In this lecture, Lord Fitzwilliam and his Prints, Elenor Ling talks about Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam (1745-1816) and his collecting of prints in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Containing some 40,000 prints, the collection crosses many different categories including topographical subjects, architectural and portrait prints. The talk considers the content and themes of the collection, as well as how the prints were arranged in albums. As the majority of the albums remain intact, the collection constitutes a rare survival of the collecting habits of a gentleman amateur print collector.
Elenor Ling is Curator within the Department of Paintings, Drawings and Prints at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Her publications include ‘The Dutch and Flemish Print Albums Compiled by Lord Fitzwilliam (1745-1816) at the Fitzwilliam Museum’ in Meredith M. Hale (edited), ‘Cambridge and the Study of Netherlandish Art: The Low Countries and the Fens’ (2016).
This lecture forms part of a series of lectures on ‘Printmaking and Print Collecting up to 1840‘, organised by Armagh Robinson Library. The Library is grateful to the Paul Mellon Centre for its support for the lecture series.
