Henry Vaughan (art collector): Difference between revisions

'''Henry Vaughan''' (17 April 1809 – 26 November 1899) was a VictorianBritish art collector. He is best known for his many generous gifts and bequests to British and Irish public galleries and museumscollections.

In 1834 he bought a [[lease]] on a large house, number 28 [[Cumberland Terrace]], on one of the grandest of [[John Nash (architect)|John Nash's]] developments in the newly fashionable [[Regent's Park]], which would be his home for the rest of his long life. He spent much of his time travelling estensivelyextensively, becoming a cultivated, enthusiastic, and eclectic collector of works of art, especially of prints and drawings by [[J. M. W. Turner]], with whom he was personally acquainted.<ref name=odnb/> He was elected a fellow of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London|Society of Antiquaries]] in 1879, was a founder member of the [[Burlington Fine Arts Club]] and was also a member of the [[Athenaeum Club, London|Athaeneum]].<ref name=odnb/> His collecting interests were varied and eclectic; visitors to the house, which he shared with his sister Mary, would have seen rooms richly decorated with sculptures, bronzes, ivories, Spanish clocks, medieval stained glass, frames from Siena and Venice and [[Rembrandt]] etchings.<ref name=ngs/> However the house had few visitors as Vaughan was known as something of a recluse,<ref name=odnb/> preferring his collection to be shown in public galleries. He bought drawings by [[Michelangelo]], [[Raphael]] and [[Rubens]], but it was eighteenth and nineteenth century British art which was his main area of interest, acquiring works by [[Joshua Reynolds|Reynolds]], [[Thomas Gainsborough|Gainsborough]], [[Flaxman, John|Flaxman]], [[John Everett Millais|Millais]] and [[Frederic Leighton|Leighton]], among others.<ref name=ngs/> Unusually for the time, Vaughan was particularly interested in artists' ideas and working methods, acquiring many informal, preparatory drawings and sketches including fifteen of [[John Constable|John Constable's]] oil sketches.<ref name=ngs/>

The artist he admired above all was J.M.W. Turner, whom he probably first met in the 1840s.<ref name=ngs/> By the time of Vaughan's death he owned more than one hundred watercolours and drawings by Turner and as many prints. His collection included examples of almost every type of work on paper the artist produced, from early topographical drawings and atmospheric landscape watercolours, to brilliant colour studies, literary vignette illustrations and spectacular exhibition pieces. It was an unparalledunparalleled collection that comprehensively represented the diversity, imagination and technical inventiveness of Turner's work throughout his sixty-year career.<ref name=ngs/>

[[Category:EnglishBritish art collectors]]