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GERMAN FRESCO PAINTING AND THE NEW HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT AT WESTMINSTER, 1834–1851

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 May 2004

EMMA L. WINTER
EMMA L. WINTER
Affiliation:
Emmanuel College, Cambridge
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Abstract

In 1841, a select committee proposed that the houses of parliament at Westminster, which were being rebuilt in the aftermath of the fire of 1834, be decorated with fresco paintings and that Ludwig I of Bavaria's patronage of the arts be used for guidance. Both recommendations were surprising, for Britain had neither any tradition of public painting, nor any obvious ties with the south German state. This article explains why the committee was so sensible to Ludwig's example, and what it hoped to achieve by introducing fresco painting into Britain. The scheme was to serve not only as the means of establishing a national school of painting that could compete with the modern German school, but also as an integral part of a broader endeavour to construct a national culture in Britain that was both patriotic and socially inclusive. The national potential of this state-sponsored scheme of art promotion came to be undermined, however, by the emergence of both political and religious hostility to such German-style patronage in Britain. The article highlights not only the crucial role played by German art in the endeavour to construct a national culture in Britain, but also the continuing potency of religion as an element of British national identity during the first decade of Victoria's reign. It also draws attention to the fundamental role played by Prince Albert in his capacity as president of the fine arts commission, and the extent to which the debate surrounding the commission's proceedings provided the essential context for both the emergence and reception of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood in 1848–50.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , June 2004 , pp. 291 - 329
Copyright
2004 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I would like to thank Tim Blanning, for supervising the research from which the material presented here is drawn, Peter Mandler, for his consummate expertise and patience as an editor, and Chris Clark, Hubertus Jahn, and John Thompson for their constant encouragement and support during the writing of seemingly innumerable drafts of this article. I am also grateful to the anonymous readers who reviewed it for The Historical Journal, and whose valuable comments and suggestions lead me to re-think and re-write certain aspects of the article prior to publication, and thus helped make it a better piece than it might otherwise have been.