Felix Slade
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Felix Joseph Slade FRA (6 August 1788[1] - 29 March 1868), was an English collector of glass, books and engravings, a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries (1866) and a philanthropist who endowed chairs of fine art (professorships) at Oxford University and Cambridge University, and at University College London, where he also endowed scholarships which formed the beginning of the Slade School of Art (founded 1871).
His endowment supports the Slade Lectures given at Oxford and Cambridge, one of the most prestigious series of lectures on the history of art, which are commonly published. The first Slade Professors at Oxford and Cambridge were John Ruskin and Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt, and at University College, London, Sir Edward Poynter RA.
He was the son of Robert Slade, a Surrey landowner and proctor in Doctors' Commons, who eventually became deputy lieutenant for Surrey, and his wife Eliza Foxcroft of Halsteads (near Thornton-in-Lonsdale, Yorkshire). From his father he inherited a considerable fortune, which supported his purchases of books and engravings. He lived with his bachelor brother Henry in the family house in Walcot Place, made a valuable collection of historical glass. When he died unmarried he left a fortune of £160,000 and bequeathed the bulk of his art collection to the British Museum; the books are now in the British Library. £35,000 was specified for the endowment of art professorships, to be known as Slade Professorships, at Oxford, Cambridge, and University College, London. University College received the additional bequest of six art scholarships for students, the nucleus of the Slade School of Art.
He meticulously catalogued his collection of glass, which was published in 1869 and 1871.
[edit] Notes
[edit] References
- Encyclopedia Britannica 1911 (On-line text)
[edit] External links
 |
This English biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
