A translation of a translation: Dissemination of the Arundel Society’s chromolithographs

Abstract

The thesis casts new light on the activities of the London-based Arundel Society (1848–1897). It examines the watercolours and chromolithographs produced for the Society made after pre-Renaissance frescoes and Northern altarpieces, the discourse around them, and the ways the prints were collected by organisations and individual subscribers. The Society’s commercial and ideological strategies, its didactic and archival programs, as well as the multi-faceted nature of its authorship are analysed. Using the notion of translation, this thesis explores how mediation affects the reception and meaning of a work of art. The Arundel Society, or Society for Promoting the Knowledge of Art, was one of the first entities to issue high-quality colour reproductions of works of art. Through an investigation of the impact of these colour images on art writing, and the ways in which they helped give visual form to ideas about art, this thesis proposes new value for the Society’s publications. The prints, sculptural casts and texts issued over fifty years were an important contribution to art history in a period when the discipline was developing; they were distributed around the world, bringing popular awareness to the art of earlier times. By examining subscriber lists and exploring the connections between the Society’s members, this thesis demonstrates the ubiquity of the chromolithographs. By considering the prints in a range of domestic and religious spheres, within museums and other institutional contexts, the thesis challenges the idea that reproductive prints are by nature unilateral and poses further complexities about the original, its image and the viewer—it asks questions about what happens if works of art look back. This thesis is the first to examine the Arundel Society’s contribution to a nascent art history and only the second, since Tanya Ledger’s more than forty years ago, to assess its activities in depth. Initially the Society aimed to record and spread knowledge of important monuments. Later it placed greater emphasis on recording works of art to which general access was difficult, and those threatened by decay or destruction; the function of the watercolours and prints as a ‘condition report’ was recognised at the time. In 1860s and 1870s, at the height of the Society’s popularity, the chromolithographs were also used as home furnishings, while in various churches they remain as items for devotion. By surveying extant holdings, this thesis assesses the role of the Society’s publications in the development of museum collections in Britain, the colonies and further afield, and reconsiders the possibilities for these works in the twenty-first century.