Master drawings, watercolours and prints from the Ionides Bequest

'The Print Collectors', drawing in chalk, watercolour and pen and ink by Honoré Daumier, about 1863–5. Museum no. CAI 118

Constantine Alexander Ionides (1833–1900) was head of one of the wealthiest Greek mercantile families of the 19th century. He was an intimate of fashionable artistic circles in London and an enthusiastic and adventurous collector.

His bequest to the V&A has long formed one of the cornerstones of the Museum's art collections. Comprising 82 oil paintings and over 1000 works on paper, it was described at the time as 'most magnificent and generous'. The principal oil paintings hang on permanent show, but the master drawings, watercolours and prints do not. They reveal the wider range of Constantine Ionides' tastes and collecting.

Old Masters

As well as family portraits and pictures by living artists, Alexander Ionides also collected Old Master prints and drawings of the kind favoured by connoisseurs of the early 19th century. At his death, his son Alecco inherited many of the paintings, but it seems likely that Constantine acquired a considerable number of the drawings and some fine prints.

Constantine's own purchases included early Italian prints and drawings and magnificent etchings by Rembrandt. They reflect the tastes current among fashionable aesthetes and collectors of the 1870s and 1880s.

Visions of Italy

Throughout the 18th century, vedute (souvenir views) made by specialist painters and printmakers – the vedutisti – were popular with travellers making the Grand Tour. Just as the paintings and drawings of Canaletto formed the canonical image of Venice, so did the large, bold etchings of Piranesi fix for all time a vision of ancient and modern Rome.

Piranesi's prints were appreciated by the Romantics, especially following their re-issue in Paris during the 1830s. Perhaps surprisingly, later still, Whistler praised Canaletto's paintings. By the late 19th century, collectors such as Ionides had begun to seek out the choicer examples of prints and drawings by the best vedutisti with a new enthusiasm.

Rembrandt and the 'etching revival'

The late 19th century saw a tremendous revival of interest in etching. Artists such as Whistler, Legros and Strang took it up as a subtly expressive medium, while connoisseurs became increasingly sophisticated in their appreciation of the historical practitioners of the art.

Enthusiasm for the etchings of Rembrandt, widely held to be the greatest master, was stimulated by an influential exhibition at the Burlington Fine Art Club in 1877. While many collectors competed for the best examples, Ionides set out to collect Rembrandt systematically. In the late 1870s and early 1880s, the years of his greatest activity as a collector, he assembled an impressive series of prints, including many of the most sought-after rarities.

Workers and peasants

Scenes from working life feature in both the early and contemporary works in the Ionides collection. In a time of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, these traditional scenes held a wide appeal. For Ionides, however, labour and craft was also part of his personal work ethic. Despite his wealthy background, as a young man he had been obliged by his father to prove himself competent and hard-working in business. He insisted that his sons did the same.

Contemporary French artists

With the guidance of his friend and advisor Alphonse Legros, Ionides became a leading collector of progressive French art, which in the late 19th century was poorly represented in British collections.

A great treasure of his collection is the magnificent group of drawings by the French graphic artist Honoré Daumier, then little known in England. Similarly, Ionides became one of the earliest supporters of Rodin. It is significant that, in terms of numbers, works by Legros and his French friends formed by far the largest section of Ionides' collection.

Legros, Rossetti and Burne-Jones

The entire Ionides family was closely connected with the artists. Constantine's sister Aglaia knew both Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris, while his brother Luke was popular in the circles of James Mcneill Whistler and Edward Burne-Jones.The expatriate French artist Alphonse Legros, first introduced to the family by Whistler, became the particular friend of Constantine as well as his artistic adviser.

This network of friendships shaped Constantine's collecting, and he became an important patron of these artists, commissioning and purchasing many examples of their work.

'The Thames Set', etchings by James McNeill Whistler, 1859–61

During his formative years in Paris in the 1850s, Whistler was influenced by the injunctions of the poet and theorist Charles Baudelaire that artists should take their subjects from 'modern life' and seek a new beauty in the teeming cities.

His first major suite of prints, his 'French Set', brought critical acclaim but disappointing sales. Seeking more generous patrons, Whistler moved to London in 1859. Initially under the influence of his brother-in-law Francis Seymour Haden, a pioneer of the 'etching revival', he began work on a series of superbly observed and finely detailed views of the river with its shipping, thriving wharves and picturesque characters.

Landscapes

A striking characteristic of Ionides' taste is its modesty and lack of ostentation. This is evident in the many simple, un-idealised landscape scenes that he chose for his collection. The origins of this genre can be seen in the drawings of Claude and especially in Dutch landscapes of the 17th century, such as Rembrandt's famous etched view of Omval. Ionides appreciated the same quality in the 19th-century French landscape watercolours shown here, which take unremarkable scenery for their subject matter.

Constantine Ionides' world

Ionides assembled two large albums in which he gathered photographs of many of the works of art in his collection. The second volume contains some views of the rooms in the large house in Second Avenue, Hove, where he retired towards the end of his life, taking with him the fruits of thirty years of collecting.

The views allow us a glimpse of the way Ionides arranged his pictures. What is also revealed, in the juxtapositions of paintings, old and new hanging together, is an insight into Ionides' taste and his intriguing and idiosyncratic enthusiasm for art of all kinds.

Charles William Sherborn, 'Book Plate for the Burlington Fine Arts Club Library ', 1893. Museum no. CAI 605

One entry from a photo album, Interior view of C. A. Ionides house at Hove West Sussex, about 1890. Museum no. PH2-1980

Alphonse Legros, 'Portrait Study of Constantine Alexander Ionides', About 1870. Museum no. CAI 1158

A gift in your will

You may not have thought of including a gift to a museum in your will, but the V&A is a charity and legacies form an important source of funding for our work. It is not just the great collectors and the wealthy who leave legacies to the V&A. Legacies of all sizes, large and small, make a real difference to what we can do and your support can help ensure that future generations enjoy the V&A as much as you have.

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Spanning the Renaissance through to the early twentieth century, the Courtauld’s collection of prints and drawings is extensive.

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Master drawings, watercolours and prints from the Ionides Bequest

Old Masters

Visions of Italy

Rembrandt and the 'etching revival'

Workers and peasants

Contemporary French artists

Legros, Rossetti and Burne-Jones

'The Thames Set', etchings by James McNeill Whistler, 1859–61

Landscapes

Constantine Ionides' world

A gift in your will

Shop online

V&A Japanese Woodblock Prints Postcard Book

Event - Courtauld Prints and Drawings Room

Thu 09 May 2013 10:30

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Master drawings, watercolours and prints from the Ionides Bequest

Old Masters

Unknown artist (Italian)'Studies of Cherubs for Ceiling Decoration', drawing

Giorgio Vasari, 'St Peter and St John Blessing the People of Samaria'

Pier Francesco Mola, 'A Caricature of a Man with Four Flying Letters'

Unknown artist (Netherlandish or German),'Diana and Neptune'

Cristoforo Roncalli, called Il Pomarancio

Copy after Andrea Mantegna, 'The Battle of the Sea Gods'

Circle of Titian, 'Studies for a Kneeling Man and Head'

Unknown Artist (French), 'A Bird of Prey'

Unknown artist (German), 'Fantastic Horse and Rider'

Andrea Mantegna, 'A Bacchanal with Silenus'

Antonio Pollaiuolo, 'The Battle of Nude Men' (also known as The Gladiators)

Visions of Italy

Attributed to Jan van Goyen, 'A View of a Castle and a River'

Gomar Wouters, 'A View of the Piazza del Popolo

Isaac de Moucheron, 'A Formal Garden'

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, 'A Design for a Fountain'

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto 'An Imaginary Composition: A Ruined Tower and Watermill beside a Stream'

Giovanni Antonio Canal, called Canaletto 1697–1768 An Imaginary Composition: A Village Street

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 'A View of the Piazza Navona on the Ruins of the Circus Agonalis

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 'A View of Santa Maria di Loreto and Il Nome di Maria

Giovanni Battista Piranesi , 'A View of the Upper Parts of the Ruins of the Baths of Diocletian'1774. Museum no. CAI 939

Giovanni Battista Piranesi, 'A View of the Remains of the Second Storey of the Baths of Titus'

Rembrandt and the 'etching revival'

Rembrandt van Rijn, 'Christ Presented to the People'

Rembrandt van Rijn, 'The Three Trees'

Rembrandt van Rijn, 'Our Lord Crucified between Two Thieves

Rembrandt van Rijn, 'The Hundred Guilder Print (Christ Healing the Sick)'

Rembrandt van Rijn, 'The Presentation in the Temple in the Dark Manner'

Rembrandt van Rijn, 'Self-portrait

Workers and peasants

Jean François Millet, 'Going to Work'

Jean François Millet, 'The Gleaners'

Eugène Delacroix, 'A Blacksmith'

Léon Auguste Lhermitte, 'The Lathe'

William Strang ,'The Fortune Teller'

Contemporary French artists

Honoré Daumier, 'Les Saltimbanques'

Honoré Daumier, 'Two Barristers'

Honoré Daumier, 'A Barrister Pleading'

Alphonse Legros, 'The Black Cat'

Auguste Rodin, 'Les Amours Conduisant le Monde (Love Making the World Go Round)'

Legros, Rossetti and Burne-Jones

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 'Portrait of Maria Zambaco'

Edward Burne-Jones, 'Head of Cassandra'

Alphonse Legros, 'A Study of the Head of a Man'

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 'Head of Andromeda'

Edward Burne-Jones, 'Head of a Girl'

Edward Burne-Jones, 'Dorigen of Bretagne Longing for the Safe Return of her Husband'

'The Thames Set', etchings by James McNeill Whistler, 1859–61

James McNeill Whistler, 'Rotherhithe'

James McNeill Whistler, 'Limehouse'

James McNeill Whistler, 'The Pool'

James McNeill Whistler,'Thames Warehouses from Thames Tunnel Pier'

James McNeill Whistler, 'The Little Pool'

James McNeill Whistler, 'Thames Police or Wapping Wharf'

James McNeill Whistler, 'The Lime Burner'

James McNeill Whistler, 'Eagle Wharf'

'Old Hungerford Bridge', Etched 1861

Landscapes

Claude Gellée, called Le Lorrain

Claude Gellée, called Le Lorrain Or Giovanni-Francesco Grimaldi

Henri Harpignies, 'The Fisherman'

Alphonse Legros, 'A Canal with a Fisherman'

Edwin Edwards, 'Plymouth from Mount Edgcumbe'

Matthew White Ridley, 'Ships in a Dock'

Jean François Millet, 'The Farm on the Hill'

Jean François Millet, 'A Hilly Landscape'

Rembrandt van Rijn, 'The Omval

Henri De Braekeleer, 'A Flemish Kitchen Garden'

Constantine Ionides' world

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A gift in your will

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V&A Japanese Woodblock Prints Postcard Book

Event - Courtauld Prints and Drawings Room