Sir, Through the hospitality of your Magazine we are launching an appeal
for the conservation, reframing and rehanging of an important set of
seventeenth-century paintings. We are making this appeal in honour of
the art historian Alastair Laing, who died aged seventy-nine in 2024. It
was he who identified the artist of this series as the Flemish painter Gérard
Seghers (1591–1651).
Wentworth Woodhouse (Fig.1), the great Yorkshire country house
of the Fitzwilliams, was bought by a charitable trust in 2017. Most of the
contents had been dispersed after the Second World War, but a welldocumented
collection of sculpture came with the house, as well as a
few paintings and 83 acres of park and garden. Among the works of art
is a set of thirteen seventeenth-century paintings, framed in groups and
idiosyncratically mounted above the dado along three sides of the chapel
(Fig.3). Years of exposure to the smoke-laden air of industrial Yorkshire have
turned them brown and the effects of damp and neglect have left them
barely legible, but when properly lit they can be seen to depict Christ as
Salvator Mundi, St Paul and eleven of the twelve Apostles.
The paintings were at Wentworth Woodhouse before 1789, when
frames were supplied for them. At first, they were attributed to ‘Guido’; more
recently, they have been described as ‘after Rubens’. It was Alastair Laing
who, peering through the murky varnish, noted the strong Caravaggesque
drawing of the figures – of the hands, in particular – and recognised the style
of Seghers, an artist who, like Rubens, worked for a time in Italy. His career,
however, was ultimately eclipsed by that of the more well-known master.
Two versions by Seghers of the same apostolado are known to exist, one
in the Convent of the Sisters of Charity at Saint-Ghislain, Mons, the other
in the Convent of the Visitandine Sisters, near Warsaw. The paintings were
engraved by Schelte Adamsz Bolswert (c.1586–1659), a leading engraver
in the workshop of Rubens, and a complete set is in the British Museum,
London. Otherwise, Seghers is little known in Britain. Indeed, only a
few examples of his work are recorded in British collections: St Sebastian
comforted by an angel (c.1630) in Petworth House and the series The four
Doctors of the Western Church (c.1600–50) at Kingston Lacy, a house and
collection especially loved by Alastair.
By 1870 the thirteen paintings were framed in groups and fixed
against the walls, as they are now, probably to give a more church-like
feel to the simple prayer-book chapel of 1736, with its panelling and gallery
of carved, unstained oak. The fourteenth painting, depicting St James the
Great, was omitted for lack of wall space and is now in a private collection.
All thirteen in the chapel are in need of cleaning (Fig.2) and stabilisation;
some require relining. After the conservation work has been completed,
simple Flemish black and gilt frames will be made and the series will be
rehung on the walls of the chapel in two registers.
These remarkable paintings, works of great presence and drama, have
languished unrecognised for 250 years. They have survived the dispersal
of a great collection only because they had been fixed to the chapel
walls; however, this fact has also helped them endure the occupation of
Wentworth Woodhouse by the army and then for forty years by a teacher
training college. The cost of conservation, making new frames, transport
and rehanging will come to about £95,000. Generous pledges of £45,000
have already been received.
Many of those who attended the memorial service for Alastair in
November 2024 will have made a donation to the Friends of Czech Heritage.
The aim of the project described in this letter is to honour his memory in
this country. We hope those for whom this aim strikes a chord, and who
remember Alastair with gratitude and affection, will consider making a donation. Donors based in the United Kingdom may send directly to the
Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust’s bank account (sort code:
20-67-37; account number: 90121347) or via the Charities Aid Foundation
with a reference that identifies the subject of the donation. Donors in the
United States may contribute via the Royal Oak Foundation, where the
contact is Joseph Cairl, Director of Finance (jcairl@royal-oak.org). Anyone
who would like to know more about the project should contact Martin
Drury (martindrury@btinternet.com).
Signed,
Wolf Burchard
Curator, Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Martin Drury
Trustee of the Wentworth Woodhouse Preservation Trust
Nicholas Penny
Former Director of the National Gallery, London
Amanda Bradley Petitgas
Trustee of the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham
Pierre Rosenberg
Honorary President and former Director of the Musée du Louvre, Paris
Christopher Rowell
Chairman of the Furniture History Society
