Magic and Mess

Explores the theme of the artists’ studio, featuring previously unpublished works and essays

Magic and Mess: The Artist’s Studio Revealed explores the myth and reality of the artists’ studio in Europe through the long nineteenth century. Featuring works from the unrivalled Katrin Bellinger Collection and Leighton House, this richly illustrated catalogue features both famous and little-known artists and includes essays by leading scholars. Through essays and catalogue entries, the book explores the role of the studio, as both a practical space for artmaking and a constant source of inspiration to artists and writers.

Themes covered include the opulent and humble studio; the palette and pigment sets as symbols of the artist; the rise of the female model; the use of plaster casts, mannequins, prints, photographs and drawings; the contrast between the romantic fires of inspiration and the cold bohemian stove; innovations in window design and lighting; the emergence of the corner of the studio as a privileged zone, taking inspiration from Émile Zola’s cult of the corner, and from Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s In My Studio (1893), which belonged to Frederic Leighton and has recently been acquired by Leighton House.

James Hall has published extensively on related topics and is the author of the ground-breaking book The Artist’s Studio: a Cultural History (Thames & Hudson, 2022), already a standard work on the subject. (A Times Best Art Book of 2022)

Anita Viola Sganzerla is Curator of the Katrin Bellinger Collection and has published extensively on the theme of the artist at work. She is a specialist of Early Modern works on paper.

Rachel Esner is Associate Professor Modern and Contemporary Art at the University of Amsterdam and a specialist in French art and photography of the late nineteenth century.

Isabelle Sagraves is a PhD candidate at University College London and a Curatorial Assistant at the Katrin Bellinger Collection.