Below Stairs - Conference

16 October 2003 - 11 January 2004
Admission £6, Concessions £4
Wolfson Gallery

Exhibition organised by the National Portrait Gallery in collaboration with the Scottish National Portrait Gallery

Below Stairs: 400 Years of Servants' Portraits

Painted from the Shadows: One-Day Seminar
Saturday 10th January 2004
10.30am-4.30pm
Tickets £25 (£15 concessions).

Organised in conjunction with the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art

The traditional study of portraiture in Britain has concentrated on depictions of the upper classes and the celebrated. This ground-breaking exhibition aims to redress the balance by focusing on portraits of servants, from grooms to governesses, maids to musicians. This is the first ever study of portraits of servants in Britain and the exhibition will bring together many works that have rarely been seen in public.

This one-day seminar will explore key themes raised in the exhibition, including servants in Edwardian and Victorian England, domestic service between the wars, servants and costume and issues of race and gender.

10am Registration/Coffee

10.30 Introduction to 'Below Stairs: 400 Years of Servants Portraits
Giles Waterfield and Anne French, exhibition curators

11.10 The Elite Below Stairs: Country House Service 1815-1914
Jessica Gerard , Ozarks Technical Community College, Springfield, Missouri, and author of 'Country House Life: Family and Servants 1815-1914' (Blackwell, 1994).

11.40 Servants and Costume
John Styles , Head of Postgraduate Studies, Victoria & Albert Museum

12.10 Painted from the Shadows: Portraits of black servants, identified and unidentified
Rayahn King , Head of Interpretation and Exhibitions, Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery

12.40 Discussion

1pm Lunch (not provided)

2pm Servants in Photography: The Unexpected Dialogue
Denise Bethel , Director of Photographs Department and Senior Vice-President, Sotheby's, New York

2.30 Maids on the Move: Servant Migration in Victorian and Edwardian England
Pamela Horn , freelance writer lecturer and writer

3.30 The Class War in the Home: Live-in Service between the Wars
Dr Alison Light , University of East London

4.00 Questions/Discussion

4.30 Close

Booking
Visit the Ticket Desk in the Main Hall of the National Portrait Gallery, telephone 020 7306 0055, or email education@npg.org.uk to be sent a booking form.