In Search of the Landscape Artists’ Studio: Database and Map of London 1780-1850

After the establishment of the Royal Academy in 1768, London experienced an ‘age of exhibitions’, a new social culture that changed the artistic economy. In response, artist’s roles, motivations and inspiration were changing. So to their studios adapted to accommodate patrons, exhibit work, mould their identity and reflect their professionalism, and be a location of creativity. Due to a lack of research, landscape paintings are currently interpreted, potentially inaccurately, based on understandings of the studios of artists of other genres. This thesis explores what scholarship has overlooked: the irony that rural landscapes were being painted in urban London, the outside world being created inside the limits of a room. By building a visual, material and theoretical understanding of the landscape artist’s studio we can reshape the foundation on which we interpret the landscapes produced in those spaces. Where were their studios situated? What were their studios like? How did the artists adapt them for landscape painting and, in turn, how did this impact the landscape paintings themselves?

This talk will focus on the first stage of the research: the creation of a database and map to explore the locations and movements of landscape artists on a macro scale. The talk will explore the intentions and methodology in relation to the wider thesis, key findings and visualisations of the results, and an assessment of what more can be done with this data and how the analysis can be taken further.

Image: Richard Horwood’s 1792-99 map of London – British Library Maps.Crace.V 174, 1799.

Image through kind permission of Dr Matthew Sangster, taken from http://www.romanticlondon.org