9/4/2023 0 Comments Painting keeper of secrets![]() ![]() Blunt would guide the Courtauld in the transition from fledgling academy to well-respected institution. He worked his way up at the Institute, eventually guiding it as its director from 1947 to 1974. His real passion, however, lay with the Courtauld Institute, a center for art historical studies. He endeared himself to the royal family, and would eventually be given a knighthood. During his time there, he encouraged the royal family to open up somewhat, and at times exhibit their private treasures publicly, among other projects. In that role, he maintained the paintings in the Royal Collection. When the top job at the Collection was vacated, Royal Librarian Owen Morshead, who'd forged a friendship with Blunt, recommended him for the position.īlunt served as the Surveyor of the King's (then the Queen's) Pictures from 1945 to 1972. He began working for the Royal Collection during these years, writing a catalogue of the French old master drawings at Windsor Castle. PA Images // Getty Images Meanwhile, he was earning professional accolades, and endearing himself to the royal family.Įven during the war, Blunt was continuing to publish critical essays and academic papers, and further ingratiating himself with members of the art historical establishment. Queen Elizabeth with Anthony Blunt in 1959. In addition to Burgess and Blunt, the "Five" included Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, and John Cairncross. "It was Burgess who recruited him," Lownie notes, adding that without Burgess, "Blunt would've just remained a sort of Marxist art professor at Cambridge." "I think, absolutely, that Blunt would never have been recruited if he hadn't been so friendly with Burgess," Lownie says. He also gets credit for bringing Blunt over to the Soviet side. "He was a far more effective spy than people realized with far greater access, particularly when he was private secretary to the number two in the foreign office," Lownie tells Town & Country. After all, he did variously work at the BBC, the Foreign Office, MI5, and MI6, and provided the Soviets with 4,604 documents-more than double Blunt's total. Andrew Lownie, author of Stalin's Englishmen, counters this claim. Regardless of the political climate at Cambridge or his sexuality, Blunt likely never would have engaged in espionage were it not for his close friend, Guy Burgess-after all, while many on the Cambridge campus had Marxist sympathies, a scant few would end up spying for the other side.īurgess was a famously larger-than-life character, often painted as a bumbling, amiable drunkard with a large sexual appetite. Lytton Strachey // Getty Images A close friend pulled Blunt into a circle of spies, later dubbed the "Cambridge Five." (This being despite the U.S.S.R.'s own regressive ideas about sexuality.)Īnthony Blunt (left), photographed in 1929 with his friends from Cambridge. Some also believe that Blunt's homosexuality may have prepositioned him to rebel, as he was not accepted into the British social order of the time. In her biography, Anthony Blunt: His Lives, Miranda Carter quotes Blunt's description of his fellow academics in January 1934, upon returning from abroad: " found that the intellectuals whom I had known before I went away were all coming the influence of Communism." Soon, he too was persuaded-first incorporating Marxist theories into his art historical essays, before eventually deciding to support the Soviet cause. ![]() (Also, many of the horrors about the U.S.S.R. That, combined with their concern for workers' welfare, made Marxism seem appealing. They were frustrated with the U.K.'s policy of appeasement toward Hitler, and thought that the Communists might be the only ones able to defeat the fascists. It was during his years in academia that Blunt joined the Soviet cause.īlunt attended Trinity College at Cambridge, and stayed on to continue his studies after graduation.Īt the time, it wasn't uncommon for liberal, college-educated youth to be sympathetic to the Communist party. A still of Anthony Blunt in The Crown season three. ![]()
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