Lady Jane’s Paintings

The paintings conserved during this project form part of a historic collection of portraits in the Picture Gallery at Audley End, a substantial country house in the north-west corner of Essex. But they don’t depict people who ever lived at Audley End, or who had a connection to the property during their lifetime. They are all descendants of Lady Jane Braybrooke (née Cornwallis) who came to live at the house in 1820 after marrying Richard Neville, 3rd Baron Braybrooke, in 1819.

Soon after moving to Audley End with her new husband, Jane inherited the Cornwallis properties of Brome Hall and Culford Hall in Suffolk. Although these houses were subsequently sold, many of the collections they contained made their way to Audley End. This included a large number of family portraits. As a tribute to her ancestors, Jane arranged their portraits together, creating an intimate gallery on the first floor of the house, linking the north and south wings. This space subsequently became one of the family’s favourite living rooms. In 1834, a marble portrait bust of Jane was commissioned and placed at the entrance to the gallery. It remains there today, greeting visitors as they enter the space, almost as if Jane is inviting us to come and meet the family.

Charles Cornwallis

Charles, 4th Baron Cornwallis (1675–1722), was Lady Jane’s great-great-grandfather. He lived at Brome Hall in Suffolk and was the MP for the local town of Eye. The portrait of Charles by Maria Verelst was in largely untouched condition and had never been taken off the strainer (the original wooden frame over which the canvas is stretched). This was very unusual for a painting of this date and may help to explain its remarkably good condition.

However, the canvas was not securely attached to the strainer, its edges were degraded and the original strainer required replacement. The canvas was therefore reinforced by adding strips of fabric to the edges (a ‘strip lining’) which allowed it to be stretched onto the new custom-made stretcher.

Courtauld student Jack Chauncy, who treated the painting, explains:

A strip-lining is a more minimal approach to full lining, where the entire back of the canvas is adhered to another fabric. I used a polyester textile, normally used to make sails, to make the strips.

This type of fabric reduces how the painting reacts to changes in moisture in old buildings.

Elizabeth Ashburnham

Elizabeth Ashburnham, Lady Cornwallis (1610–43), was Lady Jane’s great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. She was the wife of Frederick, 1st Baron Cornwallis, and lived at Brome Hall. Her portrait, treated by Courtauld student Kyoko Takemura, was painted by a follower of Sir Anthony Van Dyck. 

After cleaning the painting, Kyoko faced a big retouching challenge:

The dress had lost most of its modelling, leaving light grey and dark blue streaks which was hard to read. The grey paint had formed a strange globule like texture, leaving the brown underlayer exposed...A tiny paint sample from the skirt was examined under the microscope to find a layer of smalt paint over a dark-coloured paint. Smalt is made from ground up tinted blue glass and it tends to lose the blue hue and become translucent as it ages, which is why the dress now appears grey. The globules formed because the smalt paint dried too quickly due to its glass content which accelerates the drying process.

The change in colour balance meant it was difficult to visualise how the painting would have looked originally. There were also multiple pentimenti (compositional alterations made by the artist as they worked) which became visible due to degradation. Together, conservators and curators decided to tone down the light grey streaks, reinforce abraded paint, and suppress the traces of pentimenti. This has improved the coherence of the drapery while the viewers are still able to see hints of the history of the painting.

Dorothy Butler

Dorothy Butler (1650–1716), Countess of Arran, was Lady Jane’s great-great-great-grandmother. Her only surviving child, Charlotte, married Charles, 4th Baron Cornwallis (both pictured in portraits by Maria Verelst above).

Dorothy Butler’s portrait by Willem Wissing was aesthetically in relatively good condition with few signs of damage and minimal overpaint. Courtauld student India Ferguson surface cleaned the painting using cotton swab sticks moistened with saliva to remove any surface dirt and dust. Saliva is a great cleaning agent for most historic paintings. The varnish was also removed and small amounts of retouching done.

Structurally the painting was in a less stable condition with prominent cracks and an undulating surface. India describes her process:

The painting had been lined onto another canvas previously, but this had detached over time as the glue failed and was no longer serving its purpose. Therefore, the original canvas was taken off the lining canvas – a big intervention as it involved removing the painting from its fixed strainer. The painting was then ‘strip lined’ (where strips of canvas are used to reinforce the edges of the painting) which allowed it to be re-stretched. This reintroduced good tension to the painting and means that the edges are now better supported.

_{Header image: A watercolour of the Picture Gallery at Audley End, painted by Lucy Neville, Lady Jane Braybrooke’s daughter, in the 1840s}