Charles locke eastlake biography of michael

Charles Eastlake

English architect and designer

For his uncle, the nineteenth-century English museum director and painter, see Charles Lock Eastlake.

Charles Locke Eastlake (11 March – 20 November ) was a British architect and furniture designer.

His uncle, Sir Charles Lock Eastlake PRA (born in ), was a Keeper of the National Gallery, from to , and from its first director, which results in some confusion between the two men, whose names are distinguished only by the presence or absence of an "e" in their middle names.

The style of furniture named after him, Eastlake style, flourished during the later half of the nineteenth century. The Eastlake movement, a style of architecture, with old English and Gothic elements, is also named for him.

Life

Eastlake was born March 11, , in Plymouth. His formal education included studies at the Westminster School and the Royal Academy where he discovered an interest in architecture, along with the talent for drawing and painting in watercolors.^[1] Eastlake furthered his education with three years of travel throughout France, Italy, and Germany, developing his love for medieval building and architecture.^[2] Trained by the architect Philip Hardwick (–), he popularized William Morris's notions of decorative arts in the Arts and Crafts style, becoming one of the principal exponents of the revived Early English or Modern Gothic style popular during the nineteenth century. His book, A History of the Gothic Revival, published in , depicted buildings of English Gothic architectural style and the Gothic Revival built between and ^[3] This was influential to revivalists interested in restoring the language of Gothic tradition in England.^[4]

Although he had the qualifications of an architect, Eastlake did not practice as one. In the years and he put forward several architectural designs for a number of projects, including a design for the Rugby Town Hall, but all were rejected.^[4] In the years following, Eastlake instead focused on journalism, the occasional design of interior goods, and furniture design.^[2]^[4] He did not make any furniture; his designs were produced by professional cabinet makers.

In he published Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery and other Details, which was very influential in Britain, and later in the United States, where the book was published in ^[5] From to he was secretary to the Royal Institute of British Architects, and from to he was Keeper of the National Gallery, London.^[6]

He died, aged 70, at Leinster Square, Bayswater, and was buried at Kensal Green.

Artistic recognition

A bust of Eastlake by John Gibson is held in the National Portrait Gallery, London.^[7]

Notes

References

Bibliography

A History of the Gothic Revival: an Attempt to Show How the Taste for Mediæval Architecture, which Lingered in England during the Two Last Centuries Has since Been Encouraged and Developed. Publisher: Longmans, Green & Co., London ;
Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery, and Other Details. Edited by Charles C. Perkins. Publisher: J. R. Osgood, Boston
Notes on the Principal Pictures in the Brera Gallery at Milan. Publisher: Longmans and Co., London ;
Notes on the Principal Pictures in the Louvre. Publisher: Longmans and Co., London ;
Notes on the Principal Pictures in the Old Pinakothek at Munich. Publisher: Longmans & Co, London ;
Notes on the Principal Pictures in the Accademia in Venice,
Art for the Nation: Sir Charles Eastlake at the National Gallery. Exhibition at the National Gallery 27 July – 30 October