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Money, Distinction and Liberality in the Making of Middle Class Culture in Victorian Brighton: A Study of Four Art Collections

David Paul Adelman

Submitted in Accordance with the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Philosophy

The University of Leeds

School of Fine Art, History of Art & Cultural Studies

October 2021

1 The candidate confirms that the work submitted is his own and that appropriate credit has been given where reference had been made to the work of others. This copy has been supplied on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement The right of David Paul Adelman to be identified as Author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 2

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Above all I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors Professor Abigail Harrison Moore at the University of Leeds and Dr Lara Perry at Brighton University who have guided me through to the completion of this PhD with great patience and academic wisdom. Because of Covid and working from home in Brighton, these studies have been more solitary than anticipated and access to wider academic networks has been constrained. The people who have been the most helpful in my research are librarians, archivists and curators at: Brighton Museum and the Royal Pavilion; The Keep record office in Falmer, Brighton; University of Sussex Library; the National Art Library at the V&A; Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Trinity College Library, Cambridge; the National Maritime Museum; the Ruskin Archive at the University of Lancaster; the archives of the Tate Gallery and the National Gallery. My thanks also to staff in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds who have been unfailingly helpful and good natured. I am particularly indebted to Richard Trist the great-great-grandson of Harriet and John Trist for his kind assistance and hospitality. On a personal note, I would very much like to thank my wife Val Shore for her warm support and encouragement. Others who have advised along the way and to whom I am grateful are David Barnes, Patten Smith and Fred Gray. 3

ABSTRACT

to the outlooks of the five rich and upwardly mobile Victorians whose collections are the focus of this thesis. Their private and public involvements including their art collections reflected a paradoxical amalgam of both liberal and patricianal views, of radical rhetoric and aristocratic the nineteenth century, the local government and civil society of which reflected the growing influence of the urban middle class as much as in the classic industrial revolution cities of the north and midlands. The four collections were assembled by William Coningham (1815-1884), Henry Hill (1813-1882), Henry Willett (1823-1905) and Harriet Trist (1816-1896) and her husband John Hamilton Trist (1812-1891). The main purpose of the thesis is to explore the relationship between the wealth of five aspiring members of the Brighton bourgeoisie and the social and political meanings of their art collections paid for out of fortunes made from sugar, tailoring, beer and wine. Coningham and Willett accumulated mainly old masters including niche collections of early Renaissance paintings. Hill is notable for his contemporary collection of realist and impressionist art including the works of Frank Holl and Edgar Degas. The main part of the Trist collection included Pre-Raphaelite and aestheticist works, particularly the paintings of Arthur Hughes. There is no previous dedicated scholarly work on art collecting in nineteenth century Brighton. class elite collectors and its focus on a town dedicated to pleasure and consumption rather than industry and production, provides an alternative interpretation to middle class art collecting to that offered by Dianne Macleod in Art and the Victorian Middle Class, Money and the Making of Cultural Identity (1996). 4

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES 8

INTRODUCTION

Setting the Scene with a Concert in the Royal Pavilion 1867 11

Defining the Scope and Themes of the Study 18

Previous Research, Perspectives and Contexts

Connoisseurial Art History 25

The Social History of Art and Related Approaches 33

Historiography of the Middle Class 40

The Middle and Upper Middle Class in Victorian Brighton 50 Dianne Sachko Macleod, Art and the Victorian Middle Class, Money and the Making of Cultural Identity 56

CIVILISE THE PEOPLE OF BRIGHTON 1850-1914

The British Association for the Advancement of Science Conference in Brighton, 63
The Struggle for the First Brighton Museum and Gallery and Its Inauguration in 1861:

Public versus Private

67
From the Makeshift to the Purpose-Built: A New Library, Museum and Gallery 1861- 1873
79
91

The End of Civilisation in Brighton ? 103

CHAPTER 2. WILLIAM CONINGHAM: CONNOISSEUR, RADICAL POLITICIAN, A COLLECTOR

OF CONTRADICTIONS

His Debut

108
A Pioneering Old Master Collection in the Metropolitan Art World 123

The Art Collection as Cachet and Credentials 132

Coningham in Brighton, A Dignitary in Decline 143

Overview: A Man Confounded by Contradictions 147

5 CHAPTER 3. HOW HENRY HILL, BESPOKE TAILOR TO THE RICH AND SELF-MADE MAN ALSO

BECAME A GENTLEMAN OF TASTE

Magazine of Art, January 1882

151

Street, London

155
Money and Art in the Making of a Brighton Patrician and Civic Benefactor 180

Obituaries: Gentleman or Self-made Man ? 185

CHAPTER 4. THE REINVENTION OF HENRY WILLETT, A COLLECTOR OF COLLECTIONS AND

March 1859

188
From Catt to Willett, from Tradesman to Gentleman 192

A Plenitude of Collections 201

An Art Collection of Old Masters and Portraits 209 The Drives and Delights of the Serial Collector 216 Willett as Exhibitor, Donor and Dispenser of Objects 222

Collecting Objects to Collect People 224

CHAPTER 5. THE PRE-RAPHAELITE COLLECTION OF HARRIET AND JOHN TRIST: A

COLLECTING COUPLE IN A COMPANIONATE MARRIAGE

A Pendant of Trist Family Portraits by Arthur Hughes 234 From St James Street to Vernon Terrace, from Brighton to Hove: The Trist Family

Move Up in the World

242
Introducing the Trist Picture Gallery and Pre-Raphaelite Collection 248 The Artist Arthur Hughes: Beneficiary, Mentor and Friend of the Trists 255 Relationships with Other Artists and Collectors: More Collected Than Collecting 260

CONCLUSION AND A ROYAL PARADE, FEBRUARY 1877 277

BIBLIOGRAPHY 291

6

APPENDICES

These consist of six Excel workbooks providing supplementary information on collectors, collections and class. Given the tabular and numerical nature of the Excel formatting they have been included as six separate digital files accompanying the main text of the thesis. They have been organised by workbook and spreadsheet titles rather than page numbers, as follows: APPENDIX 1. THE BRIGHTON MIDDLE CLASS SOCIAL STRUCTURE i. Summary tables ii. 1841 Poll book and occupations of voters iii. 1854 Trade directory and listed occupations and income sources iv. 1876 Trade directory and listed occupations and income sources v. Leading Citizens 1850-1880 with occupations

APPENDIX 2. MACLEOD MAJOR VICTORIAN COLLECTORS

i. Alphabetical ii. Probate iii. Summary tables APPENDIX 3. WILLIAM CONINGHAM COLLECTION SPREADSHEETS other works iv. Comparison of collections in the 1840s and 1850s by size, price, period and school v. All paintings owned by Coningham including family pictures and others vi. Documented and known drawings and sculptures

APPENDIX 4. HENRY HILL COLLECTION SPREADSHEETS

i. Summary tables ii. Artists, works, details iii. Works per artist v. Size of pictures 1893
viii. Brighton exhibitions 1872 to 1879 at which Hill pictures were displayed 7

APPENDIX 5. HENRY WILLETT COLLECTION SPREADSHEETS

i. Loans and donations iii. Picture catalogues, various sales and loans iv. Artists, alphabetical with additional details vi. Picture summaries aggregating main characteristics vii. Museum and Willett collections comparison

APPENDIX 6. TRIST ART COLLECTION SPREADSHEETS

i. Artists alphabetical ii. Trist catalogue summary iii. Chronological with amounts paid iv. Style and genre of works 8

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND TABLES

Illustrations

Figure 1. Aquatint engraving by George Hunt after artist Edward Fox, in Select Views of Brighton (Brighton: C & R Sickelmore, 1827), The Society of Brighton Print Collectors,

BPC00283, p. 13

Figure 2. Aaron Edwin Penley, The Music Room, Royal Pavilion: The Grand Reopening Ball,

1851, oil on canvas (64cm x 84cm), Brighton Museum, p. 15

Figure 3. Andrea Mantegna, The Agony in the Garden, 1455-6, egg tempera on wood (63cm x

80cm), National Gallery, London, p. 30

Figure 4. View of Brighton from the Chain Pier, steel engraving by T. A. Prior after Thomas Allom (London: J & W Robins, c. 1845), The Society of Brighton Print Collectors, BPC00064, p. 54
Figure 5. Brighton Museum and Library Façade, November 1902, photographed by Donovan and Son, My Brighton and Hove website gallery/brighton-museum> [accessed 25th Oct. 2021], p. 64 Figure 6. Royal Albion Rooms and Marine Parade, Brighton, c. 1850, coloured lithograph by G. Graf, published by W. J. Taylor, London, The Society of Brighton Print Collectors, BPC00242, p. 70
Figure 7. Indicative design for new Picture Gallery by Philip Lockwood, Borough Surveyor, c.

1871, CAIL000011.36, Brighton Museums website,

and-library/> [accessed 25th Oct. 2021], p. 92 Figure 8. Geological Room, late 19th century or early 20th century, My Brighton and Hove website, < https://www.mybrightonandhove.org.uk/places/placemuse/brighton-museum-and- art-gallery/brighton-museum> [accessed 25th Oct. 2021], p. 100 Figure 9. The Main Picture Gallery, c. 1890s, My Brighton and Hove website, gallery/brighton-museum> [accessed 25th Oct. 2021], p. 103 Figure 10. Lo Spagna (probably) The Agony in the Garden, 1500-5, oil on wood (60cm x 67cm),

National Gallery, London, p. 109

Figure 11. William Coningham, MP, Parliamentary archives, PHO 3/3/165, p. 111 Figure 12. John Linnell, Portrait of William Coningham, 1842, oil on canvas (128cm x 103cm),

National Portrait Gallery, London, p. 123

Figure 13. Piero Pollaiuolo, Apollo and Daphne 1470-80, oil on wood (30cm x 20cm), National

Gallery, London, p. 127

Figure 14. Antonello da Messina, St Jerome in his Study, c.1475, oil on lime (46cm x 36cm),

National Gallery, London, p. 129

9 Figure 15. Lorenzo Monaco, Adoring Saint, left and right main tier panels 1407-9, egg tempera on wood (each 197cm x 102cm), National Gallery, London, p. 140 Figure 16. Giotto and Workshop, Pentecost, 1310-18, egg tempera on poplar (46cm x 44cm),

National Gallery, London, p. 147

Figure 17. Marine Parade, Brighton, illustration for English scenery by T. Nelson, 1889, a chromolithograph, p. 154 Figure 18. Photograph of Captain Henry Hill, sometime after 1865, found on ancestry website [accessed 25th Oct. 2021], p. 163 Figure 19. J. B. Corot Fisherman Moored At a Bank, c.1865-1870, oil on canvas (33cm x 48cm),

National Museum Wales, Cardiff, p. 169

Figure 20. Philip Morris, The Reaper and the Flowers, 1876-78, oil on canvas (86cm x100cm),

Lancaster City Museum, p. 170

Figure 21. Frank Holl, Portrait of Henry Hill, 1880, oil on canvas (128cm x 104cm), Brighton

Museum, p. 174

Figure 22. J. M. Whistler, Nocturne in Blue and Silver: Valparaiso, 1866-1874, oil on canvas (76cm x 50cm), Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC, p. 178 Figure 23. Marie Cazin, Stone Yard, Old Houses in Paris, France, 1864-1876, oil on wood (45cm x 55cm), Russell-Cotes Art Gallery, Bournemouth, p. 179 p. 184 Figure. 25. Photograph of Henry Willett with his granddaughter, Joyce, 1890s, Arnold House,

Brighton, Brighton Museums website

pottery/> [accessed 25th Oct. 2021], p. 195 Figure 28. Salt-cellar made by Edo in Nigeria, 1525-1600 donated by Willett, British Museum, p. 209 Figure. 29. Dirk Bouts, Moses and the Burning Bush, oil on panel (44cm x 36cm), Philadelphia

Museum of Art, p. 211

Figure 30. Domenico Ghirlandaio, Portrait of Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni, 1489-1490, mixed media on panel (77cm x 49cm), Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, p. 213 Figure 31. Giorgione, The Holy Family, oil on panel (37cm x 46cm), National Gallery of Art,

Washington, p. 219

10 Figure 32. Arthur Hughes, Mrs Trist and Son, 1863, oil on canvas (43cm x 33cm), privately owned, p. 234 Figure 33. Arthur Hughes, Mr. Trist and Mrs. Herbert Trist, 1876, oil on canvas (43cm x 33cm), privately owned, p. 234 Figure 34. Photographic portrait of Harriet Trist with son Herbert c.1855-58, unknown origins and authorship, posted on ancestry website =BEF4cbsIgAAERQxIJeM-61- [accessed 25th Oct. 2021], p. 237 Figure 35. Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Regina Cordium (Queen of Hearts), 1866, oil on canvas (60cm x 50cm), Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, p. 239 Figure 36. Arthur Hughes, Home from the Sea, 1862, oil on canvas (66cm x 56cm), Ashmolean

Museum of Art and Archaeology, p. 257

(53cm x 36cm), National Museum Wales, Cardiff, p. 262

36cm), privately owned, p. 262

Museum, p. 268

Figure 40. George Hemming Mason, A Staffordshire Landscape, 1870, oil on canvas (25cm x

76cm), Art Gallery of New South Wales, p. 273

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