The Queen's House

Treasures of London – Thomas Gainsborough’s ‘rediscovered’ portrait of Captain Frederick Cornewall…

by exploringlondon

Part of the collection at Royal Museums Greenwich since 1960, this three quarter-length portrait of Captain Frederick Cornewall (1706 – 1788) has in recent decades had been attributed to an unknown artist and held in storage.

That was reportedly thanks to a curator who, after the painting was acquired by RMG, didn’t deem it of sufficient quality to be a work of famed 18th century artist Thomas Gainsborough (1727 to 1788) (this was despite having previously been attributed to him).

Pre-treatment shot of an oil painting of Captain Frederick Cornewall, 1706-88, British School, 18th century, c1765. PICTURE: © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

Research by historian Hugh Belsey and RMG curators has now turned that on its head. Belsey, who had first come across the work in a photograph dating from the early 20th century, requested to see it in February last year after becoming aware it was in the museum’s collection.

Having inspected it, he found it – based on the warm palette and “unrivalled” draughtsmanship – to have been a work by Gainsborough and dated it to about 1762 when the artist was working in Bath. Society columns in newspapers from the time confirmed that the Captain had visited Bath in March, 1762.

‘I have been studying Gainsborough’s works for over forty years and during that time I have taken every opportunity to look at as many paintings and drawings as possible,” said Belsey. “I am delighted that this splendid portrait is now identified as a fine early work by Gainsborough.”

The painting, which was perhaps intended to commemorate Cornewall’s retirement from active naval service the previous year, depicts the captain in undress uniform and a bag wig, standing against a plain brown background.

He is shown without his right arm which he lost in 1744 Battle of Toulon (he also fought in the Battle of Minorca in 1756), the sleeve of his coat attached by a small loop to a button on his waistcoat apparently in imitation of the traditional 18th-century pose where men were often painted tucking one hand into their waistcoat.

Gainsborough has painted him with his right arm forward in an apparent effort to emphasise his war wound.

The painting is currently too fragile for display, according to curators, and RMG has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £60,000 towards the conservation work is preparation for its eventual display at the Queen’s House.

To donate, head to https://donate.rmg.co.uk/.

LondonLife – Van de Veldes inspiration at Greenwich…

by exploringlondon
Finn Campbell-Notman and Fail We May, Sail We Must. PICTURE: © SKY UK Ltd

British artist Finn Campbell-Notman has been named as the winner of the Sky Arts’ Landscape Artist of the Year for his creation of a contemporary seascape inspired by the work of 17th century marine painters, Willem van de Velde the Elder and his son, Willem van de Velde the Younger. Campbell-Notman’s work, Fail We May, Sail We Must, has gone on display at the Queen’s House in Greenwich which is currently hosting the new exhibition, The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea. The new painting was inspired by Campbell-Notman’s personal experience as he found out more about the Van de Veldes while travelling in The Netherlands. “My approach to landscape painting is that a painting is rarely, if ever, a direct transcription from a single view, even those painted en plein air,” Campbell-Notman said in a statement. “One composes and constructs, simplifies, rearranges and perhaps adds certain elements to create a picture. The finished painting is thus a record of a dialogue with what is seen and what is reflected within and want I to transmit; between what is seen and what is felt.” For more, see www.rmg.co.uk/queens-house.

10 historic stairways in London – 1. The Tulip Stairs, The Queen’s House, Greenwich…

by exploringlondon

London has many beautiful stairways – and some of them have some incredible historic connections. In this series, we’re going to be looking at 10 of them and the history that goes with them. First up, it’s the spectacular Tulip Stairs found in The Queen’s House in Greenwich.

The Tulip Stairs. PICTURE: Mcginnly (licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)

The wrought-iron stairs – which have the honour of being the first self-supporting spiral stair in the UK (meaning each tread is cantilevered from the wall and supported by the stair below rather than being supported by a central pillar) – were designed by Inigo Jones in 1635.

They are so named because the stairs, which are topped with a glass lantern, feature a flower pattern on the railings which resembles tulips although it is thought the flowers could be actually French lilies designed to compliment the Queen at the time of their completion.

Detail of the flowers on the Tulip Stairs. PICTURE: Maarten de Loud/Unsplash

For while Jones originally designed the house for Queen Anne of Denmark, wife of King James I, the building was unfinished and the stairs weren’t in place when she died in 1619. It was Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I and daughter of French King Henry IV, who was Queen when he completed the property.

The stairs were at the centre of a ghost sighting in the mid 1960s when retired Canadian clergyman Rev RW Hardy took a photograph while visiting the house with his wife which appeared to show a couple of spectral figures on the staircase. The couple were both adamant that the stair was clear when the photo was taken and the mystery of the image, despite subsequent investigations, apparently remains unsolved.

WHERE: The Tulip Stairs, The Queen’s House, Greenwich (nearest stations are Cutty Sark DLR, Greenwich Station and Maze Hill Station or by water, Greenwich Pier); WHEN: Daily 10am to 5pm (but check the website for closures); COST: Free (but a prebooked ticket is required); WEBSITE: www.rmg.co.uk/queens-house.