We begin with an introduction to the kings of Georgian Britain 1714-1830: George I of the House of Hanover, George II (whose wife Caroline was a consummate consumer of elegance and enlightenment), their grandson ‘Farmer’ George III (who lost the American colonies but was active in the Agrarian Revolution) and his eldest spendthrift son, the Prince Regent, later George IV.
We then consider early Georgian Britain’s ‘goldrush’: The South Sea Company, founded to pay off the National Debt. In reality the ‘profits’ from this were from ‘pyramid selling’. Investors represented the entire social spectrum - from prince, politician, and poet to porter (later pauper!). When the ‘Bubble’ burst in 1720, the fact was recorded in merciless cartoons.
Next, we consider the sources of taste and style. For those in the right social circle, The Grand Tour was an essential for the acquisition of culture, sculpture and painted landscapes. William Kent spent 10 years in Italy as a cicerone, returning with the great patron and pioneer of the neoclassical style, Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington. Together, they created Chiswick House and Burlington House.
Reputedly Britain’s most prolific architect, Robert Adam was one of the first to see the newly discovered Herculaneum. His elegant style in architecture and interiors memorialised in the ‘Adam style’. Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown landscaped English estates in his formulaic and practical style, creating profitable powerhouses. The first ‘landscape painter’ Thomas Gainsborough was based for many years in fashionable Bath, and perfected the concept of elegant portraiture set against parkland. Thomas Chippendale crafted sets of hallmark furniture, decorative and decorous, in great houses such as Harewood.
Also into the mix of Georgian passions we can add Enlightenment polite arts, which encompassed science and technology, including farming, mining and the ceramics of Josiah Wedgwood, whose works we will see at the Fitzwilliam Museum. George III donated £4,000 to Captain Cook and Joseph Banks. Banks contributed a further £10,000, to circumnavigate the world in the quest for new continents, plants and minerals. At the dawn of the 19th century, the extravagant tastes of the Prince of Wales, Prince Regent, later George IV, held sway in the exotic and oriental Royal Pavilion in Brighton, whilst fashionable parts of London were developed with elegant terraces. Architect John Nash and Landscape Gardener Humphry Repton collaborated and fought for commissions across the country.
The course addresses all of these consuming passions of Georgian Britain, and their glorious legacy in buildings, landscapes, paintings, furnishings and cartoons.
Learning outcomes
- To gain an appreciation of the 18th-century Enlightenment in Britain expressed in architecture and landscapes;
- To identify key leaders of taste – royal, noble, political or intellectual;
- To contrast the excesses of consumer passion with the valuable outcomes.
