Regency collectors: buying and displaying old masters in early nineteenth-century England

Abstract

"The Regency was a period of crucial importance in the history of collecting Old Master paintings in England. As the owners of aristocratic collections in France and Italy were forced by the political upheavals following the French Revolution to part with their inherited possessions, Old Masters arrived on the London art market in unprecedented quantity and quality. This book presents seven case studies of English collectors of the period, tracing how their collections were formed, and analysing the taste that guided them. Also discussed here are how these new owners displayed their acquisitions and how they sought to organise them into a new unity.Peter Humfrey examines in detail seven notable Regency collectors - the 4th Earl Darnley, the 2nd Earl Grosvenor, Amabel de Grey, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Philip John Miles, Samuel Rogers, and the 5th Earl Cowper" -- Provided by publisher.

Contents

Robert, 2nd Earl Grosvenor at Grosvenor House, London -- Amabel, Countess de Gray at 4 St James's Square, London -- Samuel Rodgers at 22 St James's Place, London -- John, 4th Earl of Darnley at Cobham Hall, Kent -- Sir Richard Colt Hoare at Stourhead, Wiltshire -- Philip John Miles at Leigh Court, near Bristol -- Peter Leopold, 5th Earl Cowper at Panshanger, Hertfordshire.