Thu, Mar 03
|Zoom Webinar
A Walk through an Enchanted Regency Palace: Chinese Export Ware in the Royal Pavilion
Dr. Alexandra Loske will introduce us to the vast and splendid collections of the Prince Regent himself, from ceramics to architecture.
Time & Location
Mar 03, 2022, 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM EST
Zoom Webinar
About the Event
Image credit: 'Kylin' Clock (RCIN 2867) and candelabra (RCIN 2736) in the Royal Pavilion's Saloon, lent by Her Majesty The Queen from 2019 to 2022, Photo: Jim Holden for the Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust, Brighton & Hove
In this lecture Alexandra Loske will outline the story of how the Chinoiserie interiors of the Royal Pavilion were created, what inspired George IV, his architects, and interior designers, and what happened to the objects, fittings, and decorative surfaces after the sale of the building in 1850.
The Royal Pavilion, exceptional as it is in terms of scale and expressive power of the Chinoserie style, did not appear out of nowhere, but was influenced by previous examples of “Oriental” architecture in the west. George IV and other members of the royal family constantly used, re-used, moved and re-interpreted interior design schemes, while changing attitudes to conservation and restoration also bring about changes to historic interiors. Using the example of the return of more than 130 original Pavilion objects – most of them mounted Asian porcelain, as well as some outstanding pieces of pure European Chinoiserie - generously lent by Her Majesty The Queen in 2019-2022, the lecture will highlight the fluidity of decorative objects, interiors and buildings, and the creativity involved in designing an early-19th-century Chinoiserie interior on this scale.
As a curator, Alexandra Loske was directly involved with this spectacular loan, which allowed visitors to experience a near complete recreation of the 1820s interiors of the Royal Pavilion as seen in John Nash’s Views of the Pavilion at Brighton (1826). She curated a small exhibition alongside this – Designing an Enchanted Palace: The Crace Decorators at the Royal Pavilion – which charted some of these grand schemes, from inspiration drawn from Chinese ceramics, wallpaper, lacquerware, and enamels, via delicate drawings by the Craces, to the final interiors as captured by Augustus Charles Pugin in the 1820s.