The Arundel Society was founded at London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 in 1849 and named after the Earl of Arundel

Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel

Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel KG, was a prominent English courtier during the reigns of King James I and King Charles I, but he made his name as a Grand Tourist and art collector rather than as a politician. When he died he possessed 700 paintings, along with large collections of sculpture,...

, the famous collector of the Arundel Marbles

Arundel marbles

The Arundelian Marbles are a collection of Greek marbles collected by Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel in the early seventeenth century, the first such comprehensive collection of its kind in England...

 and one of the first great English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 patrons and lovers of the arts. The society was originally the idea of the lawyer Belenden Ker and was founded at a meeting in the house of the famous painter Charles Eastlake

Charles Lock Eastlake

Sir Charles Lock Eastlake RA was an English painter, gallery director, collector and writer of the early 19th century.-Early life:...

, attended by Eastlake, Ker, Giovanni Aubrey Bezzi, and Edmund Oldfield. The society's purpose was to promote knowledge of the art works of the old Italian, Flemish, and other European masters. Much of the work of the society consisted of publishing chromolithographs of Italian art works, especially fresco paintings, of earlier centuries and raising public awareness for the preservation of these works. One of the people most responsible for furthering the goals of the society was Henry Layard

Austen Henry Layard

Sir Austen Henry Layard GCB, PC was a British traveller, archaeologist, cuneiformist, art historian, draughtsman, collector, author, politician and diplomat, best known as the excavator of Nimrud.-Family:...

, who joined in 1852. Some of the other important early members 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...

, Charles Thomas Newton

Charles Thomas Newton

Sir Charles Thomas Newton was a British archaeologist. He was made KCB in 1887.Newton was born at Bredwardine in Herefordshire, and educated at Shrewsbury School and Christ Church, Oxford. He entered the British Museum in 1840 as an assistant in the Antiquities Department...

, and Henry Liddell

Henry Liddell

Henry George Liddell was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, dean of Christ Church, Oxford, headmaster of Westminster School , author of A History of Rome , and co-author of the monumental work A Greek-English Lexicon, which is still used by students of Greek...

. Members of the Society's Council in 1877 included Frederick William Burton

Frederick William Burton

Sir Frederic William Burton RHA was an Irish painter born in Corofin, County Clare. He was the third director of the National Gallery, London.-Artistic career:...

, Lord Elcho (Francis Charteris)

Francis Charteris, 10th Earl of Wemyss

Francis Richard Charteris, 10th Earl of Wemyss GCVO , styled as Lord Elcho between 1853 and 1883, was a British Whig politician...

, 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:...

, George Edmund Street

George Edmund Street

George Edmund Street was an English architect, born at Woodford in Essex.- Life :Street was the third son of Thomas Street, solicitor, by his second wife, Mary Anne Millington. George went to school at Mitcham in about 1830, and later to the Camberwell collegiate school, which he left in 1839...

, Philip Charles Hardwick

Philip Charles Hardwick

-Life:Philip Charles Hardwick was a notable English architect of the 19th century who was once described as "a careful and industrious student of mediaeval art"...

, George Richmond

George Richmond

For the 21st century educator see George H. RichmondGeorge Richmond was an English painter.George Richmond was the father of the painter William Blake Richmond as well as the grandfather of the naval historian, Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond.A keen follower of cricket, Richmond was noted in one...

, and the architect John Norton

John Norton (architect)

John Norton was an English architect who designed country houses, churches and a number of commercial buildings. He was born and educated in Bristol...

. The society was discontinued in 1897.

Arundel Club. A society founded at London in 1904 for the purpose of continuing more effectively the work of the Arundel Society, which had encouraged the study of art by reproducing the best works of the old masters. The Arundel Club went further by copying and publishing important works in private collections previously inaccessible.