Description

The German artist Johann David Passavant (1787-1861) visited Britain in 1831 in order to examine works by Raphael in private and public galleries for a book he was preparing. He had not been able to find any helpful German accounts of British collections, and so decided to publish a narrative of his own travels and observations. The British writer and art critic Elizabeth Rigby (later Lady Eastlake) produced a two-volume translation in 1836, believing that English readers would benefit from Passavant's descriptions of little-known collections in their own country, as well as from his practitioner's response to the works themselves. Volume 1 covers the National Gallery and the various royal and aristocratic collections in London, and ends with the colleges of Oxford. Volume 2, beginning at Blenheim Palace, and finishing in Cambridge, also provides a list of the pictures discussed and an overview of collections not visited.