Biography
Beaumont was Tory MP for Bere Alston in Devon between 1790-6. Thereafter he retired from politics to pursue his love of poetry and the fine arts.
Beaumont was a friend of the Lake Poets, especially of William Wordsworth whom he saw as a kindred spirit. He frequently lent Wordworth the use of his farm on his estate at Coleorton. Interestingly, where his interests in poetry were forward-looking, he was opposed to new trends in art.
Patronage and influence
Beaumont owned several different properties, which formed a backdrop to his patronage of the arts. He inherited a small estate at Dunmow, Essex from his landowning father (as well as the title of 7th Baronet in 1762). Meanwhile his wife inherited the lease on a house at 34 Grosvenor Square, which gave him a ‘bolt-hole’ in London. However, his main home became Coleorton Hall, Leicestershire.
Paintings
His interest in art started as a schoolboy at Eton College, where he had been taught drawing by the landscape painter, Alexander Cozens. He continued to paint throughout his life and went on numerous sketching tours of the Lake District and North Wales with his wife Margaret (née Willes). Despite the cool reception by critics to his early effort, 'A View of Keswick' (1779), he frequently exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1794 and 1825.
His own work owed its greatest debts to Cozens, Richard Wilson, and Thomas Hearne. Examples are preserved in the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester. The remainder of his works passed to his descendants.
Arbiter of taste
Through his own artistic efforts, as well as his purchases of Old Masters and his patronage of living British artists, he became the leading arbiter of taste. He had responsibilities to several committees which spread his influence, including the monuments committee for St. Paul’s Cathedral. He was also the founding director of the British Institution, established in 1806.
This painting depicts the memorial to Sir Joshua Reynolds erected by Sir George Beaumont in the grounds of his home at Coleorton, Leicestershire; the first stone was laid on 30 October 1812. The cenotaph has inscribed on it some lines of poetry by Wordsworth, specially composed in 1811. Reynolds' name is legible on the cenotaph; busts of Raphael and Michelangelo are at either side.
Constable visited Coleorton and remarked on the cenotaph in October/November, 1823. He executed a pencil drawing of it, and this is presumed to have formed the general basis for the painting although the two are not close in detail.
As a keen defender of the academic ethos of Reynolds, Beaumont opposed anything which he saw as threatening to the canon of the Old Masters – hence his opposition to the radical colouring of J.M.W. Turner.
After becoming the butt of the satirical ‘Catalogues Raisonnes’ in 1815-6, Beaumont temporarily retired from his leading position in the art world.
Collecting Old Masters
Beaumont’s interest in the Old Masters was stimulated partly by his friendship with Reynolds, and also by undertaking a Grand Tour with his wife in 1782. For the next 20 years he devoted his relatively modest income to purchasing Old Master pictures.
One of his earliest buys, in 1785, was Claude Lorraine’s A Landscape with Hagar and the Angel. It remained his favourite. He would take it with him when he travelled in a specially-designed case.
He also developed an interest in Flemish and Dutch painting, which came out of his friendship with Uvedale Price, the principal promoter of the Picturesque Movement.
A visit to Italy in 1821 reactivated Beaumont’s purchasing instincts and he bought Michelangelo’s 'Taddei Tondo', which he later gave to the Royal Academy. To accommodate his growing picture collection, Beaumont had a picture gallery added to his house in 1792.
The Beaumont Gift
It was his visit to Italy in 1821 which convinced Beaumont of the need to educate public taste. He began to campaign vigorously for the creation of a national gallery. He offered 16 of his paintings to the nation on the condition that the British Government would buy the collection of John Julius Angerstein and that a suitable building be found to display the pictures.
When Angerstein’s collection came up for sale in 1824, Parliament responded to Beaumont’s offer and bought 38 of the Angerstein pictures. The National Gallery opened in 1824 (in Angerstein’s town house). Beaumont’s paintings entered the collection two years later.
Paintings from the Beaumont Gift
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/history/collectors-and-benefactors/george-beaumont/
[感想] 因为自己去National Gallery 常听到Sir George Beaumont的名字，听了有关他不少有趣的故事，不由得想知道他更多。 他把自己的心爱珍藏全献给国家， 并促成英国政府建立了为公众免费服务的National Gallery ，更有意思的是他捐的画中其中一幅是他每晚睡前必看的， 可一捐出后从此顽固失眠， 然后有不得不从画廊再借回来治失眠。 他对艺术的痴迷和公众艺术的教育奉献在英国史上功不可没。
贵族不仅仅是金钱物质财富， 更应该是心-智，英-勇，慈-善的高贵 身先士卒， 不仅只在战场，Sir George Beaumont以他对艺术的爱好嗅觉及高贵的公心， 造福后人，让后人乘凉，
一个国家民族不仅要有天才， 艺术天才，还要有有公心的欣赏者， 支持者， 这个民族才能保持旺盛的创造力和想像力 这里会源源不断出优秀的艺术家和设计师，也就不奇怪了。
人的生存是需要丰富的想像力， 动物不都是也有特别的感觉嗅觉和判断吗
