Left: William Beckford by George Romney, 1781-82; The National Trust, Upton House, Warwickshire.
William Beckford, subject of a fascinating show at Dulwich Picture Gallery until April 14, was one of the most intriguing figures of his time.
As heir to one of England's largest inheritances from his father's Jamaican sugar plantations, Beckford (1760-1844) quickly established himself as an eccentric aesthete, who combined a Romantic sensibility with aristocratic stature.
Right: the tower of Fonthill Abbey soared upwards for an incredible 300 feet - but not for long.
Beckford hired England's foremost architect, James Wyatt, to build a medieval abbey for him to live in. The tower of Fonthill Abbey soared upwards for an incredible 300 feet. It collapsed several times, the final time in 1825 due to fundamentally inadequate foundations.
Having built Fonthill Abbey, which he used to entertain the likes of Lord Nelson and Lady Hamilton, he filled it with a remarkable collection of art and antiques from classical Europe and Asia.
As Sir John Soane was an equally avid collector, and indeed was invited to work on a corridor at Fonthill, it seems apposite to have Beckford's work displayed in Soane's delightful Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The show eases one through Beckford's eclectic selection, beginning with a portrait of the young Beckford by his great friend Andrea Casali, who became his drawing master.
Benjamin West's portrait of William's mother, Maria Hamilton Beckford, has her reading an enormous book in front of the neo-Palladian grandeur of Fonthill Splendens.
Warwick Smith's watercolour of the estate is a commanding vista, which is the only known work to show the earlier house in relation to the Abbey, despite there being other efforts by Turner, Buckler and Frans de Cort. It soon becomes clear that Beckford's rich, high gothic imagination was fueled by his opulent, naturally lush surroundings.
Beckford's exotic imagination and taste were highly influenced by his travels. On returning from a lavish Grand Tour, he held a Christmas party at Fonthill in 1781. The next year he wrote 'Vathek' in 'three days and two nights of hard labour.'
The book is a magnificent piece of louche, hallucinatory, bonkers Orientalism, which seems to be based around the memories of events at the party (the interiors of Fonthill were notoriously expensive and vulgar, with a Turkish room and Egyptian Hall trasporting the residents to the fashionable east).
Left: commode, ca. 1815; ebony, gilt metal, pietre dure, and marble;The National Trust, Charlecote Park, Warwickshire
The exhibition at Dulwich reflects his Oriental inclinations, with delicate Chinese and Japanese ceramics next to Islamic-inspired ornaments. Beckford became fascinated by the fabled lands of Persia whilst in Lisbon, and collected Indo-Portuguese carved ebony furniture, whilst many of his pieces were inlaid with geometric, arabesque motifs inspired by Islam.
Chinese bronze and Japanese lacquer, also present, confirm his fascination with the east and the unconventional.
In 1783, Beckford suffered a Wildean fall from grace when his affair with 17 year old William "Kitty" Courtenay became public. The scandal seems to have enhanced his posthumous reputation as an eccentric and alluring dandy, who was equally enigmatic and reclusive.
Despite the individualism of his Romantic spirit, Beckford clearly needed to belong, as evinced by the heraldry found throughout the Abbey. Although his father was ostensibly nouveau riche, Beckford took pride in his mother's links with the royal houses of Scotland.
Right: Tazza, Paul Storr, 1824; silver-gilt, jasper, and hardstone;The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham, Staffordshire.
Carpets were woven to incorporate the Hamilton cinquefoil, and most of the antiques are emblazoned with the coat of arms, charged with thirty-six quarterings. He also regularly displayed the Beckford crest, a heron with a fish in its beak, which plays on the pun 'bec fort'.
The contradiction of the Romantic, unfettered, bisexual, acquisitive traveller who also revelled in his royal-ish blood comes across in this exhibition, as does the wonder of a life so full. As Beckford wrote to a friend in Naples: "I fear I shall never be half so sapient, nor good for anything in this world, but composing airs, building towers, forming gardens, collecting old Japan, and writing a journey to China or the moon.' Setting the bar low, then.
Ben Davis/www.artsworld.com
