Acis and Galatea
Set Design
1842 (painted)
1842 (painted)
Artist/Maker | |
Place of origin |
Design for Acis and Galatea, a worked up version of S.71-2000, showing a moonlight view out to sea with a sweeping bay stretching to the right with a beach downstage and, to left, cliffs with palm trees above and rocks below and a distant rock arch out to sea. The bay a cut covered with an attached painted sheet of isinglass overlay transparency with painted silk attached to the lower edge to simulate lapping waves. A model slot has been cut into the design to the right. The card on which the design is painted consists of two thick sheets which have been joined horizontally.
Object details
Categories | |
Object type | |
Title | Acis and Galatea (generic title) |
Materials and techniques | Water-colour and gouache on card, mica or talc and silk |
Brief description | Design by Clarkson Stanfield for the opening of Acis and Galatea, Drury Lane Theatre, 1842 |
Physical description | Design for Acis and Galatea, a worked up version of S.71-2000, showing a moonlight view out to sea with a sweeping bay stretching to the right with a beach downstage and, to left, cliffs with palm trees above and rocks below and a distant rock arch out to sea. The bay a cut covered with an attached painted sheet of isinglass overlay transparency with painted silk attached to the lower edge to simulate lapping waves. A model slot has been cut into the design to the right. The card on which the design is painted consists of two thick sheets which have been joined horizontally. |
Dimensions |
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Production type | Unique |
Marks and inscriptions | (Stamp; Upper right hand corner) |
Credit line | Acquired from the Bagshawe Estate |
Object history | Clarkson Stanfield had two children by his first marriage and ten by his second to Rebecca Adcock (d.1876). The theatre designs, S.13 - S.99-2000, and other Stanfield studio residue passed to the oldest surviving son of the second marriage, George Clarkson Stanfield (1828-78), also a painter. He died of liver disease at the Hampstead home of his sister, Harriet Thesesa (1837-1911). In 1861 Harriet had married William Henry Gunning Bagshaw (1825-1901), a barrister, QC and judge, and the couple had a large family, of whom the fifth child, Joseph John Richard Bagshawe (1870-1909), was also a professional artist. Joseph married in 1901 and had two sons, Edward and K.G.R., the latter becoming a solicitor in the firm of Seaton, Gray, Bell and Bagshawe at Whitby. The collection of Clarkson Stanfield designs (S.13 - S.99-2000) was discovered in K.G.R. Bagshawe's attic on the latter's death. It had presumably been left with his grandmother, Harriet, on George Stanfield's death and been passed down through the family. K.G.R.'s daughter, Susie, took the designs to Christie's for a probate valuation, and Christie's alerted Dr Pieter van der Merwe of the National Maritime Museum, an acknowledged expert on Clarkson Stanfield. Dr van der Merwe then contacted the Theatre Museum. The collection comprises working designs and model pieces made in the Drury Lane scene room from the mid-1820s to the mid-1840s. |
Literary reference | Acis and Galatea |
Collection | |
Accession number | S.72-2000 |
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Record created | October 23, 2000 |
Record URL |
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