Some facts about William Richard Lethaby (1857-1931), architect and art writer

William Lethaby is principally known as an architect, architectural historian and arts educator and major promoter and practitioner of the Arts and Crafts movement. Many design historians have credited him with introducing the principles of modernism in design e.g. 'form follows function'. Lethaby's influential contribution to medieval art historiography remains largely unexplored. His 'Primitives' series …

The Burlington Magazine and modern British art (1903-1910)

The foundation of the Burlington in the very early years of the twentieth century is the intersecting point of many cultural networks. Several of the many questions that underlie its inception have been investigated: the significance that the Burlington had for the development of art history as an academic discipline in Britain, the impact it …

More about Mary Berenson

While there is much material on Bernard Berenson, works by his wife Mary are less known. Even if the interest in her work is growing, few scholars have tackled the questions that stem from an analysis of her writings. In first instance her work is difficult to reconstruct in its entirety, as it is either …

Deep innovation or mere eccentricity? The controversial writings of Vilhelm Slomann (1885-1962) for The Burlington Magazine.

To be accepted as a fully-fledged scholar one needs to comply with the standards of the community to which one belongs. As David Carrier has pointed out, academia contains various communities, each one with its own standards. [1] If scholars express ideas outside the standards of the community, they will be considered eccentrics but if …

At the periphery of art history: A. C. Sewter (1912-1983), editor of the Burlington Magazine in 1939 and 1940 [part two]

A. C. Sewter’s geographical location as a scholar in regional museums and universities outside the London art world is not the only reason why his reputation has failed to endure: the subject matter of his studies also contributed to place him at the periphery of art history. Sewter published in the Burlington some fifty pieces, …

From exotic genius to precursor of modernity: El Greco in The Burlington Magazine (1903-1920)

In the first two decades of the twentieth century The Burlington Magazine contributed to a definite shift in the criticism of El Greco in Britain: from a biographic, almost novelistic approach into documentary rigour and formal analysis. The first significant mention of El Greco in the Burlington appeared in February 1908 when the aristocratic writer …

‘Why bother with Joseph Boze?’ Pastels in The Burlington Magazine, a contribution by Neil Jeffares

I’ve blogged elsewhere about the hostility engendered by the vocabulary chosen to discuss the medium of pastel, and how language itself may be used to undermine an art that was so highly prized during the eighteenth century. In this post I will examine the language implicit and explicit in the coverage of pastels made before …