Metadata: Paul Oppé Archive
Collection
- Country:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Holding institution:
- Paul Mellon Centre
- Holding institution (official language):
- Paul Mellon Centre
- Postal address:
- 16 Bedford SquareLondonGreater LondonUnited KingdomWC1B 3JA
- Reference number:
- APO
- Title:
- Paul Oppé Archive
- Title (official language):
- Paul Oppé Archive
- Creator/accumulator:
- Paul Oppé, British art historian
- Date(s):
- 1876/2016
- Language:
- English
- Extent:
- 321 files; 4 postcard boxes; 212 volumes; 1 pen
- Scope and content:
- This archive includes material collected and compiled by Oppé from his late adolescence until his death. The majority of the material concerns British art history of the 18th and 19th centuries and was created alongside his scholarship and published work, and also documents his professional engagements and collecting activities. It includes a wide range of materials such as letters, annotated exhibition and auction catalogues, photographs and notebooks.The archive also includes a substantial amount of material relating to Oppé's personal life. This includes his extensive diaries, his creative writing, personal letters, and photographs. In addition to this is a large amount of material which relates to his family. This is predominantly correspondence sent to his wife, Valentine (née Tollemache), his children, Armide and Denys, and his mother Pauline, with some additional material relating to his siblings, particularly his brothers, Harry and Tom Oppé. There are also a large amount of family photographs which depict Oppé in his younger years, as well as the aforementioned family members.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- Adolph Paul Oppé (known as Paul Oppé) was a British art historian, critic, museum official and collector with a particular interest in British drawings and watercolours of the 18th century.Oppé was born on 22 September 1878 in London. His father, Sigmund Armin Oppé (1835-1886), was a silk merchant and his mother, Pauline Jaffé (1849-1940), was from a Belfast family of linen merchants and warehousemen. He was the fifth of eight children: Albert Sanvel (1869-1953), Marguerite (1870-1941), Ida (1871-1912), John Daniel (1876-1952), Henry Sigismund (1880-1915), Thomas Armin (1880-1917), and Ernest Frederic (1885-1970). He grew up in Denmark Hill, South London, but after the death of his father in 1886, his mother moved the family to Goldaming so the children would be close to Charterhouse for their schooling.Oppé attended Charterhouse from 1891-1893, but his studies were cut short by poor health. His mother decided to take the then 15 year old Paul, along with twins, Harry and Tom, on an extended trip by sea to New Zealand. From here, Oppé continued travelling alone, also visiting Japan and Sri Lanka. In Japan, he discovered an interest in collecting 'curios', sowing the seeds for later collecting activities. Rather than return to Charterhouse, in 1894 Oppé enrolled at the University of St. Andrews. He had already begun to show a gift for scholarship. In 1897, he was awarded the Gray Prize for his essay, The New Comedy. Later that year, Oppé left for Oxford, where he joined New College as an exhibitioner. Here, he earned first class honours in Classical Moderations (1899) and Literae Humaniores (1901).While at Oxford, Oppé had embarked on an ambitious and wide-ranging research project into Greek oracles. This was developed during extensive travels throughout Europe and an extended stay at the British School at Athens. Upon his return in 1902, he took an academic post at St. Andrews as assistant to the Professor of Greek, John Burnet. This allowed Oppé the space to develop a part of his research on Greek oracles and publish an article, The Chasm at Delphi, for the Journal of Hellenic Studies in 1904. In that same year, he moved to the University of Edinburgh where he took up a lectureship in Greek History, with an emphasis on Greek art. Here he met the art historian, Gerard Baldwin Brown, who was a Professor of Fine Art at the university. Baldwin Brown greatly encouraged Oppé's nascent interest in European art, and even though Oppé moved to London shortly after, in 1905, they remained in contact, and it was Baldwin Brown who suggested Oppé write his first published monograph, on Raphael, in 1909.Rather than pursue an academic career, Oppé decided to move to London and take up a career with the Board of Education. He remained in this post until he retired in 1938. Although not directly related to his interests in art, there were significant professional links to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where he worked on secondment as an adviser between 1906-1907, and as Deputy Director between 1910-1913.During this early period in London, Oppé met his wife, Valentine (née Tollemarche) (1887-1951). They married in 1909, and had two children, Armide Lyonesse (1910-1995) and Denys (1913-1992). The family lived at Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, and frequently visited the Oppé family home at Pamber Heath, in Berkshire.Oppé's development as an art historian began in earnest following his move to London. He published works on Raphael (1909) and Botticelli (1911), as well as more diverse studies such as The Dance (1924) in collaboration with Cecil Sharp and a chapter in G.M. Young's Early Victorian England (1934). However, these publications were largely overshadowed by his work on the drawings and watercolours of 18th century British artists. Initially working essentially as an amateur, Oppé produced significant works on Francis Towne (1920), John White Abbott (1925) and Alexander Cozens (1928) for the Walpole Society. For Studio, he wrote on Thomas Rowlandson (1923), John Sell Cotman (1923) and produced a combined work on Turner, Cox and de Wint (1925). Alongside these, were several articles in the Burlington, which also helped gain him a reputation for exacting and meticulous research, a finely turned aesthetic sense and a formidable authority. After his retirement, Oppé undertook larger research projects for Phaidon Press, two involving catalogues based on the collections at the Royal Library at Windsor, Paul and Thomas Sandby (1947) and English Drawings of the Stuart and Georgian eras (1950). He completed a third catalogue for Phaidon on William Hogarth (1948). Oppé's last publication - a monograph on Alexander and John Robert Cozens published in 1952 - was the result of decades of research and was arguably his finest and mosr developed work.Alongside his publishing activities, Oppé was also a collector of both British watercolours and drawings and wider European art. He made his first purchase - Llangollen by John Sell Cotman - in 1904. This was soon followed by works from many of the most significant artists of the British school. Italian views, painted by British artists on the Grand Tour, were a particular interest. Oppé was a shrewd and soulful collector, never spending too much on works but maintaining a robust aesthetic focus on quality. He saw value in the works of Francis Towne before they had reached the notice of other collectors and was responsible for establishing Towne's reputation as an important draughtsman. Oppé also acted as an indepedent adviser to other collections, most notably, the National Gallery of Canada, in Ottowa.Oppé died suddenly in 1957 of his persistent health problems. His collection, numbering over 2000 works, was celebrated in a memorial exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1958. A large part of it was purchased by the Tate in 1996 where it remains a discrete group (the Oppé collection). Oppé inaugurated the study of British drawings as a scholarly pursuit. and is widely recognised as a pioneer in the field of British art.This biography was written using the following as reference:Byam Shaw, J. (1978) Paul Oppé 1878-1957. Proceedings of the British Acadamy, London, volume LXIV. Oxford University Press (see: APO/10/2/4)Oppé, E. [c 1958] Unpublished notes on Oppé's life by his brother, Ernest Oppé (see: APO/10/2/4)
- Access points: persons/families:
- Oppé
- Oppé, Paul
- Subject terms:
- Art
- Correspondence
- Diaries
- Historical research
- Personal records
- Access, restrictions:
- This collection is open for research. Readers must fill in an 'Reader Agreement Form' which outlines the reading room rules and conditions concerning privacy and Data Protection.
- Finding aids:
-
Online catalogue.
A short feature on the collection is also available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- AIM25