The British as Art Collectors

To see the great art galleries, stately homes and museums up and down Britain today is to witness the rich story of the British as art collectors, a narrative that mirrors the history of the country. In this remarkable new book, James Stourton and Charles Sebag-Montefiore present a comprehensive survey of British art collectors down the centuries. The major collecting landmarks covered include Henry VIII, who harnessed the arts in the service of the crown, Charles I and the Whitehall Circle, the Grand Tour and the country house boom, the bonanza created by the Napoleonic Wars and the Industrial Revolution, French taste, the collecting of Spanish art, the passion for Florence, the 19th-century heyday for the creation of museums, the private collectors who sparked the belated British love affair with Impressionism, the State’s role in patronage and collecting after World War II, and the manner in which London has recently become a metropolis of contemporary art. Yet the authors’ strengths lie not only in these grand themes, but also in their mastery of detail through the different eras. They write with equal authority about the royal patronage and collecting of the Tudor period, with which they begin, and the collectors of today. Includes over 300 illustrations, including many of the greatest works of art to have featured in British collections.