Petworth House
The Beauty Room
Devised by the 6th Duke as a tribute to Queen Anne and the ladies of her
court, and was used by him as a dining room. The Duke served the Queen as
Master of the Horse , while the Duchess held the senior female post of the
Mistress of the Robes.
The portraits were probably inspired most directly by the full-lengths of
'the principal ladies attending upon her Majesty, or who were frequently in
her retinue', commissioned by the Duchess's close friend, Queen Mary, from
Sir Godfrey Kneller 'c.1690' and known as the 'Hampton Court Beauties'.
All but one of the paintings are by Michael Dahl, a Swede whom the Duke
employed on other work in 1695, 1708 and 1713. The set was completed by a
portrait of the Duchess of Marlborough by Kneller, who also painted the portrait
of the Queen.
They must have been painted after the fire of 1714, which gutted this part
of the House and probably before 1718-20, when Laguerre was painting the adjoining
Great Staircase.
According to ' George Jone's' biography of the sculptor ' Sir Francis Chantrey',
the Beauty Room remained unaltered until the late 1820s, when the 3rd Earl
of Egremont decided to create a shrine to Napoleon and Wellington here, hanging
Jones's depictions 'of the battles of Vittoria and Waterloo, with the bust
of the Duke of wellington(by Chantrey) between them'.
PICTURES:
Kneller's overmantel portrait of Queen Anne is in a frame supplied by Norman
in 1763 at a cost of £23.2s for the copy of Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII
(Carved Room). In addition to the female portraits by Dahl, the pictures include;
George Jones, RA (1786-1869)
The Battles of Vittoria 1813 (left) and Waterloo 1815 (right)
The pictures were commissioned by the 3rd Earl in honour of his second son,
General Sir Henry Wyndham, who fought in Wellington's victories. There hanging
here prompted the alteration of the Beauty Room in the late 1820s.
Thomas Phillips, RA (1770-1845)
Napoleon as First Consul
Painted from Phillips's sketch made 'ad vivum' in Paris during the Peace
of Amiens in 1802.
Adam Frans Van Der Meulen (1632-90)
Left:
Louis XIV Stag-hunting at Fontainebleau
Right:
Louis XIV at Maastricht
The 3rd Earl considered these pictures of an earlier French adversary appropriate
in spirit for his shrine to Napoleon - they have hung here since at least
1835, and probably since the late 1820s.
Fireplace:
The present 17th century bolection-moulded marble fireplace may be the original.
Certainly, it retains the 'Chimney Glass over the Chimney Piece in 3 plates
with a Bolection painted Moulding' listed in1764. However, if so, it was reintroduced
after 1925, when a photograph shows a plain Neo-classical chimneypiece here
in its place. This was the chimneypiece installed in 1826, presumably as part
of the 3rd Earl's Napoleonic alterations.
Furniture:
Carved Giltwood Pier-Table
English, 'c.1735-40'; Samuel Norman added 'pieces of Foliage, Ornaments
etc' in 1760, when it stood in the Blue Drawing Room at Egremont House, Piccadilly.
Black and Gold Table
Probably Florentine, 'c.1690'. From a group of five still in the House, and described in the 1749/50 inventory,
it is an important survival of the furniture acquired by the Proud Duke. It has, however, been redecorated, and its
marble top has been replaced in wood, probably in the 19th century.
Otherwise, it is a pair to the table in the Grand Staircase.
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