Treasures of Art in Great Britain
Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss.

This four-volume work on art in Britain by Gustav Waagen, translated by Lady Eastlake, was published between 1854 and 1857.

Gustav Friedrich Waagen (Author), Elizabeth Eastlake (Edited and translated by)

9781108078870, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 2 April 2015

514 pages
21.6 x 14 x 2.9 cm, 0.65 kg

This four-volume work by Gustav Friedrich Waagen (1794–1868), edited and translated by Lady Eastlake (1809–93), was published between 1854 and 1857. As Waagen explains in his preface to the first volume, he had previously published an account of his experiences on his first visit to Britain in 1835, but this new and longer work was addressed primarily to a British audience. It also differs in that the earlier work was more of a general travelogue, whereas these volumes, after an introductory essay, provide a more detailed catalogue - albeit in epistolary form - of works of art in public and private collections. Waagen was crucial to the adoption in Britain of the new approach to art history pioneered by German scholars, and his work is still consulted on matters of provenance and quality. Volume 2 describes the artworks in Buckingham Palace, Apsley House and other private collections in London.

13. Buckingham Palace
14. Stafford House
15. Devonshire House
16. Lansdowne House
17. Mr Holford's collection
18. Pictures belonging to the Marquis of Breadalbane
19. Apsley House
20. Drawings by Flaxman in possession of Miss Denman
21. Collections in the environs of London
22. Objects of art belonging to the Rev. E. Coleridge.

Subject Areas: The arts: general issues [AB]