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Mike Pitts writes: I really want you to see these paintings. Made around 1870, they’ve never been hung in public before. They are a wonderful early experiment in archaeological reconstruction illustration, are little known, and need researching – along with their creator. This is going to be a long blog, but the subject deserves it.
There are 14 of the paintings in the Quadriga Gallery in the Wellington Arch, in the exhibition The Birth of Archaeology & the Battle for the Past (running until April 21st). The show is about Charles Darwin, Sir John Lubbock and General Pitt-Rivers, and the 1882 Ancient Monuments Act. There are some wonderful things, including a slice of Silbury Hill from inside the 1849 tunnel (I like to think it was originally wrapped like a piece of wedding cake), and one of William Stukeley’s commonplace books (both loaned by Wiltshire Museum in Devizes).
But I want to write about the paintings. There are 20 in the full set, 19 scenes of prehistoric life, and a view of a tropical island. They were apparently commissioned by John Lubbock around 1870 (only two are dated), and used to hang in his home-cum-museum at High Elms in Downe, Kent. They were never published.
More from Mike Pitts' blog, with lots of illustrations of the pictures. See the top of this page for the one which appears to be the interior of West Kennet Long Barrow.
http://mikepitts.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/ernest-griset-in-london/
The exhibition The Birth of Archaeology & the Battle for the Past curated by Mike is at Quadriga Gallery in the Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner, London, running until April 21st 2013.
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/wellington-arch/exhibitions-at-the-
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