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The Library of Benjamin Godfrey Windus A collection of paintings and books is the focus of this interior composition. Paintings in large gold frames occupy the walls on three sides of this long room. Appearing to be landscapes, the paintings are evenly spaced and reach the height of the door moldings. Two paintings rest on chairs placed alongside the right wall. On the left, a large black hearth is placed at midpoint along the wall. Black classical shaped pottery is displayed on the mantel. Balancing the hearth on both sides, black architectural molding frames a collection of books in bookcases. Additional books are placed on a black topped table in the left foreground. Two well dressed young children sit in front of the hearth. The young girl, wearing a fashionable white empire waist dress, has an open book in her lap. Her companion wears a dark suit gathered at the waist. His dark cap emphasizes the tilt of his head as he looks towards the open book. The visual center of the room is an open door, flanked on either side by matching black lacquered cabinets on the rear wall. The curtained opening reveals additional space – perhaps an exterior – and leads the eye further back. A large ornately carved wooden table fills the center of the carpeted room. Hanging from the planked wooden ceiling is a candelabrum with four large glass globes. Flanking the walls of the room are red upholstered chairs. Black ornately carved ones sit at the corners. Background Private patronage of the arts increased after the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. Previously, members of the aristocracy and professional classes saw it as their duty as patrons to collect fine art. Increased patronage by self made men with newfound wealth (those who were termed the nouveau riche) collected artworks as a matter of status. Benjamin Godfrey Windus was a pill manufacturer and property speculator. He collected (and speculated) watercolor paintings, especially those of J.M.W. Turner. The room, as illustrated, contains no windows. This is to protect the watercolor paintings from fading. Windus’s two children near the hearth indicate a little warmth in this topographical image. Innocently pictured, they look at one of the many leather bound books in the room. This illustrates an acknowledgement of their literacy, as well as their wealth. Pictured, as they are, among the vast collection; they become part of that collection not the focus of it. The old nobility and land proprietors are gone out. Their place is supplied by railroad speculators, iron mine men, and grinders from Sheffield, Liverpool and Manchester merchants and traders. We live in an age whose boast it is that it can appreciate merit or capacity of any kind. Artists and actors, poets and painters, are the much courted guests of the wealthiest and the noblest in the land – to be met with at their dinner tables, in their reception rooms, and in their counting rooms. To all appearance, the fusion between the aristocracy of birth, wealth, and intellect is complete, and the representatives of each appear to meet on a footing of the most perfect and absolute equality.
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