Art, artisans and apprentices. Apprentice painters & sculptors in the early modern British tradition

Description

Before the foundation of academies of art in London in 1768 and Philadelphia in 1805, most individuals who were to emerge as artists trained in workshops of varying degrees of relevance. Easel painters began their careers apprenticed to carriage, house, sign or ship painters, whilst a few were placed with those who made pictures. Sculptors emerged from a training as ornamental plasterers or carvers. Of the many other trades in a position to offer an appropriate background were ‘limning’, staining, engraving, surveying, chasing and die-sinking. In addition, plumbers gained the right to use oil painting and, for plasterers, the application of distemper was an extension of their trade. Central to the theme of this book is the notion that, for those who were to become either painters or sculptors, a training in a trade met their practical needs. This ‘training’ was of an altogether different nature to an ‘education’ in an art school. In the past, prospective artists were offered, by means of apprenticeships, an empirical rather than a theoretical understanding of their ultimate vocation. 00James Ayres provides a lively account of the inter-relationship between art and trade in the late 17th to early 19th centuries, in both Britain and North America. He demonstrates with numerous, illustrated examples, the many cross-overs in the ‘art and mystery’ of artistic training, and, to modern eyes, the sometimes incongruous relationships between the various trades that contributed to the blossoming of many artistic careers, including some of the most illustrious names of the ‘long’ 18th century. AcknowledgementsIntroductionPART 1. CRAFTS, TRADES, ARTISANS AND GUILDS1. Art& mystery 2. The guilds& livery companies3. Guild regulation& training4. Indentured apprenticeships5. The craft trades& the visual artsPART 2. PAINTERS6. The art of picture craft7. The materials of painters8. Painter stainers9. The painters: mechanic and liberal10. Easel painting11. The trade of painting in oilHouse and decorative paintingSign painting& makingcoach paintingmarine painting12. Size paintingStained hangingsStained transparenciesScene painting for the theatreThe plasterers13. Limning& watercolour paintingLimningWatercolour paintingPART 3. SCULPTORS, CARVERS& RELATED TRADES14. Sculpture715. Modelling& casting in plasterModelling in clayCasting in plaster16. The pointing machine17. CarvingWoodcarvingStone& marble carving18. Metalwork& related tradesThe foundryChasers& chasingDie-sinking& seal-cuttingPART 4. ACADEMIES OF ART& THE FOUNDATIONS OF ARTISTIC PROFESSIONS19. The origin& function of academies of art20. ConclusionAppendix I: Indenture of 1788: Isaac DellAppendix II: Advertisement for a Stationer and Picture Dealer c. 1750-1759Appendix III: Samuel Wale (?-d. 1786) as sign painterAppendix IV: Charles Catton (1728-1798)"The Prince of Coach Painters"Appendix V: John Baker RA (1736-1771), coach painterAppendix VI: Luke (Marmaduke) Cradock (1660-1717) the"Ornamental Painter"Appendix VII: Sign painting in Colonial and early Federal AmericaAppendix VIII: Prices of house painters'work of 1799Appendix IX: Stained hangings: early seventeenth and eighteenth centuryAppendix X: A sampling of individual painters or sculptors who left the English Provinces for Apprenticeships in London, Westminster or SouthwarkAppendix XI: Some of the many woodcarvers who later worked in stone and marbleAppendix XII: The construction of an armature in John Flaxman's studioAppendix XIII: Prices in 1797 for ship-carving on Royal Navy vessels in relationship to tonnageAppendix XIV: Price list for lead statuaryAppendix XV: Some members of the St Martin's Lane AcademyAppendix XVI: Proposed accommodation and prospectus for the Royal Academy SchoolsAppendix XVII: Part of Gustav Waagen'S (1794-1868) evidence before the Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1834, on the value of Academies of ArtGlossaryBibliographyIndex