Guiding the Nation's Taste: Nineteenth-Century Periodicals and the Construction of the National Gallery in London, 1824–1842

Abstract

Scholars of nineteenth-century British literature have become increasingly interested in the period's visual culture and its impact on print culture. This, alongside scholarly works on the period's periodical press, has led to a more nuanced understanding of the intersections between visual and verbal print culture. However, few literary scholars have examined the ways in which contemporary periodicals reacted to the formation of the National Gallery. Partly this is due to the fact that, while the National Gallery was founded in 1824, it was not until 1831 that funds were secured to create an adequate space to house the collection, and it would take another seven years, more or less the entire reign of William IV, before the building in Trafalgar Square was opened to the public. This neglect reflects the tendency of scholars of both the Romantic and Victorian periods to gloss over the 1830s, something this essay seeks to redress. The gap between the founding of the National Gallery and the laying of the first foundation stone coincides with an important era of both art appreciation and the periodical press's influence on public taste and national identity. By examining the treatment of the National Gallery in a range of periodicals from the 1820s and 1830s, we can better understand the ways in which the National Gallery functioned in the public imagination and how periodicals helped readers claim ownership of artworks that had originated largely on foreign soil. As this essay demonstrates, the National Gallery as a conceptual space was created in and between the pages of the magazines before the physical building was constructed, and they continued to guide their reader-viewers long after the doors had finally opened.