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Topic outline

 

mezzoblue / Dave Shea Flickr
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  • Time: 16 hours
    Level: Intermediate

 
 

Introduction

  • Introduction Resource
  • In this unit we examine the Royal Pavillion at Brighton, and its relationship to nineteenth century romanticism and exoticism. We begin with a biographical discussion of the Prince of Wales, afterwards...
 

1 The Royal Pavillion

  • 1 The Royal Pavillion Resource
  • In this unit we shall be studying a quintessentially Romantic piece of architecture, the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, designed and redesigned over the course of some 30 years to the specifications of the...
 

2 A prince at the seaside

 

3 From Enlightenment to Romantic?

  • 3 From Enlightenment to Romantic? Resource
  • In 1800, having divorced Mrs Fitzherbert and contracted a disastrous marriage with Princess Caroline of Brunswick, forced on him by the necessity of persuading the king to clear his vast debts, the Prince...
 

4 ‘Chinese’ on the inside

  • 4 ‘Chinese’ on the inside Resource
  • Our evidence for the evolution of the Pavilion's interiors is largely derived from Augustus Pugin's watercolours of the building's interiors and exteriors, executed for a picture-book commissioned around...
 

5 ‘Indian’ on the outside

  • 5 ‘Indian’ on the outside Resource
  • In 1801 and 1805, first Holland and then his assistant William Porden (1775–1822) had been commissioned to make sketches for altering the exterior to a Chinese style so as to match the extravagantly Chinese...
 

6 The Pavilion and the picturesque

  • 6 The Pavilion and the picturesque Resource
  • Nash's evocation of the picturesque as an aesthetic to describe the projected exterior for the Pavilion is striking. If neoclassical Palladian houses had stood four-square in the landscape, rising up out...
 

7 Experiencing the exotic

  • 7 Experiencing the exotic Resource
  • So far we have looked in some detail at the interiors of Nash's Pavilion, with the important exception of the Banqueting Room (decorated by Robert Jones) and the Music Room (decorated by Frederick Crace)....
 

8 How ‘Romantic’ is the Pavilion?

  • 8 How ‘Romantic’ is the Pavilion? Resource
  • At first glance the Pavilion's exoticism might seem to have a good deal to do with contemporary Romantic writers’ fascination with the Oriental and exotic. A widespread public interest in these modes put...
 

9 What the world said – or, the politics of the exotic

 

References and Acknowledgements

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