Read Magpies, Squirrels and Thieves for Free Online

contrast, was in its infancy. It did not move into its permanent building until the late 1830s and even then, as we have seen, its development was unsteady; its slowly expanding collections remained a matter of debate and disagreement. In addition, the French Revolution, the turbulence of the Napoleonic Wars and the violence and revolt across Europe in 1848 were fresh in the Victorian imagination. The tendency to public access and universality that was evident in France was in stark contrast to something of a backlash among the English establishment. Haunted by the prospect of unrest and revolution spreading to Britain from the Continent – and further stoked by the progress of the working-class Chartist movement during the mid-century – the British ruling classes tended to tighten their grip on power. This showed itself in a variety of ways, from increasing restrictions on women to a greater emphasis on the doctrines of the established Church. It also meant that, while government select committees and initiatives like the Schools of Design voiced the ideals of greater public access to art, in reality those who owned or controlled most of the works were more interested in closing ranks against the perceived threat of the masses. The Frenchmodel of universal access, born out of the principles of the First Republic, was still some way off across the Channel.
    The only real British alternative lay with a number of exhibition societies that flourished in the second half of the century. While these did not show historic masterpieces, they did offer support to many artists considered too progressive to please the conservative members of the Royal Academy, and they welcomed visitors who wanted to view new work in a sympathetic environment. Many of these societies had open membership and modest subscription rates: the Society for the Encouragement of the Fine Arts founded in 1858 held lectures and debates and organized visits to private galleries for an annual subscription of £1.1s. Several specialized in encouraging artists who worked outside the oil painting tradition favoured by the Royal Academy – these included the Photographic Salon which met at the Dudley Gallery Art Society in Piccadilly and the Bookplate Society based at the nearby John Baillie’s Gallery – while others provided studios, study rooms and drawing classes, or even allocated grants to young artists. But such opportunities were limited. The exhibition societies were largely confined to the capital and were without real influence or prestige. Perhaps more significantly, their open membership policy and resistance to selection meant that the quality of exhibits could be poor. Displays frequently failed to inspire the serious student, and Robinson would have stood little chance of seeing many significant works of art at first hand.
    In France, it was the Louvre’s Italian Renaissance masterpieces that most captivated Robinson’s interest. He learned quickly and before long he was an expert. Eventually, he studied other periods and schools of art – he particularly came to value the workmanship of the medieval craftsman and to admire the detail of eighteenth-century composition – but his first love was for the extravagance of the Renaissance. It was never to leavehim. Inevitably, when his years at the Paris ateliers were over, he brought it with him back to England. In time, this enthusiasm would influence his work at the South Kensington Museum, and have an impact on the type of collections he developed there. But there was more to Paris than the Louvre, and alongside Robinson’s education in the public galleries he threw himself into the more informal training of the private collector. The lure of the hidden and the mysterious took him deep into the network of backstreets as well as into the smarter districts of the 7th
arondissement
where the curiosity shops were clustered. He became known to a number of successful and