Exhibition - 'A brighter Hellas': rediscovering Greece in the 19th century
A brighter Hellas rears its mountains…
Another Athens shall arise,
And to remoter time
Bequeath, like sunset to the skies,
The splendour of its prime …
Percy Bysshe Shelley, Hellas, (1821)
This autumn the Special Collections exhibition in the Maughan Library’s Weston Room focusses on 19th-century Greece and its environs, and explores how the country captured the imagination of British travellers, writers and artists during a period in which it fought for independence from the Ottoman Empire and emerged as a new nation state. The display includes publications by travellers such as Sir William Gell, antiquarian and member of the Society of Dilettanti, which promoted the study of classical antiquities and sponsored archaeological expeditions. The exhibition highlights works by Romantic poets such as Shelley, who was inspired by the Greek struggle, and Lord Byron, who was amongst the Philhellenes who travelled to Greece to fight in the War of Independence. Remarkable views on show include lithographs of scenes in southern Albania by Captain George de la Poer Beresford, and Edward Lear’s evocative depictions in Journals of a landscape painter in Albania. The exhibition also features works relating to the period of British rule in the Ionian Islands, drawn from the historical library collection of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO).
The exhibition runs 13 October – 17 December 2011 09.30 to 17.00 in the Weston Room, Maughan Library & Information Services Centre, Chancery Lane, London WC2A 1LR. For further details please visit http://www.kingscollections.org/exhibitions/specialcollections/