PLACING FACES: THE PORTRAIT AND THE ENGLISH COUNTRY HOUSE IN THE LONG EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

First edition. Hardcover. Publisher's original boards. Illustrated with 19 colour plates and 53 further illustrations and figures in black and white throughout the text. A fine copy, the binding square and firm, bright and fresh. The contents are clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps.

A collection of essays by scholars including Alison Yarrington, Gill Perry, Kate Retford, Harriet Guest, Emma Barker and Desmond Shawe-Taylor exploring the rich but understudied relationship between English country houses and the portraits they contain. Moving between residences as diverse as Stowe, Althorp, the Vache, Chatsworth, Knole and Windsor Castle, it unpicks the significance of various spaces - the closet, the gallery, the library and the ways in which portraiture interacted with those environments. It explores questions around gender, display and ownership, investigating narratives of family and kinship in portraits of women including Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, as well as issues of celebrity and scandal in the case of Giovanna Baccelli, mistress of the 3rd Duke of Dorset. The essays in the final section turn to the representation of great military figures such as Captain Cook and the Duke of Wellington, and examine the complex ties between families, their houses and imperial conflict.