Yale Bulletin and Calendar

October 11-18, 1999Volume 28, Number 8



Horace Walpole was an avid collector whose English estate was considered a "treasure house."


Exhibit features 'treasures'
from the Lewis Walpole Library

In England and throughout Europe, the Gothic villa called Strawberry Hill, which was built along the Thames River by author and collector Horace Walpole (1717-1797), attracted so much attention that it was considered a "treasure house."

Precious objects from Strawberry Hill -- some of which have never been seen before by the general public -- will be on view in an exhibition commemorating the 20th anniversary of the bequest to Yale of the Lewis Walpole Library, a modern treasure trove of Walpole memorabilia and home to many of the artworks, decorative objects and printed materials that once graced Strawberry Hill.

Titled "A Treasure House in Farmington: The Lewis Walpole Library," the exhibition will be on display at the Yale Center for British Art beginning Friday, Oct. 15.

The show will feature items collected both by Walpole, the youngest son of England's first prime minister and an observer of the political events of his day, and by Wilmarth Sheldon Lewis, a 1918 graduate of Yale College, who was a devoted Walpole admirer. The Lewis Walpole Library, which is located in Farmington, Connecticut, is named after both men.

Lewis and his wife, Annie Burr Auchincloss, pursued a lifetime interest in Walpole. Best known for his letters to his friends illuminating life in his own era, Walpole also wrote about 17th-century English political life in his "Memoirs." He authored the first Gothic romance ("The Castle of Otranto") and the first history of British art, and was an avid collector and antiquarian.

Lewis' avid enthusiasm for, and expertise on, Walpole's life and times not only served as inspiration for the alumnus' own collecting, writing and lecturing, but led to his post as editor of the Yale Edition of Horace Walpole's Correspondence, which was published by Yale University Press in 48 volumes from 1937 to 1981.

Lewis settled in Farmington after graduating from Yale and housed his extensive collection of Walpole-related materials in his home, a colonial estate on 13 acres along the banks of the Pequabuck River. A member of the Yale Corporation for 26 years, Lewis often invited scholars to stay there as they explored his collections. He be-queathed the estate to Yale in order to continue the tradition of sharing his collections. Today, the library is open by appointment to scholars and students and contains a wealth of 18th-century books, manuscripts, works of art and furnishings. It is one of Yale's foremost resources for British studies.

In addition to showcasing some of the library's greatest treasures, the exhibition will also give a flavor of the life and times of Horace Walpole.

"The exhibition will highlight treasures from Walpole's collection and will be arranged to echo their locations in Strawberry Hill," says Joan Sussler, curator of prints and drawings at the Lewis Walpole Library. "For example, the Beauclerk Tower contained Lady Diana Beauclerk's illustrations to Walpole's controversial play, 'The Mysterious Mother.' Displayed beneath the drawings will be the ebony cabinet designed for her drawings that stood in a room nearby."

The "Great Parlour" section of the exhibition will feature two celebrated Gothic chairs designed for Strawberry Hill, as well as a Louis XV ormolu clock and several of the room's important pictures. Portraits of Alexander Pope by Jean-Baptiste Van Loo and of Thomas Gray by Benjamin Wilson will also be featured.

Other treasures on display will range from Walpole's Gothic stained-glass lantern, which he helped to design for the entrance hall at Strawberry Hill, to his tiny gold snuff-box.

The wide scope of Walpole's associations will be illustrated in a section on London, where William Hogarth's oil sketch for "The Beggar's Opera" will recall Walpole's love of theater. Other works of art include "The Golden Asses," a 12-foot-long work by Thomas Patch. This caricature of a punch-drinking party of Englishmen at Sir Horace Mann's embassy in Florence will be the focal point of a section devoted to the "Grand Tour."

A video of Lewis' personal tour of the library in 1977 will be shown continuously during the exhibition.

The show will be accompanied by an illustrated book of essays by leading scholars, which provides a history and guide of the library and its resources.


Special exhibition programs

The Yale Center for British Art is hosting a number of free public programs in conjunction with the exhibition. Highlighting these will be the seventh annual Lewis Walpole Library Lecture, which will be given on Friday, Oct. 15, at 4 p.m. by Linda Colley, a former Yale historian who is now at the European Institute of the London School of Economics at the University of London. Her talk is titled "Britain and Islam, 1650-1750: Different Perspectives on Difference."

Other lectures connected with the exhibit will include "Some Thoughts on Hogarth's Jew: Issues in Current Hogarth Scholarship" by Ronald Paulson, an English professor at The Johns Hopkins University, at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 19; and "The Origins of the Gothic Revival Revisited" by Michael McCarthy, a history of art professor at University College, Dublin, at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 20.

Joan Sussler will give an Art in Context talk titled "A Treasure House in Farmington" on Tuesday, Oct. 19, at 12:30 p.m. Future issues of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar will include other forthcoming talks.

In addition, The Four Nations Ensemble, a world-renowned trio of harpsichord, violin and cello, will perform 18th-century music in a concert on Sunday, Nov. 7, at 2 p.m.

"A Treasure House in Farmington" will remain on view through Jan. 9, 2000.

The Yale Center for British Art, located at 1080 Chapel St., is open to the public free of charge Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. For more information, call (203) 432-2800 .


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