Product Description

Ever since its conception in 1824, the 'much loved friend' in Trafalgar Square has been part of national life to an extent unmatched by any other great museum. Established, housed and maintained directly by their representatives in parliament, the British gallery was always owned by the people. And they exercised their ownership rights in ways that could surprise and confound the Trustees and staff charged with the Gallery's administration: from Victorian working-class matrons enjoying gin-fuelled picnics to the postwar teenagers who made Trafalgar Square their 'snogging shop'. While the site gave the Gallery a ring-side seat on some of the most violent political demonstrations of modern times, its location at the heart of the capital also made it a place of refuge in times of national crisis - and never more so than during World War II, when thousands of Londoners thronged the famous one-picture shows and free concerts organized by Kenneth Clark. Extensive new research reveals the close personal and often highly political interest taken in the Gallery's affairs by the Trustees, who included many well-known figures: from Sir Robert Peel and William Ewart Gladstone, through Curzon and John Maynard Keynes, to Noel Annan and Isaiah Berlin. But its phenomenal success in becoming a national symbol also made the Gallery a tempting target for those seeking political change - from the Suffragette who slashed Velazquez' Rokeby Venus in 1914 to the Birmingham man who stole Goya's Wellington in 1961. The first history of the Gallery ever published, "The Nation's Mantelpiece" traces the development of an institution whose superlative collections often set the pace in art history, but whose dependence on parliamentary funding regularly implicated it in debates surrounding education, social cohesion and national heritage. The story of the Gallery's paintings offers an intriguing opportunity to follow the changes in taste and connoisseurship that have helped create the Old Master canon we know today. The building itself has been a test of taste, and its carbuncle-strewn history also receives unprecedentedly close attention. Copiously illustrated with a fascinating selection of previously unseen architectural plans, cartoons and other images that illuminate every aspect of the Gallery's history, as well as sixty of its most significan paintings, "The Nation's Mantelpiece" deserves a place on the mantelpiece of everyone interested in British history or in the history of art.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #518985 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-21
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 464 pages

Review
"The National Gallery is a unique cultural achievement: a supreme collection of pictures owned and enjoyed by the people. How it happened, the mixture of principle and politics, muddle, scholarship, philanthropy and luck is a peculiarly British story. And it is told, for the first time, lucidly and compellingly, by Jonathan Conlin in this admirable book." --Neil MacGregor, director, British Museum

From the Publisher
The first ever history of the National Gallery, with over 260
illustrations.

From the Back Cover
"The National Gallery is a unique cultural achievement: a
supreme collection of pictures owned and enjoyed by the people. How it
happened, the mixture of principle and politics, muddle, scholarship,
philanthropy and luck is a peculiarly British story. And it is told, for
the first time, lucidly and compellingly, by Jonathan Conlin in this
admirable book. This is far more than the history of an institution: it is
the story of the struggle to give paintings a central place not just in
London, but in the nation's life." Neil MacGregor, Director of the British
Museum, former Director of the National Gallery

Witty, sophisticated, opinionated, it will provoke as well as inform. Peter
Mandler, University of Cambridge

Customer Reviews

A scholarly work
I bought this book having read a good review in a newspaper. It certainly is beautifully presented with oodles of illustrations and masses of notes. My one small criticism is that it is, to my mind, a very scholarly work and not really an easy read for the layman - I felt a little adrift in a world of experts. Perhaps it is more of a definitive text than a ripping yarn!

Excellent Book
Jonathan Conlin has a really great style of writing, and while I agree with another review that it doesn't always make easy reading, it is inspirational in its enthusiasm for the topic.