Richard Burchett
Richard Burchett (1815–1875) was a British artist and educator on the fringes of the
He was later described as "a prominent figure in the art-schools, a well-instructed painter, and a teacher exceptionally equipped with all the learning of his craft" by his ex-pupil, the poet Austin Dobson. Burchett's pupils included the extremely varied talents of Kate Greenaway, Christopher Dresser, Elizabeth Thompson (Lady Butler), Sir George Clausen, Sir Luke Fildes, Gertrude Jekyll, Hubert von Herkomer, Evelyn De Morgan, William Harbutt and Helen Allingham. Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, Queen Victoria's daughter, and a talented artist, was also a student.[1]
As an artist he achieved some reputation for large history paintings, and decorated public buildings including parts of the
Life
Burchett was born in Brighton on 30 January 1815. He attended the "London Mechanics Institute" in Chancery Lane (founded 1823, the forerunner of Birkbeck College, University of London), before in about 1841 entering the "Government School of Design", founded three years before in 1837, which he was later to head, and which eventually became the Royal College of Art.[2] In 1845 he was a ringleader of students protesting to the Board of Trade about the teaching methods, in what was at the time a controversy that attracted a great deal of public attention, and finally a Parliamentary Committee of Enquiry.[3] He gave evidence to this in 1846-7, by which time he had become a master at the school (the "Master of Form", from 1845), remaining on the staff until his death in 1875, from 1852 as Headmaster.[4]
Burchett spent most of his time throughout his adult life on his work at the school, and that his most highly regarded work today is an atypical landscape subject is an indication of how much his personal painting was neglected for teaching, and public commissions through the school. According to the Memoirs of William Bell Scott, who had worked under him, Burchett was: "an able, self-dependent actor in the affairs of life, yet one whose action was rarely to his own benefit, although largely to the benefit of those under him in his official position".[5]
In the mid-1850s Burchett converted to
In 1870, he began proceedings for bankruptcy,[8] which were still not concluded by his death.[10] Scott says he "took to a sort of farming at considerable expense ... He began to get into deep water, and into the hands of 20 per cent money-lenders. Still he fought bravely with his difficulties, and even when his large salary was placed under trustees, he went on with his historic subjects".[11] His venture was ill-timed, hitting a period of agricultural depression. A series of twelve dividends to his creditors, between 1871 and September 1876, paid off at least 7s 73⁄4d in the pound - dividends number 1, 7 & 8 seem not to appear in the London Gazette search results.[12] His will was
Artist
Burchett exhibited five works, apparently all large
William Bell Scott has an anecdote of Burchett, who "had chosen the subject as a glorious example of the power of the Church and the faith of the prince at that blessed period in Merry England" failing to sell the painting to an "extreme Radical" shipping magnate: ""I admire the picture, Mr. Burchett, it is excellently painted, and I like it for its subject; these men in full armour won't go in, they won't end the day completely after risking all their lives, because of that old priest with the jack-in-the-box! Superstition, you see, turns them into caitiffs!" This knocked over poor Burchett so much, the transaction came to nothing"[17] Scott comments that Burchett: "gave himself up to historical painting on a rather large scale, just the kind of art which English taste and the R. Academy as the mediocre exponent of the same would like to crush out of existence".[11]
However the work which has attracted the most attention and praise from critics in recent decades is what appears to be his "only known landscape",
There are a number of public paintings by Burchett, with help of his students, commissioned through the school. He and his students painted, from Renaissance portraits, a number of full-length portraits of the
From a number of designs for
The South Kensington system
The controversy at the school in 1845 was about the Headmaster and his teaching methods, but reflected wider issues about the aims of the school in terms of the balance between fine art and applied and commercial art and design; these questions were to remain a perennial bone of contention for at least another century, and are a recurring theme in Christopher Frayling's 1987 history of the College. The new teaching methods implemented by Burchett were themselves to become a matter of controversy.
The school had been founded in 1837, as the Government School of Design, occupying part of
The main art school in London was the
William Dyce was the first Director, and Burchett studied under him, and then worked with him as a colleague, until Dyce left in 1848. The Isle of Wight paintings from 1855 suggest the two remained friends.
After the internal disputes of the 1840s, the school acquired a firm sense of control and direction when in 1853 the Government placed it under the control of Henry Cole, for whom the Science and Art Department was set up, with a large tract of land, and much of the large profit from the 1852 Great Exhibition to spend. Cole was an extremely dynamic figure, with some training as a painter, and experience as an entrepreneurial designer of china. He made the young painter Richard Redgrave, master of botany at the school since 1847, responsible for the superintendence of the national system, and appointed Burchett as Headmaster of the London School.
Redgrave, drawing on Dyce's ideas, and propelled by Cole, set out the "
The full course was divided into twenty-three stages, most with several sections. Different types of students were to take different combinations of stages: "machinists, engineers and foremen of works" should take stages 1–5, and then skip to the final 23rd stage, "Technical Studies", while designers and "ornamentalists" took most stages.[13]
There were several types of students, pursuing different courses: the "general students", who paid no fees and were given a small living allowance, training to be teachers of art (though many ended up elsewhere), the "National Scholars" intended for industrial designers, and fee-paying students, pursuing a course more oriented to the fine arts. Latterly these were in fact the majority.
Author and collector
Collections of Burchett's lectures from the school were published in book form, through
He appears buying a number of lots for the school ("Marlborough House") and a few for himself in the huge (4294 lot) sale in 1855 of the distinguished collection of
Burchett looked after a number of paintings by his colleague, the Pre-Raphaelite
Apart from his own students, Burchett encouraged other young artists, sending the
Portraits
Portraits of the heavily-bearded Burchett include a marble bust by his pupil
Notes
- ^ MacDonald:173 describes Rosa Bonheur as a "student", but this seems dubious. She may have visited for a time before taking over her father's position running an art school for girls, the "École Gratuite de Dessins des Jeunes Filles" in 1849.
- ^ DNB, V&A
- ^ Elizabeth Bonython and Anthony Burton, The Great Exhibitor: the Life and Work of Henry Cole, V&A Publications, London, p.150.
- ^ V&A says from 1851 as Head of the "Department of Practical Art" section, for training teachers.
- ^ Scott, 272
- ^ a b c DNB
- London Gazette, March 29, 1878, p. 2259. By 1878 he had moved to Ravenscourt Park, where he played a crucial role in developing the present public park. Obituary of Mr E. S. Burchett by F.E. Hayes, A.R.C.A., F.R.G.S. West London Observer 24 March 1916
- ^ a b "No. 23599". The London Gazette. 18 March 1870. p. 1811.
- ^ Frayling:52
- ^ "No. 24353". The London Gazette. 11 August 1876. p. 4524.
- ^ a b Scott, 272-273
- Dickens's Dictionary of Londonthat "[Brompton] was at one time almost exclusively the artist quarter and is still largely frequented by the votaries of the brush and chisel, though of late years Belgravia has been encroaching upon its boundaries, and Belgravian rents are stealing westward."Dickens's Dictionary of London. Retrieved 22 August 2007.
- ^ a b Frayling
- ^ a b c V&A
- ^ Articles (in Spanish) in El País, probably quoting another source.
- ^ Image The two titles are mentioned separately by the DNB, who give the Guildhall Sanctuary, but there seems only to be the one painting (exhibited RA 1867)
- ^ Scott, 274-275
- ^ So the DNB, but Howard D. Rodee: The "Dreary Landscape" as a Background for Scenes of Rural Poverty in Victorian Paintings, Art Journal, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Summer, 1977) refers to another, also a view of the Isle of Wight: "Scene in the Isles (sic) of Wight" of 1865. This has cheerful farmworkers' children, so must be a different work.
- ^ For quote, search online collection on Burchett (accessed February 15, 2008). V&A image
- ^ Rosenthal:130
- John Calcott Horsley, R.A. (1817–1903). - Horsley was also a colleague of Burchett's
- ^ Collinson Image The Mellon Centre now date this 1849-50 however. Burchett sold his painting to the V&A in 1861.
- ^ Grigson, G, Britain Observed, 1975, pp 134–7, ref. in V&A,
- ^ Lady Jane Grey image
- ^ History Today; Image, Palace of Westminster
- ^ Survey of London
- ^ Frayling:38
- ^ a b MacDonald:173
- '^ Survey of London, vol 38;South Kensington' and the Science and Art Department
- ^ Frayling:41
- ^ MacDonald:226
- ^ Teaching by Example: Education and the Formation of South Kensington's Museums Rafael Cardoso Denis, V&A
- ^ MacDonald:172-3
- ^ translation per DNB, although they say Linear Perspective of 1856 - the 1872 work may be a new edition digitized, Google Books
- ^ Published "Names of Purchasers and Prices..." digitised on Google Books
- ^ Christopher Wood Report
- ^ Artfact/Christie's catalogue entry (2003) for Deverell's Twelfth Night.
- ^ Survey of London pre-move
- ^ DNB, Frayling - possibly destroyed in World War II?
- ^ Copy in the National Portrait Gallery
Main references
- Dictionary of National Biography, online, "Richard Burchett", by Anne Pimlott Baker, accessed Feb 13, 2008.("DNB")
- ISBN 0-7126-1820-1
- MacDonald, Stuart, The History and Philosophy of Art Education, 2004, James Clarke & Co.,ISBN 0-7188-9153-8
- Parkinson, Ronald: ISBN 0-11-290463-7, ("V&A")
- Rosenthal, Michael: British Landscape Painting, 1982, Phaidon Press, London
- Scott, William Bell, Autobiographical notes of the life of William Bell Scott, and notices of his artistic and poetic circle of friends, 1830 to 1882, Volume II, ed. W Minto, 1892, New York edition, online text
External links
- 50 artworks by or after Richard Burchett at the Art UK site