HUGIJENOT ARTISTS DESIGNERS AND CRAYPSNEN IN GREAT ...

ABSTRACT OF THESIS
The names of over five hundred and seventy French artists
and craftsmen have been extracted from the records of the Huguenot
churches in Great Britain and Ireland, 1680-1760. This thesis
covers their contribution in the fields of metalwork, decorative
painting, the teaching of art, sculpture, architecture, engineering
woodwork and porcelain.
Of those whose origins are recorded, approximately one
sixth came from Paris; the remainder from the provinces. The
former had enjoyed royal patronage in the 'Galleries' of the
Louvre or the Gobelins; the latter belonged to Guilds. As the refugee
artists and craftsmen tended to live and work together, the refugee
communities provided the Parisians with a similar environment to
what they had known in Paris, and gave the provincial craftsmen
the opportunity to pursue crafts outside their own, which had not
been possible within the rigid French Guilds.
This thesis illustrates the relationship between these
different art forms, and emphasizes the importance of pattern
books of ornament. Some designers show an awareness of the latest
developments in French taste; whereas others tend to rely on time-
honoured patterns, and the same ornamental vocabulary appears on
some Huguenot artefacts of the 1680's and the 1750's.
During this period, French taste was paramount in Europe.
Refugee craftsmen enjoyed a more extensive patronage abroad, than
France, preoccupied with war, could provide. The records of the
royal family and country house archives reveal the nature of their
patronage in Britain.
As the French artists had acquired professional status over
a hundred years before the British, the high standard of the
Huguenot artistic contribution was influential, and raised the standard
of the British artistic achievement to the extent that by the 1750's
some artistic products were exported to France.