Francis Watson

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Sir Francis John Bagott Watson KCVO , mostly quoted by FJB Watson, (born August 24, 1907 in Dudley , Worcestershire , † September 27, 1992 in Corton , Wiltshire ) was a British art historian who was particularly concerned with furniture and painting of the 18th century concerned.

life and work

Watson studied mathematics and English at St John's College of the University of Cambridge , with the degree in mathematics in 1929. After a trip to Italy and France, he was in various publishing houses before 1934 Employee ( registrar ) at the Courtauld Institute of Art was after he became interested in art history while visiting the Fitzwilliam Museum . He made friends with various art historians such as Charles F. Bell (curator at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford), who later left him his library, and followed James Mann as his assistant from the Courtauld Institute to the Wallace Collection (initially as Assistant Keeper ).

Here he compiled a catalog of the furniture in the collection, which appeared in 1956 and earned him the reputation of the leading British authority on French furniture, and which also led to an invitation to the United States to give lectures the following year. During the Second World War he was employed in the Admiralty and married Mary Jane Strong in 1941 († 1969). In 1945 he was back in the Wallace Collection and in 1947 he became an assistant supervisor (Deputy Surveyor) of the Royal Collection of Works of Art.

In 1963 he became the director of the Wallace Collection as successor to Mann and was supervisor of the Queen's collections (Surveyor of the Queen's Works of Art, until 1972), also as Mann's successor. In 1969/70 he was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford. In 1974 he retired, but remained an advisor to the Queen for her art collection. He continued to be in demand as an art expert, particularly in the USA, which he had been attending regularly for lectures and as an art consultant since 1957, and traveled a lot, especially to Asia, well into old age.

He also advised collectors Charles and Jayne Wrightsman, and from 1966 to 1973 cataloged their collection, which later belonged to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

In addition to his specialization in furniture (where he also dealt with conservation issues and held workshops on it, for example at Marlborough House), he was an expert on 18th century art. He wrote monographs on Canaletto (1949), Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1966) and Giambattista Tiepolo (1967).

In 1969 he became a member ( fellow ) of the British Academy . In 1973 he was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order . From 1970 to 1976 he was chairman of the Walpole Society. In 1966 he gave the Fred Cooke Memorial Lecture (about the Guardis family of painters ). In 1964 he became chairman of the Furniture History Society.

After the death of his wife (an eccentric cat lover who kept around 80 cats in their joint home), he adopted a Chinese law student (Cheng Huan) in Cambridge, who later became a well-known lawyer in Hong Kong and later gave him a retirement home bought in Wiltshire where he died. Watson himself pursued Sinology as a hobby.

Fonts (selection)

as an author
  • Canaletto . Edit new edition P. Elek Press, London 1954 (EA London 1949).
  • Furniture in the Wallace Collection . The Wallace Collection, London 1956.
  • Louix XVI Furniture . Academy Editions, London 1960.
  • The history of furniture . Südwest-Verlag, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-517-00666-1 .
  • Jean-Honoré Fragonard . Fabbri, Milan 1966.
  • Giambattista Tiepolo . Knowledge Publ. London 1967.
  • Thomas Patch (1725-1782). Notes on his life, together with a catalog of his own works . In: The Annual of the Walpole Society , Vol. 28 (1939/40), pp. 15-51, here p. 40.
as editor
  • Eighteenth Century Venice. An exhibition of paintings and drawings held at the Whitechapel Art Gallery . Shenval Press, London 1951 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, January 3 to March 14, 1951).
  • The Wrightsman Collection . The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1966/73.
  1. Furniture . 1966.
  2. Furniture, bronze and mounted porcelain, carpets . 1968.
  3. Furniture gold boxes . 1970.
  • Chinese Porcelains in European Mounts . China House Gallery, New York 1980 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, October 22, 1980 to January 25, 1981).

literature

  • Geoffrey de Bellaigue: Francis John Bagott Watson, 1907-1992 . In: Proceedings of the British Academy . tape 84 , 1994, pp. 565-577 ( thebritishacademy.ac.uk [PDF]).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Obituary in The Independent . 1992.
  2. ^ The exhibition was organized by Watson at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, where he was a trustee for 25 years .
  3. ↑ The first three volumes were edited by Francis Watson; Volume 4 is from Carl C. Dauterman (Porcelain) and Volume 5 is from Everett Fahy (Paintings, Drawings).
personal data
SURNAME Watson, Francis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Watson, Francis John Baggott
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British art historian
DATE OF BIRTH August 24, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Dudley , Worcestershire
DATE OF DEATH September 27, 1992
Place of death Corton, Wiltshire