| dc.description.abstract | Studies and publications about the National Gallery, London before the end of the twentieth century tend to focus on the collection’s history, artists and subjects of paintings, whereas the Gallery’s constitution and development in the contexts of art, society and institutional history are often neglected. Not until the end of the twentieth century did the issues of public practices of the National Gallery begin to draw attention in art-historical studies. Even so, ideas of public display and the institutional development of the National Gallery still need clarification and further discussion due to the particularities of the Gallery: compared with continental public galleries in the nineteenth century, the establishment of the National Gallery lacks certain important historical conditions, such as the patronage from the Royal family and thus the potential impetus of turning Royal collections into public or national properties. Under these circumstances, the reasons why Britain still insisted to establish a national gallery require explanation. Moreover, it is also worth considering the ways in which Britain not only overcame the above-mentioned restrictions to establish a “national gallery” but also reformed its constitution so as to answer the increasing demand for its public duty.
This thesis on the National Gallery tries to reconstruct its foundation, its early collecting and display practices, and to examine debates relating to the Gallery’s public role and collecting and display issues. It consists of three chapters: the first chapter, “from private collection to public display,” traces England’s collecting and display conditions prior to the National Gallery and the growing public demands for establishing a national gallery. The second chapter, “defining the public character of the National Gallery and its public,” reconstructs the Gallery’s display condition in its early phases, and discusses the debates on its typology of collection, its public and public roles. The third chapter, “reforming the system of public collection and display,” examines how the Gallery’s administration, collecting and display system were gradually modernized in the 1850s. As the title indicates, this thesis aims to show that the National Gallery’s public vision and developing processes in its early stages can provide significant references for thinking about the raison d’être of a national gallery. It also suggests that the notion of public would be a basic but vital issue for all national galleries to face repeatedly. | en_US |