Shortlisted for the 2009 Sir Banister Fletcher Award presented by the Authors’ Club
Shortlisted for the 2008 William M. B. Berger Prize for British Art History sponsored by the Berger Collection Educational Trust and the British Art Journal
The son of the wealthiest merchant bankers in Europe, Thomas Hope (1769-1831) was a major catalyst in the arts of Regency England. At the age of 18, he embarked on a Grand Tour to the Continent and started to assemble the remarkable art collection that he later installed in his Duchess Street house in central London. Hope’s remodeling and interior decoration of that house fostered what became known as the Regency.
This book is the most comprehensive study to date of Thomas Hope, focusing on his multifaceted role as designer and patron. The contributors examine his wide-ranging contribution to the arts as well as his extensive writings. Richly illustrated with new photographs, the volume presents a vast array of paintings, furniture, sculpture, and works of art, many of which have never been published before.
David Watkin is professor of the history of architecture at the University of Cambridge. He is the author of a previous book on Thomas Hope and of others on James “Athenian” Stuart, Sir John Soane, and King George III, as well as several architectural survey volumes.
Philip Hewat-Jaboor is an independent scholar, collector, and curator. Together with David Watkin and Daniella Ben Arie he is curator of the Thomas Hope exhibition.
Susan Weber
Introduction
David Watkin
Hope Family Tree and Chronology
Daniella Ben-Arie
Chapter 1: European Wealth and Ottoman Travel
Philip Mansel
Chapter 2: The Reform of Taste in London: Hope’s House in Duchess Street
David Watkin
Chapter 3: Critic and Historian: Hope’s Writings on Architecture, Furniture, and Interior Decoration
David Watkin
Chapter 4: Thomas Hope’s Furniture: “A delightful and varied significance of shape and embellishment”
Frances Collard
Chapter 5: Fashion a l’Antique: Thomas Hope and Regency Dress
Aileen Ribeiro
Chapter 6: Thomas Hope’s Metalwork for Duchess Stret: “Character, Pleasing Outline, and Appropriate Meaning”
Martin Chapman
Chapter 7: The Past as a Foreign Country: Thomas Hope’s Collection of Antiquities
Ian Jenkins
Chapter 8: Thomas Hope’s Modern Sculptures: “a zealous and liberal patronage of its contemporary professors”
David Bindman
Chapter 9: Thomas Hope’s Contemporary Picture Collection
Jeannie Chapel
Chapter 10: The Old Master Collection of John, Thomas, and Henry Philip Hope
Jeannie Chapel
Chapter 11: The Hope Family in London: Collecting and Patronage
Daniella Ben-Arie
Chapter 12: The Reform of Taste in the Country: The Deepdene
David Watkin
Chapter 13: The Tragic Mask of Anastasius/Selim: A New Introduction to Hope’s Novel
Jerry Nolan
Chapter 14: Hope’s Philosophical Excursus
Roger Scruton
Chapter 15: The Afterlife of Hope: Designers, Collectors, Historians
Frances Collard and David Watkin
Catalogue of the Exhibition
Theme 2: Greek and Roman AntiquitiesTheme 3: Egyptian and Egyptianizing Sculpture
Theme 4: Classical Vases
Theme 5: Comtemporary Paintings and Sculpture
Theme 6: Furniture and Metalwork
Theme 7: The Deepdene
Theme 8: Books, Drawings, and Watercolors
Appendix
Pictures Inherited by Thomas Hope and Henry Thomas Hope
Jeannie Chapel
Bibliography
Compiled by Daniella Ben-Arie
Index
