Main entry:

Brownell, Morris R.

Title & Author:

The prime minister of taste : a portrait of Horace Walpole / Morris R. Brownell.

Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, ©2001.

Description:

vii, 353 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 27 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Machine generated contents note: CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: THE TRIFLER RESORED -- Connoisseur Manque -- The Courtesy-Book Gentleman and the ar, t0. -- Lord Chesterfield's Vade-Mecum for the Manof fTaS:-'' -- PART I THE MAKING OF A PORTRAITIST -- CHAPTER 2 NO CONNOISSEUR, COLLECTING ON THE GRAND TOUR -- 'My Glorious Eagle' -- 'Far Gone in Medals': Stosch's Gladiator -- 'Two or Three Pictures' -- CHAPTER 3 KEEPER OF THE PRIME MINISTER'S PICTURES -- Accumulating Capital Pictures -- Aedes Walpolianae: Putting Down Italian Painters -- Aedes Walpolianae: Panegyrical Pictures -- 'The Shipwreck of my Family': Sale of the Houghton -- House Collection -- CHAPTER 4 GEORGE VERTUE, WALPOLE'S PRIVY COUNCILLOR -- FOR PORTRAITS -- 'The First and Chiefest of his Profession' -- 'Mr Walpole Told Me': Meetings with George Vertue -- 'Now Mr Walpole's' -- Rummaging Country Houses for Portraits -- No Antiquary: Ghost Writing English Art History -- PART II A LITTLE CASTLE ADORNED WITH PORTRAITS -- CHAPTER 5 PORTRAITS AT STRAWBERRY HILL-I -- Anne Liddell and Walpole's Dream of Portraits -- The Marriage of Henry VI, and 'The Sagacity of -- my Guesses' -- The Marriage of Henry VII, and the Pleasure of -- Imaginary Portraits. -- Catherine Parr's Corpse -- CHAPTER 6 PORTRAITS AT STRAWBERRY HILL-II -- 'Monumenting' Portraits -- Lady Frances Howard, 'Madame l'Empoisonneuse' -- Frances Brydges, Countess of Exeter -- Catherine Fitzgerald, 'My Old Countess of Desmond' -- CHAPTER 7 PORTRAITS AT STRAWBERRY HILL-III -- Walpole's'Rage for Grammont' -- Walpole's 'Chapter of Royal Concubines' -- Bianca Cappello -- Ninon L'Enclos, 'N6tre Dame des Amours' -- 'The Sweet Portrait of Madame de Prie' -- Twenty Pictures of Madame Maintenon -- 'Our Madame Maintenon' -- Possessing Madame d'Olonne -- PART III PORTRAITS IN WALPOLE'S LETTERS -- CHAPTER 8 IDENTIFYING PORTRAITS: WALPOLE'S CATALOGUES AND -- LETTERS -- Walpole's Society of Artists' Catalogue (1762) -- Walpole's Royal Academy Catalogue (1771) -- Portraits in Walpole's Memoirs and Letters -- CHAPTER 9 PORTRAITS IN WALPOLE'S LETTERS: MARIA WALPOLE -- A Wedding Portrait -- Lady Waldegrave in Mourning -- 'The Transitory Happiness of Red Liveries' -- The Three Ladies Waldegrave -- CHAPTER IO PORTRAITS IN WALPOLE'S LETTERS: MARRIAGE A LA MODE -- Lavinia Bingham, Lady Althorp -- Frances Pelham -- Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston -- CHAPTER I I PORTRAITS IN WALPOLE'S LETTERS: SCANDAL -- Sir Henry Bate Dudley -- William O'Brien -- Elizabeth Catherine Hunter -- Lord and Lady Ligonier -- Dorothy Seymour Fleming -- CHAPTER 12 PORTRAITS IN WALPOLE'S LETTERS: ARISTOCRATS -- Sir Hugh Smithson, 'Antiquated Duke' -- CHAPTER 13 PORTRAITS IN WALPOLE'S LETTERS: STATESMEN -- Richard Grenville, 'Historic Strulbrug' -- John Montagu, A 'Dissolute Sad Dog' -- CHAPTER 14 PORTRAITS IN WALPOLE'S LETTERS: OUTPENSIONERS -- Chevalier D'Eon, 'A Complication of Abominations' -- Baron Ferrers, 'Mad About Pedigree' / -- Edward Wortley Montagu, 'Our Greatest Miracle' -- CHAPTER 15 PORTRAITS IN WALPOLE'S LETTERS: MODERN LITERATI -- Samuel Johnson, 'Saucy Caliban' -- Edward Gibbon, 'Vanity is not Vice' -- CHAPTER 16 PORTRAITS IN WALPOLE'S LETTERS: TWO GROUPS -- Reynolds's Bedford Children -- Zoffany's Tribuna, Equivocating About Portraits -- CHAPTER 17 PORTRAITS IN WALPOLE'S LETTERS: THE GUNNINGHIAD -- Et in Arcadia Ego, The Ghost of Maria Gunning -- Elizabeth Gunning, 'Uncommon Noise of Beauty' -- John Campbell, 5th Duke of Argyll -- PART IV CONCLUSIONS -- CHAPTER 18 WALPOLE'S SELF-PORTRAIT, THE PRIME MINISTER OF TASTE -- Walpole's Letters, A Masquerade of Self-Portraits -- The Self-Portrait of the Trifler -- The Herald of Fame -- The Enemy of Artists -- Homo Ludens -- Short Titles and Abbreviations -- Notes -- Notes to the Illustrations -- Index.
Dust jacket.

Summary:

"In this book, Morris Brownell offers a fresh account of the career and influence of Horace Walpole (1717-1797), the great English man of letters and art historian. Rejecting both the traditional view of Walpole as a trifling collector of curiosities and the more recent assessment of him as a sober social historian and connoisseur, Brownell argues that Walpole grew to become a serious patron, collector, and historian of the arts - the Prime Minister of Taste."
"Drawing on Walpole archival materials and on his forty volumes of letters, Brownell describes the formation of young Walpole's taste and interest in the visual arts. Brownell argues that England's leading portrait engraver, George Virtue, converted Walpole from Grand Tour taste in painting to a life-long study of English portraits. The book discusses the significance of Walpole's collection of English historical portraits and French portraits of the ancien regime, and it analyzes Walpole's fascination with portraiture, comparing the painted portraits Walpole collected and wrote about to the literary portraits he penned in his letters.
Walpole's passion for the art of portraiture was not the trifling pastime he pretended, in fact it was the source of his greatest literary achievement - a gallery of literary portraits of the English aristocracy as fine as the painted portraits of Reynolds and Gainsborough."--Jacket.

Resources:
Table of contents
Table of contents
Table of contents

ISBN:

0300087160 (paperback)
9780300087161 (paperback)

Subject:

Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797 Art collections.
Walpole, Horace, 1717-1797.
Walpole, Horace 1717-1797
Walpole, Horace.
Strawberry Hill (Twickenham, London, England)
Strawberry Hill (Twickenham, Londres, Angleterre)
Bauhaus Dessau 1986-1994 Bereich Architektur und Sammlungen
Art Collectors and collecting England London.
Art Collectionneurs et collections Angleterre Londres.
Art Collectors and collecting.
Art Private collections.
Bildband
Kunst
Kunstkritik
Malerei
Ästhetik
Kunstverzamelaars.
Portraits Private collections England London.
England London.
England

Holdings:

Location: Library main 220995
Call No.: N5247.W28 B76 2001
Status: Available