and from ts birthtrusted ts well-being more to chance than to care'.15

In their Preface o the second edition n 1890, the Redgraveswrote that twas 'advisable to abridge t considerably nd to issue it in a single volume forthe convenience of Art Students who may use it as a book of reference'.155 Inlight of the comment by Frances Redgrave that the 1866 edition was 'notmuch read by the general public', it had, nevertheless, become a standardauthority n the subject' by 1890 in her opinion.156 omparisons etween the1866 and the 1890 versions of A Century f Painters eveal changes n the art

world, as well as in the Redgraves' notions of their udience. They eliminatedearlier criticisms of the Art-Unions and added a condemnation ofImpressionism.157 re-Raphaelitism ad a Master by 1890 as Rossetti haddied and therefore ecome eligiblefor nclusion. The Redgravesdescribed himas: 'The guiding pirit n the brotherhood s first ormed'. They presentedbrief biography f him, approved the National Gallery purchases f Found ndEcceAncilla omini, nd preferred isearly works over his ate ones because thelatter were 'marred by mannerisms nd peculiarities'. Rossetti owed nothingto foreign ravel, academic study, or to artists n general', and was, likeConstable and Hogarth, ruly riginal, hough oo 'sensuous' and 'an uneven

painter' 58In the 1890 edition the Redgraves tried to make sense of the intervening

OXFORD ART JOURNAL 23.2 2000 117







Julie Codell

years of art prosperity. t appeared useless to combat the assertion hat naturaland political mpediments pposed the success of art in our country. Whowould not maintain he incompatibility f art and commerce, when the onehas proved the handmaid to the other?'19 They reduced the numbers ofindividual paintings described and removed negative criticism from their

descriptions f artists (e.g. Mulready's combative ubjects r defects f Dyce'scharacter). The 1866 chapter n Turner was candid about Turner's varnishingday antics nd the harm done to paintings y that behaviour nd included longreviews of Turner's work. The 1890 edition omitted citations of Turner'spoetry and the comparison between Turner and Claude Lorraine. The mostinteresting missionwas the ist of Turner's works and their appreciated aluethat appeared n the 1866 chapter n Turner. The appreciation ad continuedto 1890, but by then the Redgraves eemed as reluctant o include prices asthey were to air art world internecine onflicts.

They also removed their polemics on professional rganizations, uch as thewatercolour societies and management problems of the Society of Artists.They eliminated heir riticisms f the Guildhallfor neglect of art works kept

there and of the Angerstein Collection for ts lack of British painting. Theysoftened heir defence of the RA and removed their extensive ttacks n thegovernment inquiries, the Commissioners' reports, and the BritishInstitution's 'lay management' who failed to consult professional artistsbefore taking action.160The 1890 edition had merely two pages on theInstitution. They added a chapter n portrait ainting, genre they gnored n1866, but which by 1890 was no longer considered merely ucrative. By 1890the RA was a much weaker, less monopolistic institution nd artists'professionalism as thoroughly nstitutionalized nd acknowledgedby artists,the government, nd the public.161

The Redgravesfreely orrowed strategies rom he novel to enhance theirhistory. Constructing professional rtist, hey forged nascent rt-historical

discipline to police national cultural hegemony. Disciplines, in Foucault'sanalysis:

159. Redgraves, 890,p. 478.

160. Redgraves, 866, vol. 1, p. 144.

161. On artists' growing rofessional uthorityin the ast quarter f the nineteenth century, eeJulie . Codell, Artists' rofessional ocieties

. .,' pp. 169-87, and Dianne Sachko Macleod,Art nd the Victorian middle lass: Money nd the

making f cultural identity Cambridge UniversityPress: Cambridge, 996), chapter .

162. From Disciplineand Punish, cited in PaulRabinow ed.), Foucault eader Pantheon:NewYork, 1984),pp. 212-13.

characterize,lassify, pecialize;hey istributelong scale, round norm, ierarchizeindividualsnrelation o one another nd, fnecessary, isqualifynd nvalidate . . Regularand nstitutionals it may e,the disciplinen ts mechanism,s a 'counterlaw' . . Hence, odoubt, he mportancehat as been given or o long f he mall echniquesfdiscipline,othose pparentlynsignificantricks hat thas inventednd even o those sciences' hat ive ta respectable ace;hence hefear f bandoninghem f ne cannot ind ny ubstitutes; henthe ffirmationhat hey re t the oundationf ociety, nd n element n ts quilibrium,whereas hey re a series f mechanisms or nbalancingower elations efinitivelyndeverywhere;hehumble ut oncrete orm f verymorality, hereas hey re a set of physical-politicalechniques.162

The Redgraves' policing activities hardened into a defence of the RA('physical-political echniques'), an elimination of women and foreigners('disqualify nd invalidate'), a definition f professionalism 'a norm') and ofnational cultural character nd order ('at the foundation f society . . thehumble and concrete form of every morality'). Their 'enabling' was theaccumulation f their 'apparently nsignificant ricks'.

There s a danger, however, n reducing ny ext to a set of inventions', heimplication f Foucault's 'whereas'. This reduction overplays he consciousintentions nd fails to grant uthority o the contradictions eft exposed, thetensions between residual and emerging forces, what the authors could notsimply unify or connect. The Redgraves' text was rife with unresolved

118 OXFORDART JOURNAL23.2 2000








163. LionelLambourne, RichardRedgraveToday', in Casteras nd Parkinson, ichardRedgrave,. 98.

conflicts omeof whichwere resolvedsimply y eliminatingheirmention n1890.

The Redgraves'A Century f Painters as not been read deeply. LionelLambourne escribes CenturyfPainterss RichardRedgrave'smost lastingwork as both educationalist nd art historian . . eminently eadable,

principally or he illuminatingnecdotes n the artists hom Redgrave adeither known personally r learned of by word of mouth from eniorAcademicians.t can still laim to be one of the best ntroductions o thehistory f Britishpainting pto the mid-nineteenthcentury'.163heRedgraveswould have been unnerved o be commended or anecdotes, hough heyhardly radicated hem, ndthe 1890 version ent wellbeyondmid-century.Writing rt history, heywere lso righting heBritish rtist, ransforminghelazy, runken'roystering' ighteenth-centuryrtist nto normative ictorianprofessional haracterized s fraternal nd masculine, nd without ocial ormoral ccentricities f earlier anecdotage iographies. hey riticized rtistswhoput he ocial head f he professional,ndthey rased r belittled oralissueswheneverpossiblee.g. Morland, irtin). he Redgraves'magnumpuswas a partisanmaster-narrative hat onstructed British chool out of aserializationf ntertwined biographicalnd nstitutional istories hat eiledits own inconsistencies nd internal ontradictions o produce the idealVictorian rtist, ndependent,ociable, nduntaintedbyforeign nfluence. herepeated eferences o the Redgravesn subsequent ictorian rt-historicalliterature ndicates heir ater power ndauthority. uch pervasivenfluencejustifies criticalanalysis f heir arrative strategies,deology, nd ntentionswithin ictorian otions bout rtists, istory, ender, nd national ulturalidentity.


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