Houghton Hall by Andrew Moore
The story of the patronage and collecting of Sir Robert Walpole, first Prime Minister of England, has never been fully told. During his lifetime, Walpole amassed a magnificent collection of paintings and sculpture at Houghton Hall, Norfolk, the country seat he built to house his collection. The innovative grandeur of the building and the splendour of its contents combined to make Houghton one of the premier houses of England. But a large part of Walpole's collection of paintings was sold for just (pound)40,000 by his grandson, George, Earl of Orford, to Catherine the Great, enlightened and acquisitive Empress of Russia's Golden Age. The majority remain in Russia while family portraits, furniture and sculpture are still to be seen at Houghton. Nine essays by experts on 18th-century culture discuss the building and furnishing of Houghton, the Prime Minister as collector, and the sale to Catherine the Great which raised for the first time issues of the nation's heritage. The catalogue to the exhibition which forms the second half of the book is arranged as a tour of the house and recreates the Houghton of Walpole's day, with many of its original paintings, drawings and objets d'art arranged room-by-room as Walpole and his friends and advisers, notably the great designer William Kent, would have displayed them.| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780856674389 |
| ISBN 10 | 0856674389 |
| Title | Houghton Hall |
| Author | Andrew Moore |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd |
| Year published | 2001-12-11 |
| Number of pages | 176 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |