Peeps, shows and chats: the promotion of artists in Late-Victorian London and The Artist as Celebrity in Victorian London

‘Peeps, shows and chats’ examines merchandising and consumption, the relationship between advertising, biography, photography and the commercial/ critical success of the artist.

My research is inter-disciplinary in approach, building on the cultural histories of Mark Girouard and Peter Mandler, the history of consumption (Styles, Brewer, Porter), and literary history (Henry James and Oscar Wilde depiction of artists) and the history of the press and advertising. Primary research makes use of unpublished letters, diaries and memoirs; business records; 19th century magazines and journals, related advertising material and fiction.

My new area of research, which includes profiling the late 19th century millionaire collector Alfred Morrison, is informed by this methodology: his character as an obsessive seeking acceptance by ‘high society’ can be traced through coverage in contemporary journals and his depiction in the fictions of Henry James.

Caroline Dakers

Research Interests

19th and early 20th century British cultural history, particularly art, architecture, design, literature and social history.

Current Research

The main focus of my research and publications continue to be in the area of British cultural history, particularly 19th and early 20th century. I am completing a book commissioned by Yale University Press, The Morrisons of Fore Street: making money in 19th century Britain. Through examining the rise of a family of millionaire merchants I explore patronage of the arts, taste, the textile trade, British investment in the USA, banking and land management.

I continue to publish material and give papers relating to this research, for example a paper on the early 19th century architect J.B.Papworth (Bloomsbury project, Wellcome Trust and University College London) to be published in 2010 on-line; a paper on the interiors of Basildon House and 57 Harley Street (National Trust), to be published in 2010 in ‘Furniture’. Some of my research has again been used by Christies for relevant catalogues.

I continue to research the relation between artists and their studios (including the architecture of art colleges), and am giving papers at Compton Verney and for the Attingham Trust as well as exploring the possibility of creating a database of surviving studios and art college buildings in London and beyond. I have also been exploring the history of London’s cultural quarters, within the context of Central Saint Martins move to a new/old building in Kings Cross.