A European Journal: The Burlington Magazine in February 1949

Priced at 3 shillings and 6 pence – the equivalent of £5 in 2017 – with a grey-azure, 'broken blue', cover and only black and white photography, The Burlington Magazine of February 1949, appears at first glance as belonging to another time (illustrated left). Its austere look and few advertising pages remind the reader of …

Herbert Read, ‘Pope of Modern Art’ and Editor of The Burlington Magazine (1933-1939)

In 2007 Benedict (Ben) Read, esteemed art historian and son of Herbert Read, wrote an essay about his father’s editorship of The Burlington Magazine.[1] More recently, he kindly gave the Index Blog permission to re-publish some excerpts from it. Sadly Ben Read died on 20 October 2016 and was unable to edit personally this abridged …

‘I’ll give the magazine £100 and you can do what you dam [sic] well please with it’, Lockett Agnew advertises in The Burlington Magazine

In its years of operation as an independently funded publication the Burlington has often needed to seek private sponsorship, right from the times of its inception in 1903 and throughout its history.[1] The challenge was, then as now, how to gain financial support without relinquishing the journal’s intellectual independence. The Burlington (which has run as Charitable …

Working for Benedict Nicolson at The Burlington Magazine in the 1950s

We were able to gain insights on the working practices of the Burlington thanks to a former Burlington staff member. Patricia Heatley (illustrated right, in a 1956 photograph), a professional secretary who studied typing and shorthand at Hornsey College of Art in London, worked as assistant to Fred Hipkin for six years in the 1950s. In this …

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, …

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

All the elements of a stellar career are there: he studied at the London School of Economics and Courtauld Institute of Art, was Editor of The Burlington Magazine, Assistant Director of the Barber Institute of Art and Professor of Art History at Manchester University. His career lasted over five decades. He published books on Glyn …

The Resourceful Mr Holmes? The Life and Art of Charles Holmes (1868-1936)

Co-editor of the Burlington from January 1904 to September 1909, Charles Holmes was integral to the early success of the magazine. As Roger Fry admitted in 1911: ‘without the unusual combination of artistic sensitivity and business method which [Holmes] possesses it could not have met successfully the difficulties of the early years’.[1] The Burlington was, …

Edith Hoffmann, the first unofficial woman Editor of The Burlington Magazine?

Edith Hoffmann, born 24 July 1907 Editorial Secretary of The Burlington Magazine 1938-1946, then Assistant Editor 1946-1950 (acted as Editor with Ellis Waterhouse as consultant in 1944-1945). Contributor to The Burlington Magazine from 1938 to 1995. The art historian and critic Edith Hoffmann was educated in Berlin, Vienna and Munich, where she gained her doctorate …

A Christmas Attribution

The worlds of connoisseurship, commerce and the interactions between them are recounted in a lively manner in the writings by Robert Ross (1869-1918), friend and literary executor of Oscar Wilde, successful writer on art, co-director of the Carfax Gallery with Arthur Clifton (1863–1932) and More Adey (1858-1945), and remembered by Roger Fry as a rare …

Robert Rattray Tatlock (1889-1954) Scottish editor of The Burlington Magazine (1920-1933)

A romantic looking man, inclined to be moody and temperamental, gifted with artistic sensibility but somewhat erratic in his judgements. [The Times, Obituary, 2 July 1954] Born in Glasgow, Tatlock was educated there at the Glasgow Academy, Glasgow School of Art and Royal Technical College where he studied art. During the First World War Tatlock …