Event Item: 00255

Art for the Nation: Sir Charles Eastlake at the National Gallery

Exhibition: 27th Jul 2011 to 30th Oct 2011

Source: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk

This exhibition illuminates the life and work of the Gallery's first director, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (1793-1865), a man described by one contemporary as 'the Alpha and Omega' of the Victorian art world.

He first made his mark as a painter of genre scenes, idealising portraits and religious subjects. He was elected President of the Royal Academy in 1850, and helped modernise the institution. Yet Eastlake's most important contributions came as a writer, translating and editing seminal art-historical texts, and as an arts administrator, in which capacity he rose to become Director of the National Gallery from 1855 to 1865.

For more information please see The National Gallery's listing here