Overview
Artists at Home (1884) is a portfolio of photogravures by the photographer Joseph Parkin Mayall (1839-1922), with biographical sketches by the artist-turned-art-critic Frederick G. Stephens (1828-1907). One installment of four portraits and biographies was issued every month over the course of six months, starting in March 1884 and ending in August 1884; the final installment included a bonus image of the prime minister, W. E. Gladstone. Artists at Home was dedicated to Sir Frederic Leighton, one of the most famous British artists of the nineteenth century and the president, at that time, of the Royal Academy.
Artists at Home features twenty-five portraits of prominent British painters, sculptors, and printmakers. Published in both London and New York, the images offered a privileged glimpse into the private lives of the rich and famous, focusing on the studios where Britain’s most renowned artists created their work. The studio-portraits provided a way for viewers to understand the interchange between the art and the space where it was made. As a catalyst for creativity, the studio represents a cherished site of personal expression where the spark of inspiration catches fire. These photographs allow us to step inside the artist’s studio, a private space where he can think clearly and work without distraction until he is ready to reveal his work to the outside world.
Artists at Home responded to the public’s curiosity about the artists and their lifestyles, much as a celebrity profile in Architectural Digest does today. Studio photographs reveal the pragmatic requirements for creating art—the amount of space and the special tools the artist requires. Vicarious visitors see where the artist’s ideas are born and realized, and then transformed into something real—where pencils mark on paper, fingers mold clay, chisels carve blocks of marble. Furthermore, the spectator can imagine the joys and difficulties of working in that space and envision the specialness of all its elements. Homes and studios represent places of production, invention, creativity, and meaning, because something truly special is born there. The spaces themselves can offer aesthetic and emotional pleasure equivalent to the paintings and sculptures produced there.
-Gabriella Meier