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Articles by Susanna Avery-Quash
19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 2019
The National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin recently mounted an exhibition entitled ‘[In]Visible: I... more The National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin recently mounted an exhibition entitled ‘[In]Visible: Irish Women Artists from the Archives’ (19 July 2018–3 March 2019).1 It showed material from two little-known but highly important repositories: the ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art, and the Yeats Archive, both of which relate to Irish women artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From these archives, letters, scrapbooks, and photographs, as well as some works of art, including embroideries, were put on show, all made by women artists including Mary Swanzy, Sarah Purser, Mainie Jellett, Susan Yeats, and Evie Hone. The aim was to shed light on their education and artistic practice and to think further about the contribution they made both to major exhibitions and longer lasting artistic initiatives and movements. This interest in their lives and legacy is new; despite being some of the most progressive people in Ireland before and after independence — the suffragette movement and Revolutionary period were contemporaneous — they were overlooked by the Irish arts institutions of the day which were male dominated.
To learn more, Susanna Avery-Quash (Senior Research Curator in the History of Collecting) from the National Gallery in London got in touch with colleagues in Dublin who had conceived of and curated the exhibition: Emma O’Toole (ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art Fellow at the National Gallery of Ireland), Tanya Keyes (H. W. Wilson Foundation Fellow at the National Gallery of Ireland), and Leah Benson (Archivist, National Gallery of Ireland).
Papers by Susanna Avery-Quash
She is in charge of activities associated with the Gallery's research strands, 'Buying, Collectin... more She is in charge of activities associated with the Gallery's research strands, 'Buying, Collecting and Display' and 'Art and Religion', including postgraduate teaching, organising public events and editing associated publications.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
Journal of Art Historiography, 2020
The eminent Victorian writer and social reformer John Ruskin (1819–1900), whose bicentenary took ... more The eminent Victorian writer and social reformer John Ruskin (1819–1900), whose bicentenary took place in 2019, was deeply concerned throughout his working life was the power of vision: the good that he believed could arise, both for individuals and society at large, from well-trained and properly-directed visual perception, from an ability to draw, and from the opportunity to enjoy and learn from beautiful, publicly-accessible and well-maintained works of art. It was these related topics that were addressed in 'Art for the Nation: John Ruskin, Art Education and Social Change', a two-day conference held at the National Gallery on 20–21 September 2019. Papers from that event have been reworked for publication here and a few newly-commissioned pieces have been added to fill certain gaps. This introduction explains how, taken together, these articles consider afresh Ruskin's interactions with and influence on the collecting, display and cataloguing of art in public and priv...
Quash with Christine Riding For all the women who have ever supported the National Gallery Introd... more Quash with Christine Riding For all the women who have ever supported the National Gallery Introduction: contextualising the project It is a commonplace belief that the holdings of institutions such as the National Gallery, London are built on donations from men; in fact, woman have played a far larger part than people might realise. The subject of female donors of the National Gallery has never been treated in a sustained way before and has not been considered in the standard institutional histories of the Gallery. 1 In the light of this, the following account of work-in-progress seeks to outline what has been pieced together so far in relation to a history of women who have acted as benefactors of the National Gallery over its two-century history. The principal ambition is to record for the first time in one place the names of the Gallery's female benefactors, linking those names with paintings and other acts of generosity. Many of the women featured have not been mentioned in previous publications devoted to collecting and benefaction and in a survey article of this kind they can only be given Our grateful thanks to Nicholas Smith, Rupert Shepherd and Hugo Brown for their help with sharing data from the National Gallery's archive and collections information system in preparation for this article, and to other colleagues
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
The Burlington Magazine, 2015
As prominent members of the Victorian cultural and artistic world, Sir Charles and Lady Elizabeth... more As prominent members of the Victorian cultural and artistic world, Sir Charles and Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, along with their nephew Charles Locke Eastlake, enjoyed the friendship and support of influential figures including Prince Albert, Sir Thomas Lawrence, J. M. W. Turner, and Sir Robert Peel. This fascinating original biography brings the unique personality of each of the Eastlakes into sharp focus while also exploring their important contributions during the early days of the National Gallery. Charles Eastlake, an artist and connoisseur, was chosen to be not only the President of the Royal Academy from 1850, but also the National Gallery's first Director in 1855. With his capable wife, a literary critic and art historian in her own right, he traveled throughout Europe acquiring significant paintings for the Gallery and implementing important changes to their display and description. Nephew Charles, an architect and popularizer of the Arts and Crafts style, was Keeper at the...
The Journal of Art Historiography, 2018
Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2019
It has overwhelmingly been the fate of the eighteenth-century town house, Kate Retford notes in h... more It has overwhelmingly been the fate of the eighteenth-century town house, Kate Retford notes in her introduction to The Georgian London Town House: Building, Collecting and Display, to be 'reduced to rubble' (p.3). Much of this demolition took place in the early twentieth century as part of a scheme of 'widespread destruction' that, Retford argues, 'has led to substantial scholarly neglect of these town houses and their contents' (p.3). A preface by Nicholas Penny, Director of the National Gallery from 2008 to 2015, sets out the rationale behind this important collection and signposts the role of its two editors, Retford and Susanna Avery-Quash, in driving a fast-developing field through both their scholarship and their service as PhD supervisors. The genesis of the book lies in a conference organised by the National Gallery, Birkbeck College and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Significantly, this event was itself a reply to a previous conference exploring the history of the country house, and this relationship between town and country runs through the collection and informs many of its perspectives. Why focus on the town house? The country house, Retford concedes, 'is far more deeply embedded in the national consciousnessa cornerstone of the UK heritage industry and a continual leitmotif for fiction, TV and films: the much vaunted "Downton effect"' (p. 3). This is certainly true for historians of collecting, for whom the country house has held particular and prolonged interest, and yet, Retford points out, large portions of aristocratic art and natural history collections were also held and displayed in their urban counterparts. While The Georgian London Town House presents useful methodological approaches in reconstructing these lost and neglected urban structures, it is in its focus on their cultural impact that the enquiry is most urgent and has the greatest impact, setting out a nuanced and diverse vision of the eighteenth-century cityscape and its inhabitants. A double-page map at the beginning of the volume aids in visualising the case studies presented here, 'from royal town houses [and] the palaces of the richest aristocratic families of the period [...] to the elegant residences of members of the gentry [and] the significant houses of moneymen' (p.3). But this is not a history of the city told exclusively in geographical terms. Instead, a complex topography is invoked at house, street and city level: one centred on ornate elevations, lavish interiors and networks of collecting and exchange, and populated by architects and craftsmen, designers and patrons. As the volume's appellation sets out, the central themes running throughout frame London's town houses, some still extant and others altered beyond recognition or else destroyed entirely, in terms of the rich social and material worlds created and performed in their interiors and the structures of collecting, collaboration and commissions that united them. Moving between elite, middling and genteel properties, Part One of The Georgian Town House is primarily concerned with the architecture, furnishing and decorating of these sites. Matthew Jenkins and Charlotte Newman's opening chapter combines analysis of surviving archaeological fragments and photographic records of 43 Parliament Street with contemporary textual evidence to make a strong case for the town house as a sight of performance and sociability as political praxis, reassessing, in particular, the agency of women in a space simultaneously domestic and public. Questions of spatial and social intimacy, gender and taste are taken up by Jeremy Howard in his chapter on Norfolk House in the 1750s, in which contemporary accounts are engaged to reveal the rich material and social worlds contained within. Continuing this close focus on the fabric of the town house, Adriano Aymonino and Manolo Guerci's chapter on the refurbishment of Northumberland House makes a valuable contribution by positioning the town house as a professional space, and insightfully includes a catalogue of architects and tradesmen who contributed to the interiors and furnishing of the building. Chapters by Joseph Friedman and Neil Bingham broaden this
In the early 1930s when the new Library for the University of Cambridge was nearing completion, t... more In the early 1930s when the new Library for the University of Cambridge was nearing completion, there was talk about its adornment. The architect, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, envisaged having statuary 'on the plinths outside the main entrance', as well as 'decorative paintings on the semi-circular panels over the doors at the end of the main Reading Room'.1 For the latter task at least two artists were considered: Philip Connard's name was put forward by the architect,2 while Stanley Spencer's was promoted by the Librarian, A. F. Scholfield and Gwen Raverat, the grand-daughter of Charles Darwin, who had been a close friend of Spencer's, since their time together as art students at the Slade.3 Gwen Raverat's kindly act was characteristic of her, for throughout her life she attempted to foster Spencer's abilities and opportunities.4 Although the Library's decorative scheme was abandoned
With a remit to broaden the Gallery's existing collection to tell the history of European art... more With a remit to broaden the Gallery's existing collection to tell the history of European art, Sir Charles Eastlake scoured the continent from 1855 for suitable masterpieces
Journal of the History of Collections, 2015
... The Image of Christ Christ is readily recognizable to us in all sorts of images, in painting,... more ... The Image of Christ Christ is readily recognizable to us in all sorts of images, in painting, sculpture, film and illustration; his likeness is familiar, and yet the Gospels and the early Christian texts do not provide any information about his appearance. ...
Apollo: The international magazine of arts, 1999
... 'Valuable assistance': Stanley Spencer's friendship with Gwen and ... more ... 'Valuable assistance': Stanley Spencer's friendship with Gwen and Jacques Raverat. Autores: Susanna Avery-Quash; Localización: Apollo: The international magazine of arts, ISSN 0003-6536, Nº. 452, 1999 , págs. 3-11. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...
19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, 2019
The National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin recently mounted an exhibition entitled ‘[In]Visible: I... more The National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin recently mounted an exhibition entitled ‘[In]Visible: Irish Women Artists from the Archives’ (19 July 2018–3 March 2019).1 It showed material from two little-known but highly important repositories: the ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art, and the Yeats Archive, both of which relate to Irish women artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. From these archives, letters, scrapbooks, and photographs, as well as some works of art, including embroideries, were put on show, all made by women artists including Mary Swanzy, Sarah Purser, Mainie Jellett, Susan Yeats, and Evie Hone. The aim was to shed light on their education and artistic practice and to think further about the contribution they made both to major exhibitions and longer lasting artistic initiatives and movements. This interest in their lives and legacy is new; despite being some of the most progressive people in Ireland before and after independence — the suffragette movement and Revolutionary period were contemporaneous — they were overlooked by the Irish arts institutions of the day which were male dominated.
To learn more, Susanna Avery-Quash (Senior Research Curator in the History of Collecting) from the National Gallery in London got in touch with colleagues in Dublin who had conceived of and curated the exhibition: Emma O’Toole (ESB Centre for the Study of Irish Art Fellow at the National Gallery of Ireland), Tanya Keyes (H. W. Wilson Foundation Fellow at the National Gallery of Ireland), and Leah Benson (Archivist, National Gallery of Ireland).
She is in charge of activities associated with the Gallery's research strands, 'Buying, Collectin... more She is in charge of activities associated with the Gallery's research strands, 'Buying, Collecting and Display' and 'Art and Religion', including postgraduate teaching, organising public events and editing associated publications.
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
Journal of Art Historiography, 2020
The eminent Victorian writer and social reformer John Ruskin (1819–1900), whose bicentenary took ... more The eminent Victorian writer and social reformer John Ruskin (1819–1900), whose bicentenary took place in 2019, was deeply concerned throughout his working life was the power of vision: the good that he believed could arise, both for individuals and society at large, from well-trained and properly-directed visual perception, from an ability to draw, and from the opportunity to enjoy and learn from beautiful, publicly-accessible and well-maintained works of art. It was these related topics that were addressed in 'Art for the Nation: John Ruskin, Art Education and Social Change', a two-day conference held at the National Gallery on 20–21 September 2019. Papers from that event have been reworked for publication here and a few newly-commissioned pieces have been added to fill certain gaps. This introduction explains how, taken together, these articles consider afresh Ruskin's interactions with and influence on the collecting, display and cataloguing of art in public and priv...
Quash with Christine Riding For all the women who have ever supported the National Gallery Introd... more Quash with Christine Riding For all the women who have ever supported the National Gallery Introduction: contextualising the project It is a commonplace belief that the holdings of institutions such as the National Gallery, London are built on donations from men; in fact, woman have played a far larger part than people might realise. The subject of female donors of the National Gallery has never been treated in a sustained way before and has not been considered in the standard institutional histories of the Gallery. 1 In the light of this, the following account of work-in-progress seeks to outline what has been pieced together so far in relation to a history of women who have acted as benefactors of the National Gallery over its two-century history. The principal ambition is to record for the first time in one place the names of the Gallery's female benefactors, linking those names with paintings and other acts of generosity. Many of the women featured have not been mentioned in previous publications devoted to collecting and benefaction and in a survey article of this kind they can only be given Our grateful thanks to Nicholas Smith, Rupert Shepherd and Hugo Brown for their help with sharing data from the National Gallery's archive and collections information system in preparation for this article, and to other colleagues
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
The Burlington Magazine, 2015
As prominent members of the Victorian cultural and artistic world, Sir Charles and Lady Elizabeth... more As prominent members of the Victorian cultural and artistic world, Sir Charles and Lady Elizabeth Eastlake, along with their nephew Charles Locke Eastlake, enjoyed the friendship and support of influential figures including Prince Albert, Sir Thomas Lawrence, J. M. W. Turner, and Sir Robert Peel. This fascinating original biography brings the unique personality of each of the Eastlakes into sharp focus while also exploring their important contributions during the early days of the National Gallery. Charles Eastlake, an artist and connoisseur, was chosen to be not only the President of the Royal Academy from 1850, but also the National Gallery's first Director in 1855. With his capable wife, a literary critic and art historian in her own right, he traveled throughout Europe acquiring significant paintings for the Gallery and implementing important changes to their display and description. Nephew Charles, an architect and popularizer of the Arts and Crafts style, was Keeper at the...
The Journal of Art Historiography, 2018
Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 2019
It has overwhelmingly been the fate of the eighteenth-century town house, Kate Retford notes in h... more It has overwhelmingly been the fate of the eighteenth-century town house, Kate Retford notes in her introduction to The Georgian London Town House: Building, Collecting and Display, to be 'reduced to rubble' (p.3). Much of this demolition took place in the early twentieth century as part of a scheme of 'widespread destruction' that, Retford argues, 'has led to substantial scholarly neglect of these town houses and their contents' (p.3). A preface by Nicholas Penny, Director of the National Gallery from 2008 to 2015, sets out the rationale behind this important collection and signposts the role of its two editors, Retford and Susanna Avery-Quash, in driving a fast-developing field through both their scholarship and their service as PhD supervisors. The genesis of the book lies in a conference organised by the National Gallery, Birkbeck College and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art. Significantly, this event was itself a reply to a previous conference exploring the history of the country house, and this relationship between town and country runs through the collection and informs many of its perspectives. Why focus on the town house? The country house, Retford concedes, 'is far more deeply embedded in the national consciousnessa cornerstone of the UK heritage industry and a continual leitmotif for fiction, TV and films: the much vaunted "Downton effect"' (p. 3). This is certainly true for historians of collecting, for whom the country house has held particular and prolonged interest, and yet, Retford points out, large portions of aristocratic art and natural history collections were also held and displayed in their urban counterparts. While The Georgian London Town House presents useful methodological approaches in reconstructing these lost and neglected urban structures, it is in its focus on their cultural impact that the enquiry is most urgent and has the greatest impact, setting out a nuanced and diverse vision of the eighteenth-century cityscape and its inhabitants. A double-page map at the beginning of the volume aids in visualising the case studies presented here, 'from royal town houses [and] the palaces of the richest aristocratic families of the period [...] to the elegant residences of members of the gentry [and] the significant houses of moneymen' (p.3). But this is not a history of the city told exclusively in geographical terms. Instead, a complex topography is invoked at house, street and city level: one centred on ornate elevations, lavish interiors and networks of collecting and exchange, and populated by architects and craftsmen, designers and patrons. As the volume's appellation sets out, the central themes running throughout frame London's town houses, some still extant and others altered beyond recognition or else destroyed entirely, in terms of the rich social and material worlds created and performed in their interiors and the structures of collecting, collaboration and commissions that united them. Moving between elite, middling and genteel properties, Part One of The Georgian Town House is primarily concerned with the architecture, furnishing and decorating of these sites. Matthew Jenkins and Charlotte Newman's opening chapter combines analysis of surviving archaeological fragments and photographic records of 43 Parliament Street with contemporary textual evidence to make a strong case for the town house as a sight of performance and sociability as political praxis, reassessing, in particular, the agency of women in a space simultaneously domestic and public. Questions of spatial and social intimacy, gender and taste are taken up by Jeremy Howard in his chapter on Norfolk House in the 1750s, in which contemporary accounts are engaged to reveal the rich material and social worlds contained within. Continuing this close focus on the fabric of the town house, Adriano Aymonino and Manolo Guerci's chapter on the refurbishment of Northumberland House makes a valuable contribution by positioning the town house as a professional space, and insightfully includes a catalogue of architects and tradesmen who contributed to the interiors and furnishing of the building. Chapters by Joseph Friedman and Neil Bingham broaden this
In the early 1930s when the new Library for the University of Cambridge was nearing completion, t... more In the early 1930s when the new Library for the University of Cambridge was nearing completion, there was talk about its adornment. The architect, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, envisaged having statuary 'on the plinths outside the main entrance', as well as 'decorative paintings on the semi-circular panels over the doors at the end of the main Reading Room'.1 For the latter task at least two artists were considered: Philip Connard's name was put forward by the architect,2 while Stanley Spencer's was promoted by the Librarian, A. F. Scholfield and Gwen Raverat, the grand-daughter of Charles Darwin, who had been a close friend of Spencer's, since their time together as art students at the Slade.3 Gwen Raverat's kindly act was characteristic of her, for throughout her life she attempted to foster Spencer's abilities and opportunities.4 Although the Library's decorative scheme was abandoned
With a remit to broaden the Gallery's existing collection to tell the history of European art... more With a remit to broaden the Gallery's existing collection to tell the history of European art, Sir Charles Eastlake scoured the continent from 1855 for suitable masterpieces
Journal of the History of Collections, 2015
... The Image of Christ Christ is readily recognizable to us in all sorts of images, in painting,... more ... The Image of Christ Christ is readily recognizable to us in all sorts of images, in painting, sculpture, film and illustration; his likeness is familiar, and yet the Gospels and the early Christian texts do not provide any information about his appearance. ...
Apollo: The international magazine of arts, 1999
... 'Valuable assistance': Stanley Spencer's friendship with Gwen and ... more ... 'Valuable assistance': Stanley Spencer's friendship with Gwen and Jacques Raverat. Autores: Susanna Avery-Quash; Localización: Apollo: The international magazine of arts, ISSN 0003-6536, Nº. 452, 1999 , págs. 3-11. Fundación Dialnet. Acceso de usuarios registrados. ...
by Richard Woodfield, Fiona K A Gatty, Amy C Smith, Tomáš Murár, Tereza Hrdlička, Csilla Markója, Martin Horáček, Milena Bartlová, Stefaniia Demchuk, Hannah De Moor, Susanna Avery-Quash, and Swati Chemburkar
Journal of Art Historiography, 2021
Update: ToC should include: Hans Christian Hönes (University of Aberdeen) ‘Painting Art History’... more Update: ToC should include:
Hans Christian Hönes (University of Aberdeen) ‘Painting Art History’. Review of: Léa Kuhn, Gemalte Kunstgeschichte. Bildgenealogien in der Malerei um 1800, Paderborn: Fink 2020, ISBN-13: 978-3-7705-6453-8, 333pp., EUR 69,00. 25/HCH2
Hans Christian Hönes (University of Aberdeen), ‘Out of the shadows? Discovering Mary Warburg’. Review of: Hedinger, Bärbel; Diers, Michael (Eds.): Mary Warburg. Porträt einer Künstlerin. Leben, Werk, München: Hirmer Verlag 2020, ISBN-13: 978-3-7774-3614-2, 535 S., EUR 68.00. 25/HCH1
Link correction for Eckart Marchand (Warburg Institute), 'Apostles of Good Taste? The use and perception of plaster casts in the Enlightenment' 25/EM1: https://arthistoriography.files.wordpress.com/2021/11/marchand.pdf