Beyond the Bowes Museum: The Social and Material Worlds of Alphonsine Bowes de Saint-Amand

Abstract

The activities of Alphonsine Bowes de Saint-Amand, the second wife of John Bowes, as a collector, curator, and patron have been obscured not only because of her gender, but also, and especially, because her contributions to the founders’ collection in the Bowes Museum do not conform to the narrative arc of traditional collecting stories based around a single collector or collecting couple. As the ‘third wheel’ of the already complex double collecting history of the museum, her contributions have up until now conveniently been erased based on moral issues and the deterioration of her second marriage. Moralizing judgements, gendered decorative choices, and aggressive legal claims on the estate conspired to erase her autonomy as a collector, despite her social status and position in important literary circles of nineteenth-century France. As a result, her own independent contributions beyond the Bowes Museum have also been overlooked. Analysing archival and material sources in France and Britain within the complex legal frameworks surrounding women’s property and marital and inheritance laws in France, Britain, and Switzerland, this article shows how the social worlds, interests, and aesthetic tastes of Alphonsine Bowes de Saint-Amand had a far greater influence in collections on both sides of the Channel than has ever been acknowledged.

Keywords

• women collectors
• French art
• Bowes Museum