Editing Felix Slade

{{Short description|English lawyer and collector}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
[[File:Portrait of Mr. Felix Slade, c. 1851, by Margaret Sarah Carpenter.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Slade, {{circa|1851}}, by Margaret Sarah Carpenter]]
'''Felix Joseph Slade''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FSA}} (6 August 1788<ref>His baptismal record, Baptism Register of St Mary's Lambeth, notes his birthdate ([https://web.archive.org/web/20060309183516/https://www.fownc.org/newsletters/no55.shtml]), usually incorrectly given as 1790.</ref> – 29 March 1868) was an English lawyer and collector of [[glass]], books and prints.

A fellow of the [[Society of Antiquaries of London|Society of Antiquaries]] (1866) and a [[philanthropist]] who endowed three [[Slade Professor of Fine Art|Slade Professorships of Fine Art]] at the [[University of Oxford]] and [[University of Cambridge|Cambridge University]], and at [[University College 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]], who announced his intention in his inaugural lecture "to the general dismay of his listeners."<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=OfjghCa3CnMC&pg=PA508 Official History of Oxford University, Vol VII]</ref>

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]], at Oxford, and [[Matthew Digby Wyatt]] at Cambridge; [[Edward Poynter]]. gave the first lecture on 2 October 1871 at University College, London.<ref>DNB, citing Poynter, ''Lectures on Art'', 1879.</ref>

He was the son of Robert Slade, a Surrey landowner<ref name=EB1911>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Slade, Felix |volume=25 |pages=206–207}}</ref> and proctor in [[Doctors' Commons]], 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 prints. He lived with his bachelor brother Henry in the family house in Walcot Place (in the [[Kennington]] area of London) and built up 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]];<ref name=EB1911/> the books are now in the [[British Library]]. One of the features of the book collection includes twenty-five bindings from the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, representing English, French, and Italian styles.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Makepeace |first1=Margaret |title=Felix Slade and his bindings bequest |url=https://blogs.bl.uk/untoldlives/2019/03/felix-slade-and-his-bindings-bequest.html |website=blogs.bl.uk |accessdate=18 March 2019}}</ref> £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<ref name=EB1911/> 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]].<ref>{{cite DNB|wstitle =Slade, Felix|volume=52}}</ref>

==Notes==
{{DNB poster|Slade, Felix}}
{{reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927225207/http://www.fownc.org/newsletters/no55.shtml Friends of West Norwood Cemetery: Genealogical notice]

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[[Category:1788 births]]
[[Category:1868 deaths]]
[[Category:English philanthropists]]
[[Category:English art collectors]]
[[Category:Burials at West Norwood Cemetery]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London]]