James Alastair Stourton, (born 3 July 1956 in York, England) is a British art historian and a former chairman of Sotheby's UK.[1]
Stourton was educated at Ampleforth College, North Yorkshire and then Magdalene College, Cambridge,[2] where he took an MA in History of Art.
Stourton is the second son of Charles Edward Stourton, 23rd Baron Stourton, 27th Baron Segrave, 26th Baron Mowbray CBE and Jane de Yarburgh-Bateson, the only child of Lord Deramore.[3] In 1993 Stourton married Sophie Stonor, daughter of Thomas Stonor, 7th Baron Camoys. The marriage was dissolved by annulment.. James was partner to Charity Charity, the former worldwide creative director at JWT followed by Saatchi & Saatchi, from 2011 until her death in 2021.[4]
Stourton began his career at Sotheby's as an Old Master paintings specialist in 1979 and held many positions there, rising to the UK Chairmanship. He left the auction house in 2012 to become a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research, University of London.[5]
Stourton’s publications include The British as Art Collectors, A History of British Art Collecting from the Tudors to the Present, with Charles Sebag-Montefiore (Scala, 2012), Great Houses of London (Frances Lincoln, 2012),[6] which won the Spear’s Prize 2013 and Kenneth Clark (William Collins 2016),[6] named The Sunday Times Art Book of the Year 2016.[7] See also[8]
Over the years Stourton has been a regular writer of reviews, obituaries and articles for The Daily Telegraph; The Independent; The Spectator; Apollo; The Art Newspaper; Country Life, The Literary Review and was consultant to The Economist art collecting supplement.
James has written and published British Embassies: their diplomatic and architectural history (Frances Lincoln 2017)[9] and Dudley House: An Architectural and Social History Dudley House, published Swan éditeur 2019.[10]
James was the proprietor of the Stourton Press, with an article featuring in Matrix 24: A Review For Printers And Bibliophiles, published Winter 2004, entitled 'A Month of Sundays: My time at Stourton Press'.[11]
As well as being a Senior Fellow of the Institute of Historical Research of London University,[12] Stourton sat on several government committees including the Panel of the Heritage Memorial Fund,[13] and the Acceptance in Lieu Panel, from 2012 to 2021 in both cases.[14] James was deputy Chairman of the Acceptance in Lieu Panel and is Vice President of the Roxburghe Club.
Stourton has contributed to several television programmes, most recently for the BBC2 Culture Show programme on Kenneth Clark, screened Saturday 31 May 2014.[15] Past programmes include appearances with Victoria Leatham in Heirs and Graces (1990) on the art collections at Highclere and Berkeley Castles; he was also a contributor to BBC4 series on British Art Collecting (screened July 2013). Today he acts as the consultant to Sky Arts television series on art collectors being produced by Colonial Pictures.
He frequently lectures on the history of art and collecting, having in the past delivered lectures for the Cambridge University History of Art faculty, The Art Fund, Sotheby's Institute and many others. Stourton gave the keynote address at Frick Museum seminar on Anglo-American art collecting on 6 May 2011: The Revolving Door: 300 years of British Art Collecting.[16] He also delivered the lecture to close the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Italian unification at the Italian Embassy on 13 October 2011: The English Love Affair with Italy, 300 years of Art Collecting. In 2017 he was invited to give the Marlay Lecture at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
James gave the 150th Anniversary Lecture of the Building of George Gilbert Scott's Foreign Office, entitled "Goths vs Romans: The Battle to Build the Foreign Office'.
Stourton joined the British Painting Department of Sotheby’s, London in 1979. By 2006 Stourton was Chairman of Sotheby’s UK.[24]
During his time at Sotheby's Stourton organised many famous and important sales including the Ava Gardner Collection, the Bentinck-Thyssen Old Master Painting Collection, the Edward Fattorini Dutch Painting Collection, the Arturo Lopez-Wilshaw Silver Sale, the Palazzo Corsini Sale in Florence, the Guy de Rothschild sale in Monte-Carlo, the Sale of Charles de Beistegui at Château de Groussay.
He was behind the sale of many famous libraries including those of Fred Adams, the Montefiore Collection of Hebrew Manuscripts, the Macclesfield Library from Shirburn Castle, and the Wardington Collection of Maps and Atlases.
Whilst at Sotheby's he instituted the first Graduate Trainee Scheme, in 1987, which provided a very significant number of today's senior European directors, and in 2006 also initiated the Historic Houses Association/Sotheby's annual prize for a country house restoration.