Review: STUART

A British Pioneer Of the Greek Revival

By Wendy Moonan

Manhattan design mavens are in for a treat. On Thursday the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design and Culture opens an exhibition about James Stuart (1713-1788), called the Athenian, the first British architect to pioneer the Greek Revival style that later became so popular in Britain and America.

Most are unfamiliar with Stuart's architecture but quite familiar with the motifs in the ''gout Grec'' (Greek taste) style that he introduced in his interiors and furniture: tripods with ram heads, vases with ropelike garlands and tables with lion masks.

The show comprises 150 works: his original gouaches (never before exhibited as a series) of ancient buildings in Greece from the landmark 1762 work ''The Antiquities of Athens''; designs for interiors for some of England's grandest houses; extravagant examples of carved, gilded furniture from Spencer House in London and new photographs of Stuart's garden buildings.

Why Stuart?

''I've always been curious about Robert Adam's rivals,'' said Susan Weber Soros, the director of the center and curator of the show. ''Stuart had only been worked on a little.''

Reconstructing Stuart's history was difficult. ''He was a terrible record keeper,'' Ms. Soros said. ''He kept his archive in a stable, so most of it didn't survive.'' Catherine Arbuthnott, project coordinator for the show, said Stuart was the son of a poor Scottish mariner who died young. Forced to become the family breadwinner, Stuart apprenticed with a fan painter and learned to draw from life. (The show includes a modest self-portrait from the 1730s.) He became a skilled draftsman, but barely made enough to support his mother and siblings.

When he was about 27, he abandoned the family, moving first to Paris, where he earned a living as a fan painter. From there he walked to Rome, where he studied Greek and Latin while acting as a cicerone (personal guide) for tourists, a fan painter and a dealer in pictures, bronzes and drawings.

He was also brave. In 1751 he went to Greece with Nicholas Revett, an architectural draftsman, to measure ancient monuments for a book. They ''faced storms at sea at Delos, plague at Salonika and hostility in Athens,'' Ms. Arbuthnott writes in the catalog, published by Yale University Press. ''Revett survived an attack by pirates, and Stuart an assassination attempt.''

They spent more than two years recording temples and monuments. Stuart wrote the text and drew scenic landscapes; Revett measured the buildings. ''It was a major contribution,'' Ms. Arbuthnott said of ''The Antiquities of Athens.''

They returned to England about 1754, and Stuart was soon busy with public and private commissions for houses, interiors, furniture, garden buildings and temple follies, medals and monuments, even a hospital.

The show includes furniture designs, architectural studies and elevations, rare surviving sketchbooks and some antiques: a pier table, a gilt tripod stand, a perfume burner and a vase. Most unusual is a mammoth plate warmer decorated with scantily clothed gods, designed for an open fireplace at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire. Michael Snodin, a former metalwork curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum, writes in the catalog that it is ''one of the most ambitious ormolu and base metal objects of its time in England.''

Stuart's career did not have a happy ending. ''The first sign of trouble came in 1763, when he got gout,'' Ms. Arbuthnott said. He turned to alcohol to relieve the pain caused by more debilitating bouts of gout. His creativity didn't flag, but commissions took years to complete, testing the loyalty of patrons. After his death, his work fell into obscurity.

''Time has not been kind to him, because so many of his commissions have been demolished,'' Ms. Soros said.

Charles Hind, head of special collections at the Royal Institute of British Architects, said, ''Today, most English architects would not know who Stuart is.'' The show closes on Feb. 18 and opens at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London on March 15.

For further information, please call 212-501-3000 or e-mail generalinfo@bgc.bard.edu.

back to top | close window