LOCATION: Union Club, 101 East 69th Street
(northeast corner at Park)
New York City
TICKETS: Advance Reservations Required -
Lecture Patrons $100, Members $35,
Non-Members $45; Students $10
Click to go to our web site for PDF form or online tickets
ATTIRE: Business - jacket and tie for men
This program is presented in cooperation with
CAMBRIDGE IN AMERICA
.
This lecture will look at two very different collectors, Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam and Sir John Soane. Both were contemporaries, and both founded museums that bear their name. It is an unequal comparison, Lord Fitzwilliam, despite his high rank and great wealth, is a shadowy figure who it seems deliberately left little trace, while Soane, a self-made man from humble origins, carefully orchestrated a comprehensive memorial in the form of his autobiographical house-museum, his collections and publications. Moreover, the museums that commemorate them have evolved into very different institutions. However, it is surprising how many resonances there are between the two men - who probably never met - and their collections. This lecture examines their lives and legacies.
TIM KNOX is the Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum. Brought up in Nigeria and Fiji, he studied History of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He was Assistant Curator at the RIBA Drawings Collection 1989-95, and moved to the National Trust, first as its Architectural Historian, becoming its Head Curator in 2002. Between 2005 and 2013, he was Director of Sir John Soane's Museum in London.
