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Rembrandt & van Hoogstraten: The Art of Illusion

It takes a split second these days to create an image, and how many millions are recorded daily on mobile phones, possibly never to be looked at again? You can see it all happening in the palatial surroundings of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, definitely one of those tick-off destinations on many travellers' bucket lists, where those in search of instant pictorial satisfaction throng the imposing statue-lined staircase for a selfie or pout for a photo in the café under the spectacular cupola. But we're not in Vienna for a quick fix, we're at the KHM to admire something more enduring in the shape of art produced almost 500 years ago by Rembrandt and his pupil Samuel van Hoogstraten that was intended to mislead your eyes into seeing the real in the unreal. Artistic deception is the story at the centre of  Rembrandt--Hoogstraten: Colour and Illusion , one of the most engrossing and best-staged exhibitions we've seen this year. And, somewhat surprisingly, a show wi...
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Strawberry Hill's 18th-Century Splendours Revived

If you've never been to Strawberry Hill House, Horace Walpole's Gothic mansion in south-west London, there may never be a better opportunity than now to get a taste of its past splendours. And if you have been, it's time to visit again to see the Lost Treasures of Strawberry Hill, an exhibition that brings back to the house many of the works of art that were part of one of the greatest collections of the 18th century. 

Walpole, the son of Britain's first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, revived the Gothic style when he built Strawberry Hill between 1748 and 1790. His collection, ranging from paintings and sculptures to historical curiosities, was dispersed in an auction in 1842. More than 150 objects have been reassembled for this show after a three-year hunt by the curators through private and public collections.  

The show revives memories of the 2013 exhibition that saw Houghton Hall in Norfolk rehung with 60 of Sir Robert Walpole's paintings, which had been sold to Catherine the Great and are now part of the Hermitage in St Petersburg. This event at Strawberry Hill is not on that scale, but it is fascinating and hugely atmospheric.  

You get a real feel of the house in the first main room you enter, the Great Parlour, Walpole's dining room, with a flamboyant fireplace and its Gothic-style furniture. It's hung with family portraits, among which pride of place goes to this Portrait of the Ladies Waldegrave by Joshua Reynolds, showing Maria, Laura and Horatia, the daughters of Walpole's niece Maria. Towards the end of the show you can see Reynolds' receipt for the purchase price of 300 guineas -- £27,000 in today's money. Collecting was, comparatively, a lot cheaper in the 18th century.
In front of the window in this dining room, an object that Walpole listed as being among his "principal curiosities" -- a magnificent 1st-century AD Roman eagle. There's a 16th-century French copper and enamel hunting horn on the opposite wall, just to underline the eclectic nature of the collection.
The house really is an architectural oddity, and how bizarre it must have appeared to the Georgian tourists who visited it in what was then a rural situation with views down to the River Thames. A century later, of course, and Gothic Revival was almost the default style for Victorian churches and many major public buildings.
It was Walpole who started all this, and he also wrote the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. He doesn't seem to have been a very good painter: Some copies by him of Watteau in his bedchamber are pretty awful. But he scrubbed up well for his own portrait, here in a pastel by Rosalba Carriera, painted in Venice while Walpole was making his Grand Tour.
This picture is displayed in the splendid Round Drawing Room. Robert Adam designed the ceiling, copied from a window in Old St Paul's Cathedral, and the fireplace, based on the tomb of Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. The pictures in this room, Walpole wrote, "serve as furniture". Furnishings then, by Reynolds, Carriera, Allan Ramsay, Pompeo Batoni and Anthony van Dyck.

Walpole was something of a character. On one occasion in 1769, he welcomed a group of French aristocrats to Strawberry Hill clad in an outfit that included a pair of early 17th-century embroidered red leather gauntlets, which Walpole supposed to have belonged to James I, and in this limewood cravat carved by Grinling Gibbons, which may actually be the most mind-boggling object in this exhibition. (Why did Gibbons carve a cravat, you ask? Probably to show he could carve anything.)
What's the best room at Strawberry Hill? The Library is pretty astonishing, with its bookcases based on a doorway in Old St Paul's, but in this exhibition it's the vaulted Gallery that steals the show, with 15 of the paintings that once hung there now back in situ, and other pictures presented as replicas.
At one end of the room is this Portrait of Catherine de Medici and her Children by the studio of François Clouet, now in a private collection.
Walpole was extremely interested in French and British kings and queens, and the Holbein Chamber in the house was designed to evoke the reign of Henry VIII. It contained copies of drawings by Holbein in the royal collection, and replicas of these are on show. And there's a red cardinal's hat, documented by Walpole as belonging to Cardinal Wolsey. Surprised he didn't wear it for his French visitors....

This is a terrifically well-done exhibition, with a lot to see. There's an excellent explanatory booklet and plenty of volunteer guides on hand to provide extra information. It's one of those once-in-a-lifetime chances to view these works of art together in the house they were bought for. Go and see it.

Practicalities

Lost Treasures of Strawberry Hill: Masterpieces from Horace Walpole's Collection runs until February 24 at Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham. It's open daily, from 1200 to 1800 Monday to Friday and from 1100 to 1800 at the weekend, with public guided tours available on Saturday and Sunday mornings and on Friday evenings: See the link for details. Standard adult tickets cost £16 and can be booked here. It's £2 more on the door. Various concessions are available.

The house is on Waldegrave Road; it's a signposted five-minute walk from Strawberry Hill station, which has trains every 30 minutes from London Waterloo, taking just over half an hour.

Images

Joshua Reynolds, Portrait of the Ladies Waldegrave, 1780-81, National Galleries of Scotland. Edinburgh. © National Galleries of Scotland
Eagle on an altar base, Roman, 1st-century. Gosford House, East Lothian. © Earl of Wemyss and March
Strawberry Hill House. Photo: Kilian O'Sullivan
Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of Horace Walpole, 1741. Pastel. Photo: Kilian O'Sullivan
Grinling Gibbons, Cravat carving, c. 1690, Victoria and Albert Museum, London. © V&A images/Victoria and Albert Museum
The Gallery. Photo: Kilian O'Sullivan
Studio of François Clouet, Portrait of Catherine de Medici and her Children, 1561. © Private collection c/o Omnia Art Ltd
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