Viva Brighton Issue #50 April 2017

BITS AND BOBS
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The Bazaar, 1826, courtesy of Alexandra Loske
it is decidedly unrivalled, provincially, and may be
fairly classed with those of the first consequence
in London.’ The gallery looks impressive indeed:
fashionably dressed visitors can be seen flocking in,
and the paintings arranged in a style reminiscent
of the Royal Academy summer exhibitions - hung
closely and all the way to the top of each wall of
the top-lit, 95-foot-high room. Pictures on levels
above the coveted eye-line (referred to as ‘on the
line’) are slightly tilted, for better visibility. In the
early years after its opening, Brighton Museum
displayed paintings in the same way.
The list of artists shown at the Grand Parade
gallery was surprisingly international, comprising
Dutch, Flemish, Italian, German, Spanish
and French masters, among them Parmigiano,
Veronese, Caravaggio, Poussin, Ryusdael, Mengs,
Hogarth, Gainsborough and others, as well as
‘the finest collection of De Loutherbourg’s work
extant’. There are no records that confirm that
Constable visited the gallery, but it seems highly
unlikely that during his extended stays in Brighton
in the 1820s he would not have dropped in to see
the impressive display of high-quality art.
By 1826 the gallery had been turned into a ‘Bazaar’.
J Whittemore notes in one of his Brighton
guides that ‘although we lament the alterations it
has undergone, we are gratified to perceive that
in its present state, it affords an hour’s amusement
to the numerous fashionable visitors, who honour
it with their presence.’ The author also mentions
that some paintings by foreign artists are still displayed
in the building. A tiny engraving in Whittemore’s
books shows a building that appears to have
been refaced completely, with the additional wings
gone. Sadly, no trace of it remains today.
Alexandra Loske, Curator, Royal Pavilion Archives
Constable in Brighton is on at Brighton Museum
from the 8th and forms part of Royal Pavilion &
Museums’ Regency Summer season which will
include Jane Austen by the Sea at the Royal Pavilion
from the 17th June
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