New Release: Hidden Patrons Women and Architectural Patronage in Georgian Britain
November 30 2023
Picture: Bloomsbury
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
For those readers interested in architectural history, Bloomsbury have just today released a new book entitled Hidden Patrons: Women and Architectural Patronage in Georgian Britain. The publication by Amy Boyington appears to be a much needed architectural counterpart to the growth in publications on Georgian female artists over the past decade or so.
According to the blurb:
An enduring myth of Georgian architecture is that it was purely the pursuit of male architects and their wealthy male patrons. History states that it was men who owned grand estates and houses, who commissioned famous architects, and who embarked upon elaborate architectural schemes.
Hidden Patrons dismantles this myth - revealing instead that women were at the heart of the architectural patronage of the day, exerting far more influence and agency than has previously been recognised. Architectural drawing and design, discourse, and patronage were interests shared by many women in the eighteenth century. Far from being the preserve of elite men, architecture was a passion shared by both sexes, intellectually and practically, as long as they possessed sufficient wealth and autonomy.
