Giles Waterfield (24 July 1949 – 5 November 2016) was a British,
McKitterick Prize winning novelist, art historian and curator.
Personal life and education
Giles Waterfield spent his childhood in Paris and Geneva, and was educated at
Magdalen College
Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the st ...
, Oxford and the
Courtauld Institute of Art.
Career
In 1971 Giles Waterfield began his one-year work as an assistant teacher at the
Merz-Schule, Stuttgart. From 1976 until 1979 he worked as Education Services Officer at the
Royal Pavilion, Brighton. In 1979 he became the (first) Director of the
Dulwich Picture Gallery, where he remained until 1996. After that he was an independent curator, writer and university lecturer.
His consultancies included
Britten-Pears Foundation
Britten Pears Arts is a large music education organisation based in Suffolk, England. It aims to continue the legacy of composer Benjamin Britten and his partner, singer Peter Pears, and to promote the enjoyment and experience of music for all ...
,
South Bank Centre
Southbank Centre is a complex of artistic venues in London, England, on the South Bank of the River Thames (between Hungerford Bridge and Waterloo Bridge).
It comprises three main performance venues (the Royal Festival Hall including the Natio ...
,
Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purpo ...
,
Sotheby’s London,
Department for Culture, Media and Sport,
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
for England and Wales,
Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment,
Ince Blundell
Ince Blundell is a village and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in the ceremonial county of Merseyside and historic county of Lancashire, England. It is situated to the north of Liverpool on the A565 road and to the east of th ...
(for
English Heritage
English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses.
The charity states that i ...
). In 1996–2000 he was an expert adviser to Museums, Libraries and Archives Expert Panel of the
Heritage Lottery Fund where he assessed and monitored around 100 applications for capital projects. As a special adviser on arts and heritage to
Esmée Fairbairn Foundation (2002–2007) he initiated a
Regional Museums Initiative to fund exhibitions in regional museums. He was also a trustee of
National Heritage Memorial Fund/
Heritage Lottery Fund (2000–2006) and member of various committees: South East Regional Committee,
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
(1982–1988); National Heritage Executive Committee and Judge, Museum of the Year Awards (1998–2003); Executive Committee,
The London Library
The London Library is an independent lending library in London, established in 1841. It was founded on the initiative of Thomas Carlyle, who was dissatisfied with some of the policies at the British Museum Library. It is located at 14 St James's ...
(1998–2001); Vice-President,
National Association of Decorative and Fine Art Societies (1998–2006); trustee,
Holburne Museum
The Holburne Museum (formerly known as the Holburne of Menstrie Museum and the Holburne Museum of Art) is located in Sydney Pleasure Gardens, Bath, Somerset, England. The city's first public art gallery, the Grade I listed building, is home to ...
,
Bath
Bath may refer to:
* Bathing, immersion in a fluid
** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body
** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe
* Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities
Plac ...
(1999–2003); trustee,
Edward James Foundation,
West Dean, West Sussex (1999–2003); Advisory Committee,
Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art (2002–2007); Arts Panel,
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
for England and Wales (2004–2015); Expert Advisory Panel, National Heritage Memorial Fund (2006–2013); trustee 2005–2013,
Charleston Trust Chair (2007–2010). Since 1994 Giles Waterfield is deeply involved in the activity of the
Attingham Trust, first as a Joint Director of the
Attingham Summer School (until 2003) and since 1995 as Director of
Royal Collection Studies.
He was Chair,
Old Houses New Visions (2010– ); Trustee,
Garden Museum
The Garden Museum (formerly known as the Museum of Garden History) in London is Britain's only museum of the art, history and design of gardens. The museum re-opened in 2017 after an 18-month redevelopment project.
The building is largely the ...
, London (2010– ); Trustee,
Emery Walker Foundation (2013– ) and Member, Acceptance in Lieu Panel,
Arts Council of England.
He was Associate Scholar at The
Courtauld Institute of Art.
From 1994 Giles Waterfield was involved in the activity of the
Attingham Trust, as Joint Director of the Attingham Summer School (1994–2003) and since 1995 as Director of Royal Collection Studies. He was an Associate Lecturer at The
Courtauld Institute of Art and also taught at the
University of Notre Dame
The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin founded the school in 1842. The main campu ...
(London center) and
Arcadia University (in London).
Waterfield curated numerous exhibitions, notably ''Soane and After'' (
Dulwich Picture Gallery, 1987) ''Palaces of Art'' (
Dulwich Picture Gallery and
National Gallery of Scotland, 1991), ''Art Treasures of England''
Royal Academy of Art, London (1998), ''In Celebration: the Art of the Country House'' (
Tate Gallery
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, London, 1998-9), ''Below Stairs'' (
National Portrait Gallery, London
The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...
and
National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, 2003-4), ''The Artist’s Studio'' (Compton Verney and Sainsbury Centre, UEA, 2009–10).
Works
* ''The Long Afternoon'' (2000)
* ''The Hound In the Left Hand Corner'' (2002)
* ''Markham Thorpe'' (2006)
* ''The Iron Necklace'' (2015)
Art publications
* ''Soane and After: The Architecture of Dulwich Picture Gallery'' (1987)
* ''Rich Summer of Art: A Regency Collection seen through Victorian Eyes'' (1988)
* ''Palaces of Art: Art Galleries in Britain 1790–1990'' (1991)
* ''The Gallery Catalogue in Nineteenth Century Britain'' in ''New Research in Museum Studies'', 1994 volume (1994)
* ''Art for the People'', editor and contributor (1994)
* ''Art Treasures of England'', joint editor and contributor (1998)
* ''A Victorian Salon: Paintings from the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum'', contributor (1998)
* ''Below Stairs: The Servant’s Portrait'', joint editor and contributor (2004)
* ''Opening Doors: Learning and the Historic Environment, a report for the Attingham Trust'', editor and principal contributor (2004)
* ''Realms of Memory: changing perceptions of the country house'' in (ed.)
Michael Forsyth, ''Understanding historic building conservation'' (2007)
* ''The Artist’s Studio'' exhibition catalogue, editor (2009)
* ''The People's Galleries: Art Museums and Exhibitions in Victorian Britain'', to be published by Yale University Press (2015)
References
External links
*
*gileswaterfield.com
Giles Waterfield Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waterfield, Giles
1949 births
2016 deaths
21st-century British novelists
Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
British male novelists
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of the Courtauld Institute of Art
21st-century British male writers
Dulwich Picture Gallery