ROYAL ART EXPERT

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 834, 30 November 1929, Page 27

ROYAL ART EXPERT

QUEEN DETECTS ERROR IN CATALOGUE GAINSBOROUGH PORTRAIT How the great knowledge of art possessed by the Queen enabled her to detect a mistake unnoticed by the famous experts of the day is told in the October number of the “Connoisseur.” Art dealers have frequently been surprised by the accuracy of her Majesty’s judgment, but those who know her intimately realise that if she had not been a queen she might have been known as one of the foremost authorities on art of her age. Until quite recently a Gainsborough picture in the Lady Lever Art Gallery at Port Sunlight has always been described as a portrait of Princess Augusta Sophia, second daughter of George 111, It was sold as such in the Harland Peck collection, 1920, and entered as such in a recently issued illustrated catalogue of the Lady Lever Gallery. The Gainsborough picture was not a portrait of Princess Sophia, but of Anne Luttrel, Duchess of Cumberland, sister-in-law of George 111. Although hundreds of men and women have seen the Gainsborough picture, including some of the greatest art authorities in the country, it remained for the Queen to detect the error. Apparently the Queen saw a copy of the catalogue, for she communicated the fact that the description was an error, and informed the authorities that the portrait was one of Anne Luttrel.

The Queen has a wide knowledge of eighteenth century portraiture, and perhaps she alone of all the art lovers in England had the knowledge which enabled her to say at once that a mistake had been made.

The “Connoisseur” says:—“Anne Luttrell was one \of the most celebrated beauties of her time. Eldest daughter of Simon Luttrel, first Baron Irnham, afterward Earl of Carhampton, she was the widow of Christopher Horton, of Catton, when she captivated the affections of the duke. As the duchess, she does not appear to have been a complacent sitter, for Wright, of Derby, complains bitterly of the lady’s vagaries when he painted her at Bath, and records that neither of her portraits by Reynolds pleased her. Gainsborough, however, appears to have entirely satisfied the duchess, for both she and the duke repeatedly sat to him.” The lady was in advance of her time, and found herself in agreement with King George 111. in preferring Gainsborough to Reynolds as the greatest portrait paintgr of that day, an opinion that posterity : has endorsed, though formerly it was ridiculed.

Mr. C. Reginald Grundy, the editor of the “Connoisseur,” told a “Daily Chronicle” representative that the Queen’s sense of art criticism, as applied to portraiture of this period, had been shown some years ago. On that occasion Mr. Grundy was conducting the Queen round a large private collection. On coming to an example of the period, a stop was made. The Queen announced that the description of the portrait was probably inaccurate, and that the picture represented another person.