My Highest Pleasures ― William Hunter's Art Collection

William Hunter (1718-1783) was appointed Professor of Anatomy at the Royal Academy of Arts on its foundation in 1768 - a post that was created for him. All London attended his sparkling lectures, whether directed at artists or at medical students, and visited the unique museum he established as a study collection. Within this extraordinary museum not the least extraordinary aspect was the collection of art, remarkable at the time because conceived as integral to a new kind of museum, and remarkable today as the only surviving collection formed by one of the founding members of the Royal Academy. In words from Mungo Campbell's introduction to the present book, "In the early twentieth century, it is possible to examine once more, probably for the first time since Hunter's death, the coherence with which his collection spoke to his contemporaries". It is Hunter's part in this milieu - one of particular ferment as regards the arts in Britain, the age of Hogarth, Stubbs and Reynolds - that this book examines, and at the same time documents in full the collection of art that Hunger bequeathed as part of his museum to the University of his native Glasgow.
The book accompanies an exhibition which offers the first ever analysis of his paintings in relation to the taste of this important period. The paintings are considered alongside books, prints and other objects which illustrate the intellectual agenda that lay behind Hunter's acquisitions, and the relationship of Hunter with better-known theorists such as Hogarth and Reynolds.
Four essays by Glasgow specialists present Hunter's biography, the significance of the collection as a whole, Hunter's taste as art collector, and Hunter's original museum in London (now destroyed). In addition to the catalogue and appendices, this volume presents a revised edition of the text of Hunter's manuscript notes for his lectures to the Royal Academy.