Staging grounds: Loutherbourg and Warley

Bonehill, J. (2023) Staging grounds: Loutherbourg and Warley. Art History, 46(4), pp. 778-810. (doi: 10.1111/1467-8365.12743)

Abstract

In 1778, Philippe-Jacques de Loutherbourg began work on a pair of companion pictures marking George III's attendance at a spectacular military review on the broad expanse of Essex wasteland that was Warley Common. Scholars of the painter's art have largely overlooked these ambitious, large-scale landscapes, but their commission and subsequent display at the Royal Academy played a key role in advancing Loutherbourg's career. Strikingly novel, the paintings attracted a good deal of critical attention for their curious mix of the patriotic and the satirical, the topographic and the scenographic. Taking its cue from this latter stage set-like quality, this essay situates Loutherbourg’s Warley scenes in relation to a series of dramatic spaces, moving from the ‘battlefield’ depicted to the London stage to the Academy exhibition room, highlighting a series of connections and interactions that shed new light on the performativity of Georgian art, culture and spaces of display.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Bonehill, Dr John
• Authors: Bonehill, J.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > History of Art
• Journal Name: Art History
• Publisher: Wiley
• ISSN: 0141-6790
• ISSN (Online): 1467-8365
• Published Online: 05 October 2023
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Author
• First Published: First published in Art History 46(4):778-810
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License