Charles Locke Eastlake (11 March 1836 – 20 November 1906) was a British

architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...

and furniture designer. His uncle, Sir

Charles Lock Eastlake Sir Charles Lock Eastlake (17 November 1793 – 24 December 1865) was a British painter, gallery director, collector and writer of the 19th century. After a period as keeper, he was the first director of the National Gallery. Life Eastlak ...

PRA (born in 1793), was a Keeper of the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

, from 1843 to 1847, and from 1855 its first Director, which results in some confusion between the two men, whose names are distinguished only by the presence or absence of an "e" in their middle names. The style of furniture named after him, Eastlake style, flourished during the later half of the nineteenth century. The

Eastlake movement The Eastlake movement was a nineteenth-century architectural and household design reform movement started by British architect and writer Charles Eastlake (1836–1906). The movement is generally considered part of the late Victorian period in t ...

, a style of architecture, with old English and Gothic elements, is also named for him.

Life

Eastlake was born March 11, 1836 in Plymouth. His formal education included studies at the

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

and the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

where he discovered an interest in architecture, along with the talent for drawing and painting in watercolors. Eastlake furthered his education with three years of travel throughout France, Italy, and Germany, developing his love for medieval building and architecture. Trained by the architect

Philip Hardwick Philip Hardwick (15 June 1792 in London – 28 December 1870) was an English architect, particularly associated with railway stations and warehouses in London and elsewhere. Hardwick is probably best known for London's demolished Euston Arch ...

(1792–1870), he popularized

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He w ...

's notions of decorative arts in the Arts and Crafts style, becoming one of the principal exponents of the revived Early English or Modern Gothic style popular during the nineteenth century. His book, ''A History of the Gothic Revival,'' published in 1872, depicted buildings of

English Gothic English Gothic is an architectural style that flourished from the late 12th until the mid-17th century. The style was most prominently used in the construction of cathedrals and churches. Gothic architecture's defining features are pointed ar ...

architectural style and the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

built between 1820 and 1870. This was influential to revivalists interested in restoring the language of Gothic tradition in England. Although he had the qualifications of an architect, Eastlake did not practice as one. In the years 1855 and 1856 he put forward several architectural designs for a number of projects, including a design for the

Rugby Town Hall Rugby Town Hall is a municipal building on Evreux Way in the town centre of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. The building is the headquarters of Rugby Borough Council. History Two previous town halls existed on High Street: The first one was bui ...

, but all were rejected. In the years following, Eastlake instead focused on journalism, the occasional design of interior goods, and furniture design. He did not make any furniture; his designs were produced by professional cabinet makers. Drawing room sofa design by Charles L

In 1868 he published ''Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and other Details'', which was very influential in Britain, and later in the United States, where the book was published in 1872. From 1866 to 1877 he was secretary to the

Royal Institute of British Architects The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

, and from 1878 to 1898 he was Keeper of the

, London. He died, aged 70, at Leinster Square,

Bayswater Bayswater is an area within the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, an ...

, and was buried at

Kensal Green Kensal Green is an area in north-west London. It lies mainly in the London Borough of Brent, with a small part to the south within Kensington and Chelsea. Kensal Green is located on the Harrow Road, about miles from Charing Cross. To the w ...

Artistic Recognition

A bust of Eastlake by John Gibson is held in the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London housing a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. It was arguably the first national public gallery dedicated to portraits in the world when it ...

.Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851 by Rupert Gunnis p.173

Notes

References

Bibliography

''A History of the Gothic Revival: an Attempt to Show How the Taste for Mediæval Architecture, which Lingered in England during the Two Last Centuries Has since Been Encouraged and Developed''.
Publisher: Longmans, Green & Co., London 1872;
''Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery, and Other Details''.
Edited by Charles C. Perkins. Publisher: J. R. Osgood, Boston 1874
''Notes on the Principal Pictures in the Brera Gallery at Milan''
Publisher: Longmans and Co., London 1883; * ''Notes on the Principal Pictures in the Louvre''. Publisher: Longmans and Co., London 1883; 1883
''Notes on the Principal Pictures in the Old Pinakothek at Munich''
Publisher: Longmans & Co, London 1884; * ''Notes on the Principal Pictures in the Accademia in Venice'', 1888
Art for the Nation: Sir Charles Eastlake at the National Gallery.
Exhibition at the National Gallery 27 July – 30 October 2011 {{DEFAULTSORT:Eastlake, Charles 19th-century English architects British furniture designers People from Plymouth, Devon 1836 births 1906 deaths Architects from Devon

Life

Artistic Recognition

See also

Notes

References

Bibliography