Studying the European Visual Arts 1800-1850

This volume explores the European visual arts between 1800 and 1850, a period marked by political upheaval, shifting aesthetics, and rapid innovation. Drawing on case studies across painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, contributors examine materials, techniques, and artistic intent, as well as broader cultural and institutional contexts. The research highlights how evolving artistic practices reflected-and responded to-wider social, technological, and intellectual changes in early 19th-century Europe.

The papers in this volume were presented at the CATS two-day technical art history conference which had as its theme Technology & Practice: Studying the European Visual Arts 1800-1850. Paintings, Sculpture, Interiors and Art on Paper. The meeting explored tradition and changes in artistic practices seen in the light of the establishment of several national art academies in Europe throughout the 18th century. The lavishly illustrated contributions focus on the making of artworks during the first half of the 19th century, a period also known in Denmark as the Golden Age. Investigations into artists’ techniques and materials and written sources include studies of the work of various artists including Hans Christian Andersen, Constable, Daubigny, Eckersberg, Fearnley, Friedrich, Kobke, Lundbye, Rorbye, Turner and studies of architecture and decorative schemes in London by Barry (at the Reform Club) and Soane (at Lincoln’s Inn Fields) and the work of Peter von Cornelius, Leo von Klenze and others in Munich. This third CATS Proceedings will be of interest to scholars and students, museum professionals, curators, conservators, art historians and conservation scientists.

Foreword

The Danish revolution: new practices among Danish landscape painters 1814-1850 Kasper Monrad

The Reform Club, London: the grand British-Italian palazzo of the industrial age Fernando Caceres Jara

Corot's The Four Times of Day: a decorative scheme for Decamps's Fontainebleau studio Sarah Herring, Hayley Tomlinson, Gabriella Macaro and David Peggie

The art historical and technical examination of Sir John Soane's 'Experimental Room' at No. 12 Lincoln's Inn Fields Helen Hughes

Canvas supports and grounds in paintings by C.W. Eckersberg Troels Filtenborg and Cecil Krarup Andersen

From Courbet to Daubigny: the mystery behind Sluice Gate at Optevoz Eva Ortner

A technical study of 19th-century papers used by Danish artists Anna-Grethe Rischel

Principal version or replica? Examining Martinus Rorbye's practice when copying others or his own paintings Jorgen Wadum, Troels Filtenborg, Kasper Monrad and Jesper Svenningsen

Thomas Fearnley en route: a 19th-century artist's choice of drawing and fixing materials Birgit Reissland, Tina Grette Poulsson, Henk van Keulen and Ineke Joosten

Fit for purpose: 30 years of the Constable Research Project Sarah Cove

Turner's Regulus: a tale of violence, abuse and accident, illuminated by technical study Joyce H. Townsend, Rebecca Hellen and Ian Warrell

Romantic icons: a technical study of the underdrawing for Caspar David Friedrich's Monk by the Sea and Abbey in the Oakwood Kristina Mosl and Francesca Schneider

In search of the ultimate painting technique: Munich in the 1820s-1840s Renate Poggendorf,

Foreword

The Danish revolution: new practices among Danish landscape painters 1814–1850 
Kasper Monrad

The Reform Club, London: the grand British–Italian palazzo of the industrial age 
Fernando Caceres Jara

Corot’s The Four Times of Day: a decorative scheme for Decamps’s Fontainebleau studio
Sarah Herring, Hayley Tomlinson, Gabriella Macaro and David Peggie

The art historical and technical examination of Sir John Soane’s ‘Experimental Room’ at No. 12 Lincoln’s Inn Fields 
Helen Hughes

Canvas supports and grounds in paintings by C.W. Eckersberg 
Troels Filtenborg and Cecil Krarup Andersen

From Courbet to Daubigny: the mystery behind Sluice Gate at Optevoz 
Eva Ortner

A technical study of 19th-century papers used by Danish artists 
Anna-Grethe Rischel

Principal version or replica? Examining Martinus Rørbye’s practice when copying others or his own paintings 
Jørgen Wadum, Troels Filtenborg, Kasper Monrad and Jesper Svenningsen

Thomas Fearnley en route: a 19th-century artist’s choice of drawing and fixing materials 
Birgit Reissland, Tina Grette Poulsson, Henk van Keulen and Ineke Joosten

Fit for purpose: 30 years of the Constable Research Project 
Sarah Cove

Turner’s Regulus: a tale of violence, abuse and accident, illuminated by technical study 
Joyce H. Townsend, Rebecca Hellen and Ian Warrell

Romantic icons: a technical study of the underdrawing for Caspar David Friedrich’s Monk by the Sea and Abbey in the Oakwood 
Kristina Mösl and Francesca Schneider

In search of the ultimate painting technique: Munich in the 1820s–1840s 
Renate Poggendorf

• Edited by Joyce H. Townsend
• Edited by Abbie Vandivere