The ''Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660–1851'' is a
biographical dictionary
A biographical dictionary is a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country (with limitations, such as living persons only, in ''Who's Who'', or deceased people onl ...
of sculptors active in Britain in the period between the
Restoration of
Charles II and the
Great Exhibition of 1851. It has appeared in three editions, published in 1953, 1968, and 2009 respectively: the 2009 edition adopts the amended title ''A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660–1851''. The first two editions were researched and written by
Rupert Forbes Gunnis, and were often known simply as Gunnis. The third edition was edited by
Ingrid Roscoe. The book is a major scholarly work, which rapidly established itself as a standard authority on British sculptors and sculpture.
First edition
The ''Dictionary'' was conceived and written by
Rupert Forbes Gunnis (1899–1965), a civil servant in the British colonial Government of
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
, and later curator of
Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in Kent, England, southeast of central London. It lies close to the border with East Sussex on the northern edge of the High Weald, whose sandstone geology is exemplified by the rock formation High Rocks. T ...
Museum. He originally hoped to write "a complete dictionary of British sculpture from the earliest times until the close of the last
he 19thcentury", but realised that he needed to confine himself to a more manageable period.
[Gunnis 1968, pp. 5–6.] The finished volume nonetheless contained over 1,700 biographies, with lists of the artists' works. In addition to a considerable amount of
archival research, Gunnis personally visited over 6,000 churches in Britain (and others in Ireland), and saw the great majority of the works mentioned in the book.
The volume was completed in 1951 (the date of the preface), and published by
Odhams Press
Odhams Press was a British publishing company, operating from 1920 to 1968. Originally a magazine publisher, Odhams later expanded into book publishing and then children's comics. The company was acquired by Fleetway Publications in 1961 and the ...
in 1953.
Second edition
Gunnis also edited the revised second edition, published by the Abbey Library in 1968. Revisions included the correction of errors, and the addition of some new material. Gunnis admitted, however, that he had been unable to add all the new information that he had accumulated in an additional thirteen years of research, "for had I done so the book would have been more than twice its original size".
Third edition
Under the auspices of the
Henry Moore Institute
Henry may refer to:
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and the
University of Leeds
, mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased
, established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds
, ...
, work began in 2000 on revising the dictionary for a new edition, overseen by
Ingrid Roscoe, with the assistance of co-editors Emma Hardy, a curator at the
Geffrye Museum, and Greg Sullivan, curator of British Art 1750–1830 at
Tate Britain
Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
. The Dictionary was published by
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous.
, Yale Universi ...
in 2009 under the slightly amended title ''A Biographical Dictionary of Sculptors in Britain 1660–1851''.
The third edition is considerably enlarged: it contains 3,125 entries and runs to 1,620 pages (as compared to 514 pages for the second edition). It covers sculptors who were active in Britain at any time between 1660 and 1851, irrespective of their country of origin and even if they also worked outside these dates. All the artists listed in the Gunnis ''Dictionary'' remain, but new ones have been added, reflecting later research on the subject. The book's format is closely based on the original, each entry consisting of a biographical text followed by a list of works. There is also a comprehensive general bibliography. Unlike Gunnis's editions, which included up to thirty illustrations, the new edition is unillustrated.
Reception
The third edition was widely welcomed and recommended as a key starting point for research into this area of art. The view of the professional body for art historians in Britain, the
Association of Art Historians, was expressed by Rosa Somerville writing in the Association's journal, ''The Art Book'', in 2010 where she stated that the new dictionary "is a great advance on the work ... that was begun so enthusiastically and extensively by Rupert Gunnis". Somerville added that the new dictionary is "a handsome and scholarly reference book detailing British sculptors between the Restoration and the Great Exhibition". John Kenworthy-Browne, writing in ''
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
'' magazine, said: "This magnificent dictionary of British sculptors supersedes Rupert Gunnis's standard work simply by the sheer volume of information that it presents." Similarly in ''
The Art Newspaper
''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments ...
'', Oliver Garnett of the
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
wrote: "The result is breathtaking: 1,000 additional biographies, followed by work lists covering 35,000 individual pieces, tied to a bibliography of 3,000 items which will be immensely useful in its own right." Similar praise came from
Simon Watney
Simon Watney is a British writer, art historian, and AIDS activist. His 1987 article, "The Spectacle of AIDS", was included in ''The Gay and Lesbian Studies Reader''. He also published ''Policing Desire: Pornography, AIDS and the Media'' in 1987. ...
, writing in ''
The Burlington Magazine
''The Burlington Magazine'' is a monthly publication that covers the fine and decorative arts of all periods. Established in 1903, it is the longest running art journal in the English language. It has been published by a charitable organisation s ...
'', who said of the work that went into the new dictionary: "The result is a book of unrivalled authority, which employs a pleasurably straightforward format of biographies followed in each case by chronological sequences of religious and then secular works." A more qualified review came from Jean Wilson of the Church Monuments Society who, while allowing that the book "improves tremendously on its predecessor, that its coverage is enormously increased, and that it is enlightening", uncovered a number of "exasperating problems" of error and inconsistency in the book's indexes, and suggested that these do not reach the "high standards set by the editors" elsewhere in the volume.
Online edition
The contents of the third edition were published online as a fully searchable database in 2012, hosted by the
Henry Moore Foundation
The Henry Moore Foundation is a registered charity in England, established for education and promotion of the fine arts — in particular, to advance understanding of the works of Henry Moore. The charity was set up with a gift from the arti ...
. The contents are regularly updated with the benefits of new research, including new biographical entries, new biographical details and attributed works within existing entries, and an expanded bibliography.
Complementary dictionaries
The ''Dictionary'' is complemented for the preceding century by the "Biographical Dictionary of London Tomb Sculptors, c.1560–c.1660" by Adam White, published by the
Walpole Society in 1999 (and supplemented by a list of corrigenda and addenda published in 2009). Although White's Dictionary may appear from its title to be narrower in scope than Gunnis's, in practice, given that most active sculptors in this period included
tomb monuments among their work, and that London overwhelmingly dominated the trade, the two dictionaries in fact cover very similar ground.
For Ireland, the ''Dictionary'' is complemented by the biographical entries for sculptors active from 1600 to modern times which occupy the greater part of ''Sculpture, 1600–2000'', volume 3 of the five-volume ''Art and Architecture of Ireland'', published by the
Royal Irish Academy in 2014.
References
Bibliography
Editions
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Secondary works
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External links
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Rupert Gunnis at the dictionary of art historians.orgPage at the Henry Moore Institute: Research papers for Rupert Gunnis's ''Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851''Page at the Henry Moore Institute: Research notes and admin papers of the Rupert Gunnis dictionary revision project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851
1953 non-fiction books
Art and architecture dictionaries
Biographical dictionaries by topic
British biographical dictionaries
British sculpture
Monumental masons
Odhams Press books