Revealing Delaroche: the message from a collection of drawings (AGM Lecture – 12 Sep, 2023)

In the 1990s I began to study the work of the French painter Paul Delaroche (1797-1856). Francis Haskell had already demonstrated the striking contrast between his celebrity throughout his career and his subsequent neglect. In advance of his bicentenary in 1997 I decided to compile a monograph on his work, and I have continued to my interest in him up to the present day, one important stimulus being my invitation to be a Guest Curator for the exhibition Painting History: Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey (National Gallery 2010). From the start, my research was encouraged by the acquisition of drawings by Delaroche, which consistently pointed me in new directions, and disclosed unexpected features of his development over the years. Although no such sample could ever be considered complete, I suggest that even a modest collection can illuminate the creative life of an artist. 

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Stephen Bann is Emeritus Professor of History of Art and Senior Research Fellow at Bristol University. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and the Society of Antiquaries and was appointed CBE in 2004. His work has ranged widely over many periods, including a study of the 17th century collector, John Bargrave, and two surveys of the range of print media in 19th century France (Parallel Lines, 2001 and Distinguished Images, 2013). He has also published two volumes of his correspondence in the 1960s/70s with the Scottish concrete poet and artist, Ian Hamilton Finlay. A selection of his own poem-prints is featured the Tate collection.