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Lord Byron's Decoupage Screen
Lord Byron's Decoupage Screen
HENI Talks in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, reflect on the invention of the cult of personality in the Romantic age through Byron’s Decoupage Screen.
As a piece of furniture with a practical function, like a giant scrapbook, this six-foot high, four-panelled folding screen is elaborately decorated on each side with a cut and pasted mosaic of text and images.
One side of the screen depicts a history of the English theatre in over one hundred and fifty mezzotints and line engravings of notable actors. The other side presents the world of boxing.
Time Period:
19th century
I graduated in History of Art from the University of East Anglia and joined the Gallery’s Picture Library in 1995 after working in a similar role at the Science Museum. I moved to the Heinz Archive & Library in 1997. I curated the Gallery’s 2015 exhibition Wellington: Triumphs, Politics and Passions, part of the Waterloo 200 commemorations. Displays include Changing Impressions: A Print Conservation Project in Focus, 2002, Portraits of Alphonse Legros, 2004; Nelson: Before and After Trafalgar, 2005; and Henry VIII Remembered, 2009.
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08:02
Miniaturising Portraits
HENI Talks in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery discover portrait miniatures, one of the most intimate forms of art, designed to be ‘viewed ... in hand near unto the eye’. Nicholas Hilliard’s miniature painting of Sir Kenelm Digby, Naval commander, diplomat and scientist, is a great example of how these miniature works of art, were usually painted on the reverse of a playing card, often mounted within a jewelled case that could be worn, carried in a pocket or kept for private display within the home.
09:19
The Portrait of Mai
HENI Talks in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, explores the importance of Sir Joshua Reynolds’ spectacular Portrait of Mai (Omai). Dr Lucy Pelzt, explains in detail, Sir Joshua Reynolds’ majestic painting which holds a pivotal place in global art history, depicting the first Polynesian to visit Britain, and is widely regarded as the finest portrait by one of Britain’s greatest artists.
04:09
Daguerreotype-mania
HENI Talks in collaboration with the National Portrait Gallery, examines and demonstrates the introduction of the daguerreotype from 1839 that marked a revolution in portrait making. Daguerreotype portraiture caught the public’s imagination, and the photographic studios where they were lucrative businesses and quickly sprang up around the world. This film explores work made by the two earliest photographic portrait studios in London, set up by Richard Beard and Antoine Claudet. They opened within months of each other in 1841, and are considered the birth of portrait photography in the United Kingdom.