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The Royal Pavilion at Brighton: A Regency Palace of Color and Sensation

Join Cooper Hewitt for this illustrated talk on the Royal Pavilion at Brighton by curator and scholar Alexandra Loske. First constructed as a royal residence for King George IV, when Prince of Wales, the Royal Pavilion was remodeled by John Nash with interiors by Frederick Crace and Robert Jones between 1815–1822. Cooper Hewitt is home to many of Craces’ original drawings for the Pavilion, which feature fanciful representations of Chinese culture, design, and people. Loske will discuss the Pavilion’s interiors as a late example of British neoclassical chinoiserie, while investigating how the idea of China and chinoiserie designs evolved from the 18th to the early 19th century. Jamie Kwan, Cooper Hewitt’s Assistant Curator of Drawings, Prints and Graphic Design, will moderate this talk. 

“The Royal Pavilion at Brighton: A Regency Palace of Color and Sensation” is the second talk in a three-part series exploring a selection of chinoiserie-related materials from the museum’s department of Drawings, Prints & Graphic Design. The final session on November 12 will feature an exploration of the broader cultural context of chinoiserie and its influence on European decorative arts in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

Speakers: 

Dr. Alexandra Loske FSA is a British-German art historian, writer, and Curator of the Royal Pavilion in Brighton. She has published widely on color, including Colour: A Visual History (TATE); A Cultural History of Color in the Age of Industry (Bloomsbury); The Book of Colour Concepts (TASCHEN); the first monograph on Miss Gartside Abstract Visions of Colour); and The Artist’s Palette (Thames & Hudson). In 2025 she published a major new book on the Royal Pavilion with Yale University Press, The Royal Pavilion, Brighton: A Regency Palace of Colour and Sensation.

Jamie Kwan is the Assistant Curator of Drawings, Prints and Graphic Design at Cooper Hewitt. Before her time at Cooper Hewitt, Kwan served as the Associate Curator at the Wende Museum, an institution focused on the Cold War in Culver City, California. She has also held positions at the Morgan Library & Museum, J. Paul Getty Museum, Huntington Library, and Getty Research Institute.  

 


ACCESSIBILITY AND WHAT TO EXPECT
 

  • Format: The program will be hosted on Zoom. 
  • The viewing link will be emailed to you upon registration. 
  • The program will begin with a brief welcome, then the speaker will give presentations with slides followed by a Q&A with the audience.  
  • Accommodations: The program will have live closed captioning. If we can provide additional services to support your participation, email us at CHEducation@si.edu or let us know when you register. Please make your request as far in advance as possible—preferably at least ten days before the program date.  
  • Recording: The program will be recorded and may be posted on Cooper Hewitt’s YouTube channel.