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Description: | Viscount Lee of Fareham (1868-1947) started assembling his collection, which is made up of European paintings 1340-1800, soon after he retired from a successful political career in 1922. An adventurous, independent-minded collector, he cared little for expert advisors, measuring his success largely in terms of discoveries and reattributions. Although sometimes opportunistic and often speculative, this approach resulted in some outstanding acquisitions, particularly of Italian Renaissance and 18th-century British paintings. Among the masterpieces in the collection are Adam and Eve by Lucas Cranach the Elder, BotticelliÃ's Holy Trinity, and the important Morelli-Nerli marriage chests or cassoni of 1472.
A soldier, diplomat and politician of distinction, LeeÃ's first great benefaction was the gift of his house, Chequers, to the nation as an official country residence for successive Prime Ministers. The founding of the Courtauld Institute of Art was also largely due to Lee, who formed the idea that Britain should have a specialist institution for the teaching of art history and bequeathed it his collection in support of this goal. | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | Address: | Somerset House
Strand
London Great Britain (UK),
WC2R 0RN | FAX: | 020 7848 2589 | Telephone: | 020 7848 2526 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:5353 | Go to resource |
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