''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the

fine Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...

and

decorative arts ] The decorative arts are arts or crafts whose object is the design and manufacture of objects that are both beautiful and functional. It includes most of the arts making objects for the interiors of buildings, and interior design, but not usual ...

of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a

charitable organisation A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definition of a ch ...

since 1986.

History

The magazine was established in 1903 by a group of art historians and connoisseurs which included

Roger Fry Roger Eliot Fry (14 December 1866 – 9 September 1934) was an English painter and critic, and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Establishing his reputation as a scholar of the Old Masters, he became an advocate of more recent developme ...

Herbert Horne Herbert Percy Horne (1864 in London – 1916 in Florence, Italy) was an English poet, architect, typographer and designer, art historian and antiquarian. He was an associate of the Rhymers' Club in London. He edited the magazines ''The Centur ...

Bernard Berenson Bernard Berenson (June 26, 1865 – October 6, 1959) was an American art historian specializing in the Renaissance. His book ''The Drawings of the Florentine Painters'' was an international success. His wife Mary is thought to have had a large ...

, and Charles Holmes. Its most esteemed editors have been Roger Fry (1909–1919),

Herbert Read Sir Herbert Edward Read, (; 4 December 1893 – 12 June 1968) was an English art historian, poet, literary critic and philosopher, best known for numerous books on art, which included influential volumes on the role of art in education. Read ...

(1933–1939), and

Benedict Nicolson Lionel Benedict Nicolson (6 August 1914 – 22 May 1978) was a British art historian and author. Nicolson was the elder son of authors Harold Nicolson and Vita Sackville-West and the brother of writer and politician Nigel Nicolson, Nigel. ...

(1948–1978). The journal's structure was loosely based on its contemporary British publication '' The Connoisseur'', which was mainly aimed at collectors and had firm connections with the art trade. ''The Burlington Magazine'', however, added to this late Victorian tradition of market-based criticism new elements of historical research inspired by the leading academic German periodicals and thus created a formula that has remained almost intact to date: a combination of archival and formalist object-based art historical research juxtaposed to articles on collectors’ items and private collections, enlivened with notes on current art news, exhibitions and sales. The lavishness of this publication almost immediately created financial troubles and in January 1905 Fry embarked on an American tour to find sponsorship to assure the survival of the journal, which he had quickly recognized as a magazine for the developing study of art history.

Content

From its first editorial, ''The Burlington Magazine'' presented itself as synthesising opposing traditions – historicist versus aestheticism and academic versus commercial – by defining itself an exponent of "Austere Epicureanism". Against the perceived "sameness" of the contemporary art panorama, ''The Burlington Magazine'' was to act as a disinterested guide, directing the public's attention to high-quality art on offer both on the market and on institutional settings and educating its readers on the elevating qualities of ancient art. ''The Burlington Magazine'' editors and contributors were part of the institutional sphere of museums and academia and yet, unlike their German counterparts, they participated in the emerging world of the commercial galleries. The magazine remained independent from any institution and yet it was instrumental in the establishment of academic art history in Britain: its

dialectical Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing ...

dynamic between market and institution contributed to the creation of an original and multifaceted publication. ''The Burlington Magazine'' was founded as a journal of ancient art but already in its first decade, especially under the editorship of Fry articles on modern art became prominent. Topics covered in detail were:

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

and

Post-Impressionism Post-Impressionism (also spelled Postimpressionism) was a predominantly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the last Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. Post-Impressionism emerged as a reaction ag ...

in a debate between Fry and

D. S. MacColl Dugald Sutherland MacColl (10 March 1859 – 21 December 1948) was a Scottish watercolour painter, art critic, lecturer and writer. He was keeper of the Tate Gallery for five years. Life MacColl was born in Glasgow and educated at the Univ ...

, a debate on a bust of Flora ascribed to

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

and later discovered to be a forgery, and the role of archival research in the art historical reconstruction, with contributions by

and

Constance Jocelyn Ffoulkes Constance Jocelyn Ffoulkes (1858–1950) was a British art historian, translator, and scholar of Italian Renaissance art. She participated in the adoption of the 'historical standpoint' method of research, a shift in art criticism that emerged in ...

. ''The Burlington Magazine'', especially in its first decades, was also preoccupied with the definition and development of

formal analysis In art history, formalism is the study of art by analyzing and comparing form and style. Its discussion also includes the way objects are made and their purely visual or material aspects. In painting, formalism emphasizes compositional elements ...

and

connoisseurship A connoisseur (French traditional, pre-1835, spelling of , from Middle-French , then meaning 'to be acquainted with' or 'to know somebody/something') is a person who has a great deal of knowledge about the fine arts; who is a keen appreciator o ...

in the visual arts and consistently observed, reviewed and contributed to the body of attributions to various artists, notably

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythological subjects painted for ...

, and

Caravaggio Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...

. The journal had also many notable contributions by visual artists on other artists, notably

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

Edgar Degas Edgar Degas (, ; born Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, ; 19 July 183427 September 1917) was a French Impressionist artist famous for his pastel drawings and oil paintings. Degas also produced bronze sculptures, prints and drawings. Degas is es ...

Production

The journal is published monthly, and features a cross-section of writers. The first issues of ''The Burlington Magazine'' were printed on high-quality paper, had a typeface designed by Herbert Horne and were richly illustrated with black and white photographs, many by the arts and crafts photographer

Emery Walker Sir Emery Walker FSA (2 April 1851 – 22 July 1933) was an English engraver, photographer and printer. Walker took an active role in many organisations that were at the heart of the Arts and Crafts movement, including the Art Workers G ...

Editors

Robert Dell The Ven. Robert Sydney Dell, MA (20 May 1922 – 19 January 2008) was Archdeacon of Derby from 1973 to 1992. He was educated at Harrow County School for Boys, Emmanuel College, Cambridge and Ridley Hall, Cambridge. He was ordained in 1948.' ...

: March–December 1903 * Charles Holmes and

: January 1904–October 1906 * Charles Holmes: October 1906– September 1909 * Harold Child Assistant Editor with the advice of a Consultative Committee: October and November 1909 *

and

Lionel Cust Sir Lionel Henry Cust (25 January 1859 – 12 October 1929) was a British art historian, courtier and museum director. He was director of the National Portrait Gallery from 1895 to 1909 and co-edited ''The Burlington Magazine'' from 1909 to 191 ...

: December 1909–December 1913 *

, and

More Adey William More Adey, known universally as More Adey (1858 – 29 January 1942), was an English art critic, editor and aesthete. He was a co-editor of ''The Burlington Magazine'', but is perhaps best known for having been a friend and member of ...

: January 1914–May 1919 * John Hope-Johnstone: July 1919–December 1920 * Robert R. Tatlock: Early 1921–1933 *

: 1933–1939 * Albert C. Sewter: 1939–40 *

Tancred Borenius Carl Tancred Borenius (14 July 1885, Vyborg – 2 September 1948, Coombe Bisset) was a Finnish art historian working in England, who became the first professor of the history of art at University College London. He was a prolific author, and recog ...

: 1940–1944 * Edith Hoffmann (Assistant Editor who ran the Magazine with advice from Read): 1944–45 *

Ellis Waterhouse Sir Ellis Kirkham Waterhouse (16 February 1905 – 7 September 1985) was an English art historian and museum director who specialised in Roman baroque and English painting. He was Director of the National Galleries of Scotland (1949–52) ...

acting editor (the magazine was officially without an editor): 1945–1947 *

: 1947–July 1978 * Editorial Board of Directors: August–October 1978 * Terence Hodgkinson: November 1978–August 1981 *

Neil MacGregor Robert Neil MacGregor (born 16 June 1946) is a British art historian and former museum director. He was editor of the ''The Burlington Magazine, Burlington Magazine'' from 1981 to 1987, then Director of the National Gallery, London, from 1987 ...

: September 1981–February 1987 * Caroline Elam: March 1987–July 2002 * Andrew Hopkins: August 2002–December 2002 * Richard Shone and Bart Cornelis (joint editors): January 2003–March 2003 * Richard Shone: March 2003–September 2015 *

Frances Spalding Frances Spalding (née Crabtree, born 16 July 1950) is a British art historian, writer and a former editor of ''The Burlington Magazine''. Life Frances Crabtree studied at the University of Nottingham and gained her PhD for a study of Roger Fr ...

: September 2015–August 2016 * Jane Martineau: acting editor August 2016 to May 2017 * Michael Hall: May 2017 to present

References

External links

*
Examples of articlesOnline books page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burlington Magazine, The History magazines published in the United Kingdom Monthly magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1903 Magazines published in London Visual arts magazines published in the United Kingdom Art history journals