Wikipedia

Frances Spalding

Frances Spalding
CBE FRSL
Personal details
Born
Frances Crabtree

(1950-07-16) 16 July 1950 (age 75)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1958; div. 1991)​
Alma materUniversity of Nottingham
OccupationArt historian and writer

Frances Spalding (née Crabtree; born 16 July 1950)[1][2] is a British art historian, writer and a former editor of The Burlington Magazine.

Life

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Frances Crabtree studied at the University of Nottingham and gained her PhD for a study of Roger Fry. She taught art history at Sheffield City Polytechnic (1978-1988) before becoming a freelance writer and curator.[2] She returned to academic work to take up the post of lecturer in art history at Newcastle University in 2000.[3] She was promoted to reader in 20th Century British Art in 2002 and appointed Professor of Art History in 2007.[3]

Spalding became the Editor of The Burlington Magazine in September 2015, leaving in August 2016.[4] From 2016 to 2018, she was a fellow of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and an affiliate lecturer of the Department of History of Art, University of Cambridge.[3][5]

Spalding specialises in 20th-century British art, biography and cultural history and her work includes essays, criticism and reviews. She curated the 2003 exhibition John Piper in the 1930s: Abstraction on the Beach at Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London.[6] She has also written a study of poet Stevie Smith and a biography of John and Myfanwy Piper. When reviewing John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art, The Independent said of Spalding: "At her scintillating best, she is both a brilliant encapsulator and shrewd summer-up; above all, an enthusiast and advocate whose wisdom makes you eager for her subject."[7]

Spalding was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984.[8] She was appointed as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Birthday Honours 2005 for services to literature. She is a trustee of the Charleston Trust.[9]

In 1974, Crabtree married Julian Spalding; the couple divorced in 1991.[2]

Selected publications

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  • Magnificent Dreams: Burne-Jones and the Late Victorians (1978)
  • Whistler (1979)
  • Vanessa Bell (1979, ISBN 0 2977 8162 6)[10]
  • Roger Fry: Art and Life (1980)
  • — (2016) [1983]. Vanessa Bell: Portrait of the Bloomsbury Artist. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 978-1-78453-241-3.
  • British Art since 1900 (1986)
  • Stevie Smith: A Critical Biography (1988)
  • 20th Century Painters and Sculptors: Dictionary of British Art (1990)
  • Dance Till the Stars Come Down: A Biography of John Minton (1991)
  • Virginia Woolf: Paper Darts: the Illustrated Letters (ed) (1991)
  • Duncan Grant: A Biography (1997)
  • The Tate: A History (1998)
  • Ravilious in Public: A Guide to Works by the Artist in Public Collections (2002)
  • John Piper in the 1930s: Abstraction on the Beach (2003)
  • Gwen Raverat: Friends, Family and Affections (2001)
  • The Bloomsbury Group, National Portrait Gallery Insights (2005)
  • John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: Lives in Art, Oxford University Press (2009, ISBN 978-0-19-956761-4)[7]

Reviews

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  • Spalding, Frances (June 2011). "The contemporaneous past: reviving native traditions, in modern ways". Australian Book Review. 332: 16–17.
  • Review of: Harris, Alexandra (2010). Romantic moderns: English writers, artists and the imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper. Thames & Hudson. ISBN 9780500251713.

References

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  1. ^ "Spalding, Prof. Frances". Who's Who 2013. A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing. 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2013. Oxford University Press, December 2012; online edition, November 2012.
  2. ^ a b c The International Who's Who of Women 2002. London: Europa Publications. 2001. p. 540. ISBN 9781857431223.
  3. ^ a b c "Spalding, Prof. Frances (born 16 July 1950), art historian, biographer and critic; Fellow, Clare Hall, Cambridge, 2016–18, now Emeritus". Who's Who 2025. Oxford University Press. 1 December 2024. Archived from the original on 16 July 2025. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
  4. ^ Malvern, Jack (7 October 2016). "Editor quits oldest art magazine after brush with staff". The Times. Retrieved 25 July 2019.
  5. ^ "Professor Frances Spalding M.A., Ph.D., CBE, FRSL". Department of History of Art. University of Cambridge. 5 September 2017. Retrieved 16 July 2025.
  6. ^ "John Piper in the 1930s – Abstraction on the Beach". Studio International. Retrieved 14 February 2014.
  7. ^ a b Dunnett, Roderic (20 November 2009). "John Piper, Myfanwy Piper: lives in art, By Frances Spalding". The Independent. Retrieved 15 February 2014.
  8. ^ "Royal Society of Literature: All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Archived from the original on 5 March 2010. Retrieved 10 August 2010.
  9. ^ "The Charleston Trust, registered charity no. 1107313". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
  10. ^ "Vanessa Bell by Frances Spalding". Goodreads. Retrieved 12 January 2016.