G. C. Williamson

George Charles Williamson (1858-1942)[1] was an art historian, antiquarian, and author of numerous books on European art and artists. He sometimes wrote under the pen name Rowley Cleeve.[2]

Biography

G.C. Williamson wrote many books on European art and artists, focusing on the period from the Renaissance to the late 19th century. A number of these were issued as volumes in the publisher George Bell & Sons' "Miniature Series of Painters," of which he was also the series editor.[3] He wrote some of these under his real name and some under his 'Rowley Cleeve' pseudonym.[2][3]

He also wrote guides for art collectors on various topics—including several on portrait miniatures—and he assembled catalogues for collectors of art and antiques. For the American banker J. Pierpont Morgan, he put together a 4-volume catalogue of Morgan's collection of miniatures; a fifth volume was never completed due to Morgan's death.[4] Williamson also served as an adviser to Morgan on some purchases for his collection.[1]

Williamson occasionally wrote on literary, historical, and cultural topics outside the field of art. Among these are Curious Survivals, a book on English customs, and a book on the voyages of the Elizabethan naval commander George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland.

Among Williamson' coauthored books is a study of the painter Angelica Kauffmann, one of the founding members of the Royal Academy of Arts (RA). Angelica Kauffmann, R.A.: Her Life and Her Works, written with Lady Victoria Manners, was prompted by the discovery in the RA archives of a manuscript in Kauffmann's handwriting, written in Italian and previously untranslated, which gives an account of Kauffmann's paintings post-1781.[5][6] Manners and Williamson wrote that this enabled them to "come to certain definite conclusions regarding many pictures hitherto ascribed to other artists."[6] They included numerous reproductions in both color and black-and-white on the grounds that prior books on Kauffman had presented inadequate reproductions of her paintings.[6]

A few of Williamson's papers from the period 1921–1937 are held by Boston College.[7]

Publications

Solo authored
Coauthored
As Rowley Cleeve

References

  1. 1 2 "Catalogue of the Collection of Jewels and Precious Works of Art, the Property of J. Pierpont Morgan". The Met website.
  2. 1 2 Carty, T.J. A Dictionary of Literary Pseudonyms in the English Language. Routledge, 2015, p. 826.
  3. 1 2 Baldry, Alfred Lys. Sir John Everett Millais. London: George Bell & Sons, 1902. (Advertisement in front matter).
  4. ↑ "Williamson, George Charles, 1858–1942". Social Networks and Archival Context website.
  5. ↑ Findlen, Paula, Wendy Wassyng Roworth, and Catherine M. Sama. Italy's Eighteenth Century: Gender and Culture in the Age of the Grand Tour. Stanford University Press, 2009, pp. 396–97.
  6. 1 2 3 Manners, Lady Victoria, and G.C. Williamson. Angelica Kauffmann, R.A.: Her Life and Her Works. London: John Lane the Bodley Head, 1924.
  7. ↑ "George Charles Williamson papers, 1921–1937". Archivegrid website.

External links

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