Felix Slade
Encyclopedia
Felix Joseph Slade FRA was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 lawyer and collector of glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...

, books and engravings.

A fellow of the Society of Antiquaries
Society of Antiquaries of London
The Society of Antiquaries of London is a learned society "charged by its Royal Charter of 1751 with 'the encouragement, advancement and furtherance of the study and knowledge of the antiquities and history of this and other countries'." It is based at Burlington House, Piccadilly, London , and is...

 (1866) and a philanthropist
Philanthropist
A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes...

 who endowed three Slade Professorships of Fine Art
Slade Professor of Fine Art
The Slade Professorship of Fine Art is the oldest professorship of art at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and London.-History:The chairs were founded concurrently in 1869 by a bequest from the art collector and philanthropist Felix Slade, with studentships also created in the University of...

 at Oxford University and Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

, and at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

, where he also endowed scholarships which formed the beginning of the Slade School of Art (founded 1871) in London, whose Director holds the Slade Professorship. The bequest was also indirectly responsible for the foundation of the Ruskin School of Drawing in Oxford, which was financed by the first Oxford Professor, John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...

, who announced his intention in his inaugural lecture "to the general dismay of his listeners".

The Oxford and Cambridge professorships are visiting ones, who give the Slade Lectures, one of the most prestigious series of lectures on the history of art, which are commonly published. The first Slade Professors were John Ruskin
John Ruskin
John Ruskin was the leading English art critic of the Victorian era, also an art patron, draughtsman, watercolourist, a prominent social thinker and philanthropist. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture, myth to ornithology, literature to education, and botany to political...

, at Oxford, and Matthew Digby Wyatt
Matthew Digby Wyatt
Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt was a British architect and art historian who became Secretary of the Great Exhibition, Surveyor of the East India Company and the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge.-Life:...

 at Cambridge; Edward Poynter
Edward Poynter
Sir Edward John Poynter, 1st Baronet, PRA was an English painter, designer, and draughtsman who served as President of the Royal Academy.-Life:...

 RA. gave the first lecture on 2 October 1871 at University College, London.

He was the son of Robert Slade, a Surrey landowner and proctor in Doctors' Commons
Doctors' Commons
Doctors' Commons, also called the College of Civilians, was a society of lawyers practising civil law in London. Like the Inns of Court of the common lawyers, the society had buildings with rooms where its members lived and worked, and a large library...

, who eventually became deputy lieutenant for Surrey, and his wife Eliza Foxcroft of Halsteads (near Thornton-in-Lonsdale, Yorkshire). From his father he inherited a considerable fortune, which supported his purchases of books and engravings. He lived with his bachelor brother Henry in the family house in Walcot Place, made a valuable collection of historical glass. When he died unmarried he left a fortune of £160,000 and bequeathed the bulk of his art collection to the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

; the books are now in the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...

. £35,000 was specified for the endowment of art professorships, to be known as Slade Professorships, at Oxford, Cambridge, and University College, London. University College received the additional bequest of six art scholarships for students, the nucleus of the Slade School of Art.

He meticulously catalogued his collection of glass, which was published in 1869 and 1871.

Slade was the subject of a portrait in coloured chalk by Margaret Sarah Carpenter.

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