Judy Egerton
Judith Emilie Egerton[1] (7 August 1928–21 March 2012) was an Australian-born British art historian and curator who specialised in eighteenth-century British art and particularly the work of George Stubbs.
Early life and career
Egerton was born in Melbourne, Australia as the third of five children to Jean (nee Muecke) and Keith Attiwill, a journalist.[2] She was educated at Lauriston Girls' School and Janet Clarke Hall, then the women's college at the University of Melbourne where she read History and graduated with first-class honours in 1948.[3] She married Ansell Egerton in 1949 (dissolved in 1974[1]) and the couple emigrated to London. When her husband became a Lecturer in Economics at Queen's University Belfast, she held the post of tutorial assistant in History. While in Belfast, she became a close friend of the poet Philip Larkin, who was then a sub-librarian at the university.[4] The Egerton's returned to London in 1956.[3] While raising her two daughters, Egerton worked on the Australian and British editions of the National Dictionary of Biography.[3]
In London, Egerton came into contact with the watercolour specialist Dudley Snelgrove with whom she worked with in his Dover Street office, cataloguing the sporting art pictures being bought by Paul Mellon. It was during this period that Egerton became interested in the work of George Stubbs.[4]
Egerton wrote the catalogue raisonné on Stubbs, published by the Paul Mellon Centre in 1984. Egerton was the assistant keeper of the British school at the Tate Gallery from 1974 to 1988. She was then employed by the National Gallery from 1988 to 1998 to revise the British school catalogue and became a senior research fellow of the Paul Mellon Centre from 1997 until 2007.[4]
Exhibitions
- George Stubbs, Anatomist and Animal Painter, Tate Gallery, 1976
- Stubbs, Tate Gallery & Yale Centre for British Art, 1984-5
- Joseph Wright of Derby, Tate Gallery, 1990
- The Age of Hogarth, Tate Gallery[4]
References
- ^ a b Priestman, Judith; Longworth, Kate (2015). "Catalogue of the correspondence of Philip Larkin and Judy Egerton, 1954-1985". Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
- ^ Attiwill, Peter; Allen, Brian (28 April 2012). "Scholar of 18th-century British art lauded by peers". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 24 July 2016.
- ^ a b c "Judy Egerton". The Daily Telegraph. 13 April 2012. Retrieved 20 July 2016.
- ^ a b c d Froggatt, Richard (c. 2016). "Judy Egerton (1928 - 2012): Art historian and museum curator". Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 20 July 2016.