Women Can Paint Too!

Yesterday was a day free of commitments, once we'd been to church- and Bob suggested we went to visit a NT place. "Let's go to one we have not been to yet - what's in Suffolk?" After a quick glance at the handbook I suggested we might try Ickworth. So off we went, arriving soon after 1pm. On the way I read some useful facts to Bob, so we would be a little more informed when we got there!

The estate dates back to 1254, when Thomas de Ickworth was given permission by the Crown to create a deer park. 

It all gets a bit complicated, as many of the men in the family were called Ickworth- but 200 years later,after a legal dispute, Ickworth was in the hands of the Drury family - and eventually the sole heir of that clan, Jane, married a man called Thomas Hervey [pronounced Harvey] And the Harveys owned it for five centuries.

In 1700, John Hervey, future 1st Earl of Bristol wanted to transform the old manor house into something a little more grand. John Vanbrugh, architect of Blenheim Palace was brought in to design something. But it was not until the 4th Earl [known as Earl Bishop] inherited in 1779 that things really got underway. He wanted "Magnificence with convenience" and hired the Sandys brothers, Irish architects, to design something appropriate to contain his vast collection of antiquities and artistic treasures. He took his wife and family on The Grand Tour across Europe, collecting more stuff. Sadly, Napoleon's troops in Italy confiscated most of his travel souvenirs in 1798. He lived for five more years, attempting to recover his lost treasures. The house remained a shell, until 1823 when his son Frederick took matters in hand. 

This fabulous Italianate structure emerged in quiet Suffolk - a central rotunda, with wings on both sides. Frederick made the East Wing a 'family home' The Rotunda was a Museum and Gallery, where he entertained and impressed his visitors. - The West Wing was mainly empty, where they stored surplus stuff!

Now  the East Wing is quite separate and run as a hotel [way beyond my budget] The Rotunda remains the Gallery with some living rooms.There is the usual NT shop, café, and bookshop in the West Wing, and below stairs, the kitchens and servants quarters.

It was lovely to walk round, not too busy despite being a BH weekend. The rooms were not overcluttered, and you could imagine families sitting in the library [lovely green damask upholstery] or joining for meals around the dining table. 

You can see the 1908 portraits of two young Hervey sisters, Lady Phyllis and Lady Marjorie, in their white frocks with blue satin sashes. Except Marjorie did not like posing - so the artist painted her head - but Phyllis had to stand in as her 'body double'. The artist painted flowers in Phyllis' hand - but Marjorie has a book flung carelessly at her feet, to indicate her waywardness!

The Herveys were stupendously wealthy down the generations,and got the talented artists of their day to come and paint family portraits. They also acquired other artworks by some of the greatest artists of the past

Here is a portrait by Spanish master Velasquez, of Prince Baltasar Carlos, aged 6, painted around 1636. Heir to King Philip VI of Spain, he sadly died of smallpox aged 16.

And there is a Titian 'unknown man' painted around 1510 - but acquired by one of the Herveys when they were in Madrid 300 years later.

You name it, they had them all painting their portraits - Zoffany, Joshua Reynolds, Gainsborough, Hogarth, Holbein...

But what was superb was to find women painters represented too.

Elizabeth Vigee Lebrun [1755-1842] was court painter to Marie Antoinette. This self portrait shows her painting her own daughter Julie. It caused scandal, she is smiling open mouthed [not the done thing] I loved this picture, so fresh and bright.

And then there was the Angelica Kauffmann. AK was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768. The Hervey family were great supporters of the arts, and fully involved in the setting up of this institution.

Only two women artists were among the founding trustees [AK and Mary Moser] It was almost a hundred years before any more women were accepted.

      

I loved looking at Angelica's portrait of 

Lady Elizabeth Christiana Hervey [1759-1824] This Hervey lady joined that family at Chatsworth House. [she was in a ménage a trois with the Duke, and Duchess Georgiana, then married him soon after Georgiana died] Not the most moral of the Herveys then...

We learned so much more about the house, the servants, the gardener - and enjoyed sandwiches in the café. The rain was heavy - we will have to go back and visit the gardens another time. But as a spur of the moment outing, it was quite wonderful.