Art for the Nation: Sir Charles Eastlake, National Gallery | reviews, news & interviews
Art for the Nation: Sir Charles Eastlake, National Gallery
Art for the Nation: Sir Charles Eastlake, National Gallery
An unsung hero of art history is commemorated
Thursday, 28 July 2011
Sir Charles Eastlake: painter, scholar, author, collector and translator, and the first director of the National GalleryAll images © National Gallery, London
We are still acknowledging our 21st-century debts to the energy, curiosity, determination and passion for discovery of a host of Victorian polymaths, and here is another. Sir Charles Eastlake (1793-1865) was a painter, scholar, author, collector and translator – fluent in German, French, Italian – and the first director of the National Gallery, rising above disputes with trustees and the government to set the scene for the role it plays today.
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