B.
To Russia with love
Behind the scenes
The Gallery owns an assortment of British eighteenth-century prints copied from paintings at Houghton Hall in England.
Houghton's magnificent painting collection was created by Sir Robert Walpole, Britain's first Prime Minister, and was sold by his dissolute and possibly insane grandson, George, to Catherine the Great of Russia, to pay off his enormous debts. The sale, which raised some £35,000 was as controversial as similar sales to overseas buyers are today. The Houghton purchase still forms the core of the old masters collection in the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
The prints were published as a portfolio by John Boydell in 1778. You can see all the works in this series that we own here.
But here is an example pairing. First our engraving:
Valentine Green Sir Thomas Wharton (In The Marble Parlour At Houghton) Mezzotint engraving. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū, Sir Joseph Kinsey bequest
And the original oil painting:
Anthony Van Dyck Portrait of Sir Thomas Wharton. Oil on canvas. State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Related
Collection
Valentine Green Sir Thomas Wharton (In The Marble Parlour At Houghton)
This print depicts the oil painting Portrait of Sir Thomas Wharton by Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641), now held in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.