Press Release

THOMAS HOPE: REGENCY DESIGNER

July 17, 2008--November 16, 2008

From July 17 to November 16, The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture is presenting Thomas Hope: Regency Designer.  This exhibition was on view first at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London from March 22 to June 22, 2008; it is the second in a series of exhibitions organized by the Bard Graduate Center to be shown at the V&A.

Designer, patron, collector, and author Thomas Hope (1769 - 1831) is one of the major figures in the history of British design who had a profound impact in Britain. Hope helped shape and define what became known as the British Regency, a mode of design and decoration that continues to be influential. Despite the key role he played in the fields of interior decoration, design, and decorative arts, however, Hope’s significance has been largely overlooked. This exhibition examines his incomparable contribution and the remarkable works of art that were created under his patronage. It also further extends the Bard Graduate Center’s international reputation for organizing exhibitions on under-recognized aspects of British design culture and history.

Thomas Hope brings together a curatorial team of leading experts in British architecture, decorative arts, and design. David Watkin, Reader in the History of Architecture at the University of Cambridge, England, has published extensively on the history of 18th- and 19th-century architecture. Philip Hewat-Jaboor, an art consultant and expert on Thomas Hope, was also a cocurator of William Beckford, 1760 - 1844: An Eye for the Magnificent that opened at the Bard Graduate Center in 2001.  Also curating is Daniella Ben-Arie, an independent scholar and researcher.  

The exhibition conveys how Hope fostered the Regency, a fascinating amalgam of decorative details, ornament, and influences from antiquity and British and Continental European art, architecture, and design. The approximately 140 loans on view reveal the outstanding scope and complexity of Hope’s contribution to the Regency.  They include furniture inspired by models from antiquity designed by Hope as well as antique and neoclassical sculpture (by Thorvaldsen and Canova, among others, as well as several Roman-Egyptian sculptures); a group of classical vases from the Sir William Hamilton collection; fascinating silver and other metalwork; and the exquisite portrait by Sir William Beechery, Thomas Hope, now in the National Portrait Gallery, London. All are shown against the brilliantly rich backgrounds used by Hope in his own home, Duchess Street, located in London. The exceptional loans come from: the Benaki Museum, Athens; British Museum; Huntington Library Art Collections and Botanical Gardens; Metropolitan Museum of Art; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; National Portrait Gallery, London; V&A; and the Thorvaldsen Museum, Copenhagen; among others.

Background
Thomas Hope, of Scottish descent, was born in Amsterdam  to one of the wealthiest banking families in Europe. At the age of 18 he embarked on an extensive Grand Tour throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa, that lasted nearly ten years. Along the way he made careful studies of architecture and sculpture and assembled a remarkable art collection. He moved to London in 1794, fleeing Amsterdam ahead of the French revolutionary forces. 

Hope installed his collection in the extraordinary interior of his Duchess Street home, designed by Robert Adam, which he would extend and remodel. Duchess Street became a hallmark of quality and craftsmanship and a full-scale remedy to what many 19th century theorists believed was the debasement of British design through the advent of mechanization. In 1804 Hope, like his contemporary Sir John Soane, opened his house to the public. The dissemination of his ideas expanded further in 1807, when he published Household Furniture and Interior Decoration, which contained line drawings of the house’s interiors and furnishings. Like William Beckford, he himself designed and had made furniture and works of art to demonstrate what he considered to be a new and purer design form.  (Also like Beckford, he published a novel [1819] that was very successful at the time, Anastasius, or Memoirs of a Modern Greek (1819).

The Catalogue
A catalogue, richly illustrated and published by the Bard Graduate Center and Yale University Press, accompanies the exhibition. The editors are David Watkin and Philip Hewat-Jaboor. The book contains previously unpublished material that reveals the multifaceted nature of Hope’s influence on the British Regency in 15 scholarly essays such as “Thomas Hope and the Neoclassical Revolution” (Philip Mansel, independent scholar, London) and “Thomas Hope’s Furniture: ‘A Delightful and Varied Significance of Shape and Embellishment’” (Frances Collard, Victoria & Albert Museum, London) to “The Tragic Mask of Anastasius/Selim: A New Introduction to Hope’s Novel” (Jerry Nolan, independent scholar, London) and “The Afterlife of Hope”(David Watkin and Frances Collard).

Related Programs
A series of lectures, panels, and other offerings is being presented in conjunction with Thomas Hope: Regency Designer. For further information, please call 212-501-3011 or e-mail programs@bgc.bard.edu.

Exhibition Tours
Group tours of Thomas Hope: Regency Designer are conducted Tuesdays through Fridays between 11:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., and on Thursdays until 7:00 p.m.  Reservations are required for all groups. For further information, please call the Bard Graduate Center Gallery at 212-501-3013 or TTY 212-501-3012, or e-mail gallery@bgc.bard.edu.gallery@bgc.bard.edu

Location
The Bard Graduate Center is located at 18 West 86th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue, in New York City.  Gallery hours are Tuesday through Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.  Admission is $3 general, $2 seniors and students (with valid ID), and free on Thursday evenings after 5:00 p.m.  For further information about the Bard Graduate Center and upcoming exhibitions, please visit www.bgc.bard.edu.

Support
Thomas Hope: Regency Designer has been generously supported by Hyde Park Antiques, Ltd.; the Leon Levy Foundation; Lord Rothschild; Mr. and Mrs. Raphael Bernstein, Dr. H. Woody Brock, and members of the Levy family, in honor of Wendy Levy; Friends of the BADA Trust; and an anonymous donor.

 

Upcoming Exhibitions
 Fall/Winter 2008-2009 
Twixt Art and Nature: English Embroidery 1576-1700
Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Spring/Summer 2009 
Knoll Textiles in Modern and Contemporary Furnishings and Interiors

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

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