A – Z OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
V
is for Victoria and Albert Museum
London
Today we travel to London
To
The Victoria and Albert Museum
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Entrance to the Victoria and Albert Museum
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The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated to the
V&A) is the world’s largest museum of decorative arts and design. It houses a permanent collection of over 4.5
million objects.
The museum was founded in 1852 and named after
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. It is
located in the Brompton district of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
which is an area that is associated especially with Prince Albert because of
the many major cultural institutions he was associated with.
Entrance to the museum, like other national British
museums, has been free since 2001.
The V&A extends over 12.5 acres (51,000m2)
and has 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient
time to the present day. The museum owns
the world’s largest collection of post-classical sculpture with the holdings of
Italian Renaissance items being the largest outside Italy.
Since 2001, the museum has embarked on a major
£150m renovation programme, which has seen a major overhaul of the departments,
including the introduction of newer galleries, gardens, shops and visitor
facilities.
Henry Cole was the museum’s first director who had
been involved in the planning of the Great Exhibition in 1851. Several of the exhibits from the Exhibition were
purchased to form the nucleus of the museum.
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Henry Cole,
the museum's first director
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It was first known as the Museum of Manufactures
opening in May 1852 at Marlborough House but by September had been transferred
to Somerset House, the collections covered by applied art and science. In February 1854 discussions were underway to
transfer the museum to the current site and it was renamed as the South Kensington
Museum. In 1855 the German architect
Gottfried Semper produced a design for the museum which was rejected as being
too expensive.
The site was occupied by Brompton Park House which
was extended to include the first refreshment rooms in 1857, the museum being
the first in the world to provide such a facility.
Queen Victoria officially opened the building on
22 June 1857 and the following year late night openings were introduced made
possible by the introduction of gas lighting to enable, in the words of Cole,
hours that were convenient to the working class which was linked to use the
collections of both applied art and science as educational resources to help
boost productive industry.
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Frieze detail from
internal courtyard showing Queen Victoria in front of the 1851 Great
Exhibition.
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The laying of the foundation stone of the Aston
Webb building (to the left of the main entrance) on 17 May 1899was the last
official public appearance by Queen Victoria. It was during this ceremony that
the change of name from the South Kensington Museum to the Victoria and
Albert Museum was made public.
The
opening ceremony for the Aston Webb building by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra took place on 26 June
1909. In 1914 the construction commenced of the Science Museum signalling the final split
of the science and art collections. Since then the museum has maintained its
role of one of the world's greatest decorative arts collections.
In 1939
on the outbreak of World War II, most of the collection was sent to a quarry in Wiltshire,
to Montacute House in Somerset,
or to a tunnel near Aldwych tube station with larger items remaining
in situ, sand-bagged and bricked in.
Between 1941 and 1944 some galleries were used
as a school for children evacuated from Gibraltar.
The South Court became a canteen, first
for the Royal Air Force and later for Bomb Damage Repair Squads.
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Bomb damage on the
exhibition road facade
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Since 2001, the museum has embarked on a major
£150m renovation programme, which has seen a major overhaul of the departments,
including the introduction of newer galleries, gardens, shops and visitor
facilities.
My
child sits quietly in my lap
Pointing
to the gingersnap
A
treat at the end of the pose
Dressed
in our best clothes
We
have an apple to hold
On
show for strangers to behold
Unknown
in the channels of history
No
name, no address, we are a mystery
They
suspect who painted us
So
we remain ageless
An
artist called Andrea Soldi
Was
commissioned possibly
We
did our best to sit tranquil
In
perpetuity we are still
This
moment in time forevermore
Captured
for strangers to explore
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Portrait of an
Unknown Woman and child by Andrea Soldi (possibly)
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N.B.
The portrait shows an unknown woman and
child, seated on a settee. The woman is holding an apple, which the child
touches with its right hand while appearing to point at something beyond the
frame with its left. The child’s dress and the pink ribbon on its cap do not
necessarily indicate a girl. Until the 1920s, it was the custom for boys to
wear dresses until they were ‘breeched’ (given their first pair of trousers),
sometimes as late as eight or nine years old. The identification of pink with
girls and blue with boys, mainly in Europe and the United States, did not take
hold until the early 20th century and is of uncertain origin.
Protecting such treasures in wartime must have been a daunting task. You would think more personal and practical matters of government would take precedence. But without art, we have no soul.
ReplyDeleteYour explanation of the child's dress is quite interesting. I was studying an old photo and there was a child in a plaid dress -- it took me awhile to realize it was a boy.