Peter Appleton – 506248

Understanding Art 1: Western Art

4: History Unit 12

Assignment 2

Visit to a House: Visit Report

Sudley House Liverpool

'George Holt', Robert E Morrison

1892

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/sudley/collections

Visit made on the 30th November 2010.

Acknowledgements.

Sudley House is part of the National Museums Liverpool but as a venue it does not have a guide book or art collection catalogue, therefore I have had to rely on internet material, and on details gathered during my visit. During that visit the Keeper Mr. Simon Breegan was extremely helpful, allowing me access to his own guide he uses for guided walks around the house, and to out of print material which he holds in the office staff library. His help was valuable to the

production of this paper and I am extremely grateful.

1. Introduction.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect on the visit I made to Sudley House in Liverpool, and specifically on how the art has been used as part of a way of life for the past occupants of the house. In looking at this issue I will cover the following;

Details about the house. Comments about the history of occupation and the part those occupants played in

the art collection. Comments room by room. I will then draw the paper together at the end with a few conclusions.

2. The House.

Sudley House is situated in the Mossley Hill area of Liverpool. It started life in the first part of the 19th century when a local merchant, Nicolas Robinson, bought the land and had a house built. The architect is unknown, but a Thomas Harrison was working in Liverpool between 1811 and 1815 and is thought to have been involved.

View of the eastern elevation showing original entrance taken by the writer.

The house was occupied by 1823 and Nicolas Robinson occupied the house until his death in 1854. His daughters continued to occupy the house until they died in 1883.

'Nicholas Robinson', Thomas Clement Thompson

1829

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/sudley/collections/entrancehall/nicholas_robinson_thompson.aspx

It was at that time that the property was sold to George Holt (picture on the front cover) in 1884 and he made some alterations to the property:

(Writer’s own photograph)

Moved the main entrance to facilitate coaches turning

(Writer’s own photograph)

Built a garden veranda.

(Writer’s own photograph)

Extended the western end and added a tower.

Many of the fireplaces are original, along with lincrusta wallpapers and oak panelling. There is a carved marble fireplace in the dining room which has the Holt Family crest.

(Writer’s photograph)

(www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/sudley/collections)

3. The Occupants.

As previously stated Nicolas Robinson was the first occupant of the house. He was a prosperous corn merchant and was Mayor of Liverpool in 1828/29. The history of the art collection really started when the house was purchased by George Holt in 1884. George Holt came from a prominent merchant family in Liverpool. His father George Holt (Snr) came from Rochdale, and moved to Liverpool where he made his money as a cotton broker. He married well – in 1820 to Emma Durning, the daughter of a rich well established Liverpool family.

George Holt (Jnr) his son became a ship owner and merchant. He married Elizabeth Bright,

'Mrs Elizabeth Holt, George Henry 1913

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/sudley/collections

and their daughter, (and only child), was born in 1862.

Emma Holt', Percy Bigland 1898

www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/sudley/collections

They lived at a variety of addresses in Liverpool, but George Holt bought Sudley in 1884. Their daughter, continued to occupy the house after the death of her parents. She never married and when she died in 1944 with no children she bequeathed the house and his art collection to the city of Liverpool. From there it has now moved into the ownership of the National Museums. (www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/sudley)

Her father George Holt was the art collector and he began around the late 1860’s. In A. Kidson’s guide (A. Kidson 1992) three distinct phases of collection are identified;

1868 is characterised by opportunistic collections. George Holt had the financial means but seemed to have focussed on English landscape, genre pictures, prints and Chinese porcelain.

Example

Evening: ‘The west still glimmers with somestreaks of day’ (1850)

Thomas Creswick (1811 – 1869) Oil on canvas(From the online catalogue)

A later period marked by the acquisition of Millais’s Vanessa for £1575 in 1885. By this time there was more of a sense of him taking time to study fashions in art, the art market and to develop his own tastes.

Example

Vanessa (1868)John Everett Millais (1829 – 1896) Oil on canvas

(From the online catalogue)

In the following period, and prior to his death in 1896 he branched out to include Turner, Pre – Raphaelites, and Georgian portraits 1760 – 1820.

Examples.

Margate Harbour (about 1845)Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 – 1851) Oil on canvas

The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple (1854 – 1865)

William Holman Hunt (1827 – 1910) Oil on canvas

Mrs Sargent (1778)George Romney (1734 – 1802) Oil on canvas

(All from the online catalogue)

From the same publication (A. Kidson 1992) and from the Walker Gallery archive provided by the staff at the house, it is suggested that George Holt was a collector with complex impulses. He would often carry the memory of a painting or the work of an artist for years before deciding on a purchase. However Kidson identified specific traits in his collection and they include:

He liked finished works rather than sketchy works or drawings. He liked religious subjects with chaste or saintly overtones. Examples of these

include;

Angel Playing a Flageolet (1878)Edward Burne-Jones (1833 – 1898) Tempera and gold paint on paper

St Cecilia (1895 – 1896)John Melhuish Strudwick (1849 – 1935) Oil on panel

Themes of toil and healthy country life. An example is;

The Cow at the Watering Place (about 1870)Jean Baptiste Camille Corot (1796 – 1875) Oil on wood panel

Some pictures display sentimentality but never immoral or outré images. An example is;

Study (1877)Frederic Lord Leighton (1830 – 1896) Oil on canvas

(All images from the online catalogue)

The scale of the paintings are small – to fit comfortably in the house.

4. The Rooms.The focus of this section is the downstairs rooms. This is for two reasons;

The art collection is contained in these rooms. The bedrooms are given over to a costume collection and have been altered and

have lost some of the original features.There should also be a note of caution about the rooms and the art they contain. When the house was given to the Council it did not include furnishings and furniture. During the visit the staff informed me that over time the rooms have been restored to ‘something like’ their original condition. However there are reproductions mixed in with original items. With regard to the art collection that is original but the positioning of paintings is based on ‘best fit’ i.e. how the staff can best display the collection, rather than how the family might have displayed the paintings. There now follows a room by room guide with photographs by me and comment on the significant original features within the Keeper’s own guide. The art collection has to some extent been commented on but at the end of this paper a full copy of the online catalogue is attached.

Library

Bookcase by J O’Neill of Liverpool 1883

Tile design is William Morris

Detail

Original lincrusta wallpaper.

Garden Hall

Staircase altered when the entrance was moved.

Detail on a column in the hall

Drawing Room

Display cabinet 1720 (Japanned)

Piano designed by W and G Audsley Architects of Liverpool 1878

Detail of Egyptian decoration

This is interesting because of who designed this piano. William James Audsley (1833- 1907) and George Ashdowns Audsley (1838 – 1925) where born in Elgin and moved to Liverpool in the 1850’s. They had an architectural firm and worked in the city and beyond. At the end of the century they immigrated to New York where they had commissions to build some of the earliest skyscrapers. The piano shows the influence of Egypt which was popular at the time and has echoes of later Art Nouveau. Notice the legs in the shape of classic columns, with

lotus leaf tops, the sphinx and the overall look of an ancient temple.

Dining Room

The table (1880) was originally from Kelton Mansion which was owned by Lamport who was

a partner in the shipping company with Holt.

Elkington and Co of Birmingham clock 1870, purchased in Liverpool

Morning Room

Partners Desk (mahogany) 1800.

This room contains the Auguste Bonheur painting The Ruins of the Chateau d’Apchon

And The Cow at the Watering Place by Jean Baptiste Camille Corot

Main Hall

The sculpture is Dora and Margaret Naylor reading the Lord’s Prayer by Benjamin E Spence 1852. John Naylor commissioned the piece – he was a Liverpool banker who married into

the Holts.

5. Conclusions.This was a most interesting visit and with the links to New York skyscrapers and Art Nouveau it was a surprising insight into the most recent area of study. The Museum gives an insight into the thinking of the collector of the time and the social, commercial and religious influences at work in his mind. I think this has given me an appreciation of the complex

relationship between society and social change, and the world of art. At a ‘micro level’ the collection does give the viewer an idea of the delight, instruction, and pride that the collection gave to a small ‘comfortable right thinking household’.

Peter Appleton.506248

Bibliography.

Books.

Alex Kidson. (1992) Sudley The Emma Holt Bequest A Guide to the Collection Liverpool: National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside. NB no longer in publication copy supplied by museum staff.

Internet.

National Museums Liverpool [Online] Available from: www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/sudley[Accessed 30th November 2010]

Plus material supplied by the staff at Sudley House but not published.