Acknowledgements

Klonk, Charlotte

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Acknowledgements

Charlotte Klonk

Description: Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth...

Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries

During the work, first on my thesis, and then this book, I have accumulated an enormous number of debts, both to individuals and to institutions. My research for the thesis was made possible by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst and the British Academy. During the year I spent after the completion of the thesis at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst...

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Charlotte Klonk

PublisherPaul Mellon Centre

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32182

Acknowledgements

Der Bann, den das Subjekt um Natur legt, befängt auch es: Freiheit regt sich im BewuBtsein seiner Naturähnlichkeit.

[The spell which the subject casts around nature captures the subject itself: freedom arises in the awareness of its own naturalness.]

—Theodor Adorno, Ästhetische Theorie

During the work, first on my thesis, and then this book, I have accumulated an enormous number of debts, both to individuals and to institutions. My research for the thesis was made possible by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst and the British Academy. During the year I spent after the completion of the thesis at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst in Ghent, Jan Hoet and the staff at the Museum productively questioned many of my assumptions about art and thus helped to inject new fuel into my work. I am grateful to Christ Church, Oxford, which, by electing me to a Junior Research Fellowship, gave me the opportunity to carry out the work required in order to publish the thesis as a book. The College, together with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, also contributed considerably to my photographic expenses and I would like to express my thanks to both institutions for this essential support.

The quantity of treasures available in British libraries was a source of continual delight to me, and I am grateful to the staff of the Cambridge University Library, the British Library and the Bodleian Library for their help. I owe thanks also to the librarians and archivists at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the Royal Society of Great Britain, the Geological Society of London, and to those who work in the Prints and Drawings Rooms of the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Ashmolean Museum, and, in particular, to Jane Munro at the Fitzwilliam Museum. The Colnaghi Gallery was particularly helpful for the research on Cornelius Varley. Michael Spender, the former director of the Bankside Gallery, kindly let me see an important manuscript in the possession of the Royal Water-colour Society, and his successor, Judy Dixey, gave me permission to quote from it. I spent many happy hours with Mrs Joan Linnell Burton, Mr and Mrs Walker, Mrs Fleetwood Walker and others who wish to remain anonymous, while working on material in their collections. Those hours are certainly among the highlights of my research and I am grateful to Mr and Mrs Walker, Mrs Fleetwood Walker and to the Trustees of the Linnell Trust for their kind permission to quote from the material in their collections.

The following either read parts of the material and made valuable comments or helped me with their special knowledge: John Brewer, Janet Brown, Marianne Heinz, Nick Jardine, Paul Langford, Lucy Malein, John Pickstone, Michael Pidgley, Richard Sharpe, Heinz Otto Sibum and Monika Wagner. To Andrew Hemingway, Harry Mount, Christiana Payne, Michael Rosenthal, Simon Schaffer and Jim Secord I am particularly grateful for their careful reading of my work at different stages; their often brilliant suggestions made me re-think several topics and their perceptive criticism spared me embarrassing mistakes. I am grateful, too, to an anonymous reader on behalf of Yale University Press, whose constructive suggestions, I have tried my best to take to heart. The shortcomings of the book are mine alone and often stubbornly remain despite the efforts of these individuals. Very many thanks must also go to Gillian Malpass at Yale University Press who has made this book possible. Her professionalism, kindness and personal engagement have made the publication aspect of the work a very enjoyable experience. Ruth Thackeray’s careful copy-editing has contributed substantially to the final form of the book.

But most of all I owe very sincere thanks to three persons. First, my former supervisor, John Gage, whose encyclopaedic knowledge set the research on its course. His unique combination of penetrating criticism and solid support saw me through the years of research. My father taught me how to see! Without him the book would have been far poorer in its visual perceptions. It is moving for me to recognise that he was able to comment so effectively on a text written in a language which is foreign to him. Finally I must mention Michael Rosen. It is he who helped me turn my Germanic writing into a readable English text. He challenged me when statements came too easily, he argued with me until thoughts took on shape, and he consoled me when they failed. Where would the book be without his sharp intellect and verbal skills?

This book is written in memory of my mother, who died at the outset of the work, but whose enthusiasm for its subject-matter I remembered in difficult times.

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