Not currently on display at the V&A

Acis and Galatea

Set Design
mid 19th century (painted)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Design by Clarkson Stanfield for a back scene, possibly for scene iv of Acis and Galatea, Drury Lane Theatre, 1842


Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleAcis and Galatea (generic title)
Materials and techniques
Gouache on card
Brief description
Design by Clarkson Stanfield for a back scene, possibly for scene iv of Acis and Galatea, Drury Lane Theatre, 1842
Physical description
Design for a back scene for Acis and Galatea, showing a sea horizon with a cut and back gauzed moon to centre left and, to right centre, a painted moon. On the reverse a pencil sketch of a classical temple on an eminence over the sea. Painted in blue gouache with some white heightening. There are model slots at each side.
Dimensions
  • Height: 400mm
  • Width: 605mm
Production typeUnique
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 referenceAcis and Galatea
Summary
Design by Clarkson Stanfield for a back scene, possibly for scene iv of Acis and Galatea, Drury Lane Theatre, 1842
Collection
Accession number
S.81-2000

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Record createdOctober 24, 2000
Record URL
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