In this lecture Tim Clayton talks about the collecting of prints in early eighteenth-century England, with particular reference to the collection of George Clarke (1661-1736) at Oxford. After providing an overview of Clarke’s family background and his career, it considers what is in Clarke’s collection. Strengths include architecture, buildings and gardens, interior decoration and ornament, paintings, portraits and antiquities. The lecture then considers books which may have influenced Clarke, as well as the growth of the print market in England.
Tim Clayton catalogued the Clarke Collection in the late 1990s and is author of ‘The English Print 1688-1802’ (1997).
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.
