218 Professional Notes

name, address, purposes and activities, together with evidence of its assets, be clearly described in the founding instru- ment, though there is no minimum required asset level to establish a founda- tion. However, it is important to note that the new Croatian law only recognizes individual foundations and not groups of foundations, and that it is very restrictive by virtue of granting extensive control over them to the Ministry of Culture and Education. The deductibility of dona-

tions to nonprofit organizations was abolished I January 1994 and deductibil- ity has not been reintroduced under the new law. In addition, the income from stocks and bonds which is earned by a fund and endowment remains taxable, and the law has not addressed the issue of endowment asset investments into com- mercial enterprises. This issue may bc covered in forthcoming regulations.

MILTON CI.KNY

Picture Framing I:

English Picture Frames in Three London Exhibitions

For the study of English picture frames, the year 1996 will by its end have been remarkable, and setting aside the major exhibition devoted to Lord Leighton at the Royal Academy of Arts, London (see Picture Framing II), three others have already provided a formidable prelude to The Aut of the Picture Frame: Artists, Patrons and the Framing of Portraits in Britain organ&d by the National Por- trait Gallery, London, for the period 8 November 1996-9 February 1997. Taken chronologically, with reference to their subject matter, the first was Dynas- ties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobean England 1j3O-16.30, mounted by the Tate Gallcry, October 1995-January 1996, and accompanied by a substantial well-illustrated catalogue edited by Karen Hearn [ISBN 1 85437 169 X (cloth); 1 85437 157 6 (paper)]. Unfortu- natcly, the Tatc Gallery did not choose to take advantage of this exhibition to address specifically the problems posed by the framing of the pictures included, though occasional notes are included in individual catalogue entries, and the present contribution is intended to draw

attention to original frames displayed therein.

Prince Arthur (1486-1502) was the eldest son of Henry VII and would have succeeded as king had he not died prematurely at the age of fifteen. The newly-discovered portrait (Catalogue no. l), from an Irish collection, is most probably that described in Charles I’s collection as: “Print Arthure in his minoritye/In a black capp and goulden habbitt houlding/in his right hand a white gillifloore in a reed pintit/gouldcn frame” measuring 11 X 7 inches (almost exactly the same size). Painted bv an Anglo-Flemish artist ~1500, the simple Late Gothic ‘window’ frame has every appearance of being original, though little of the original painted surface and gilding survives. Van der Doort rccor- ded, among “Nyne old heades” in the collection of Charles I, “a Lardger pic- ture . . without a beard putting a ring uppon his left hand . . Saide to be king Edward ye 4th in a reed & guilded frame”, and the identification of this with the Anglo-Flemish posthumous portrait of Edward IV, ~1520, still in the Royal Collection (Catalogue no. 2) is convincing. Notwithstanding the mod- ern sight mouldings, this flat frame with lap joints could well be original, though all too little research has been under- taken on late 18th century antiquarian frames of this pattern.

Professional Notes 219

1. Detail of Alice, Ludy Le Strange, by John Hoskins, oil on panel, 57.5 X 44 cm, Private Collection, lent to the exhibition Dynasties: Painting in Tudor and Jacobeun Englund lli30-1630, Tate Gallery, London. Payment for this portrait and its pendant was made in 1617 and the simple oak moulding frames were presumably made in London then. Both retain the original iron fittings which formerly carried the rods onto which were threaded the rings of protective curtains, now lost.

The precise status of the early portrait of Elizabeth I, presumably painted in England cl565 (Catalogue no. 33), is puzzling, not least because of the by then archaic construction of the panel and gilt ‘window’ frame carved from a single block of wood (? oak). The additional fillets, in pine, nailed onto the side edges, appear to date from the same time as the present gilding and the inscription on the till, ? early 19th century, and the panel may originally have formed the right wmg of a dtptych of a surprisingly conservative type. On the other hand, the turned walnut double-sided integral frame of the double-sided portrait of A Man of the Wachendorff Family, by Cornelius Ketel, signed and dated 1574 (with A Putto blowing Bubbles on the verso; lent by the Rijksmuseum, Amster- dam; Catalogue no. 55), is a much more

sophisticated production. The turned blank for it may well have been brought by the painter with him from the Neth- erlands when he came to London in 1573, or ordered from ? Antwerp. According to Ketel’s friend and well- informed biographer, Karel van Mander, his first clients in England were mer- chants of the German Steelyard, and the arms of the Wachendorff family are depicted on the lid of the watch on the table alongside the sitter. Adam Wachen- dorff served as the Secretary of the Steelyard in the late 16th century and in his Will dated 27 February 1591 he indicated that he had been living in London for at least fifteen years. Turned wooden roundel images of this type were particularly popular with German patrons and artists, and Ketel-? at the suggestion of van Mander-would

220 Projmional Notes

appear to have set about emulating Hans Holbein the Younger in painting the Merchants of the Steelyard in London as an entree to English patronage. If so it was not successful and Ketel left for Amsterdam in 1581.

More interest is expressed by Karen Hearn in the frame enclosing the portrait of Alice, Lady Le Strange, by John Hoskins (Catalogue no. 144). Together with its pendant, the portrait of Sir Hamon Le Strange (not exhibited), these portraits are listed in Dame Alice’s Household Account Book for 1617 when “Mr. Horskins” was paid ~4 “for drawing 2 pictures” and IS 7d was paid “For a Case and a Cord for 2 picktures”.

The plain oak moulding frames with simple gilt sight edges and fillets, pre- sumably made in London rather than Kings Lynn, are described and attention is drawn to the original iron fittings surviving, on the top sections of both frames, which formerly carried the rods onto which were threaded the rings of protective curtains, now lost. The appearance of such fittings is well known from paintings of interiors of galleries, etc., as well as from references in con- temporary inventories, but they very

rarely survive. The second exhibition to include fine

English (and other) picture frames was In Trust for the Nation: Paintings from

2. Landscape with Antique Ruins and Figures, attributed to Pierre Pate1 the Elder, oil on canvas, 102 X 127cm, in a shaped gilt Rococo frame, The National Trust, Wallington, Northumberland, lent to the exhibition In Trustfor the Nation: Paintings from National Test Houses, National Gallery, London. Dating from the late 17th century, this landscape was rcframcd in the 1740s as a Rococo overmantel for the Drawing Room at Wallington so as to be en suite with the Rococo plasterwork by Pietro Lafranchini (1741).

Professionnl Notes 221

National Trust Houses, displayed at the National Gallery, London, November 1995-March 1996, with an excellent catalogue prepared by Alastair Laing [ISBN 0 7078 0260 1 (cloth); 0 7078 0195 8 (paper)]. Over the years much research has been undertaken on the picture frames in the care of the National Trust, but relatively little has been published, and Alastair Laing’s catalogue entries provide a considerable amount of fresh contextual information. Although he prefaces his comments with the wise disclaimer “It is always perilous to make assumptions about picture frames’, he identifies the proto- Sunderland frame enclosing the full- length portrait of Lady Frances Cran- field, Countess of Dorset, bv Sir Anthony van Dyck, from Kndle, as probably original (Cataloguc no. 3). The execution of the portrait can be dated to 1636, and Alastair Laing quotes the bill from the painter-dealer George Geldorp to Lady Frances’s father, Lionel Cranfield, 1st Earl of Middlesex, including the sum of f6: “pour une bordure fort Riche pour le Portrait de Madame ffransis Coppie”. He also notes that, in company with some other examples of proto-sunder- land portrait frames at Ham House, “They arc distinguished from true ‘Sun- derland’ frames by the lack of auricular ornament, and by the corner ornaments, which are a cross between pomegra- nates and fleur-de-lis”. This is indeed true and taken with associated frames at Knole and others in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, this group of proto- Sunderland frames also demonstrates well their origins in the more strictly architectural Sansovino frames popular from the mid-16th century.

Included in the National Trust cxhibi- tion were a number of other more-or- less standard English 17-19th century picture frames, not least the very hand- some ornamented mid-18th century Maratti frame enclosing the View of Verona from the Ponte Nuovo, by Ber- nardo Bellotto, painted for an unknown English patron, which can be dated on

stylistic grounds to 1745-47. Presum- ably the same discerning English patron was responsible for commissioning this frame on the painting’s arrival in Eng- land, but there is at present no record of it before 1771-74 when it was in the possession of the 1st Lord Clive and hung in his London house. However, a complete contrast is provided by the pierced, gilt Rococo overmantle frame enclosing the Landscape with Antique Ruins and Figures, attributed to Pierre Pate1 the Elder, which was installed in the then Drawing Room (now Library) of Wallington, Northumberland, pre- sumably not long after it had been stuccoed with Rococo decorations by Pietro Lafranchini in 1741 for Sir Walter Calverley Blackett, Bt. (Catalogue no. 38). Undocumented, the ensemble now serves as the overmantle in the Entrance Hall.

On the other hand, the 2nd Earl of Egremont was rendered, 20 August 1752, by Joseph Dufour, a bill “For Carven 8 little frames Gilt in Burnish’d Gold att 30 shillings each” (i.e. 912 for the set) to reframe separately the set of eight small paintings by Adam Elsheimer at Pet- worth House. The organisers of the exhibition restored them to these frames for display in London (Catalogue nos. 59 a-h), though their being documented does not in any way improve their modest quality or make them more appropriate for the task! In due course the continental frames displayed in this exhibition will be covered by a separate contribution to these Professional Notes.

The third exhibition was that devoted to Richard & Maria Cosway-Regency, Artists of Taste and Fashion, shown at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh, August-October 1995, and at the National Portrait Gallery, Lon- don, November-February 1996, with a valuable catalogue by Stephen Lloyd (ISBN 0 903598 53 1). Richard Cos- way’s unusual allegorical portrait of The Witts Family, in a fictive octagon, lent by the Tate Gallery, was painted to commemorate the early death of

222 Professional Notes

Broome Witts (1738-1769), a successful linen draper of the City of London, and it was exhibited by Cosway at the newly-founded Royal Academy of Arts (1770, no. 49) as ‘“The portraits of a gentleman, his wife, and sister, in the character of Fortitude introducing Hope as the companion to Distress” (Catalogue no. 2). However, the Cata- logue makes no mention of the unusual frame which is most probably that in which it was sent to the Royal Acad- emy Summer Exhibition and bears on the vcrso the label of Thomas Barnett Cotton of 42 Fenchurch Street, Lon- don, who was until now known to have been active as a framemaker 1773-1808 (information kindly provided by Jacob Simon). The outer edge is gadrooned, while the top edge is ornamented with conventional foliage resembling tulip heads as a continuous running pattern, and the sight edge with coarse acanthus, but the strange spandrels are ornamcn- ted with roundels and an abstract ‘fun- gus’ design, all no doubt designed to attract attention in these large and very varied public displays of art. I f not

actually designed by Cosway the detail- ing on this frame is not uninfluenced by him.

Richard Cosway’s full-length portrait of the flamboyant William, 3rd Viscount CourtenaJj is signed and dated 1791 and depicts him in the spectacular Vandykc dress which he had worn during his coming-of-age celebrations at Powder- ham in 1790 (Catalogue no. 93; Powder- ham Castle). Although again not dis- cussed in the catalogue, this palely gilt frame is appropriately showy and almost certainly designed by Cosway for max- imum effect, although it was not exhib- ited at the Royal Academy. The top edge is ornamented with a sculptural running garland of carved bunches of laurel leaves culminating in a cresting com- posed of a bow with two quivers, while the sight edge is adjoined by a running garland of naturalistic carved flowers bound by a ribbon. The exceptional panache of the design, its crisp carving and the pale colour of the gilding, identify this frame as an extravagant Regency challenge to French Louis XVI taste and it emphasizes Cosway’s role as

3. Detail of the gilt frame enclosing the portrait of William, 3rd Viscount Cowtenay, by Richard C&way, signed and dated 1791, oil on canvas, 230 X 172cm, Lord Courtcnav, Powderham Castle, lent to the exhibition Richard C Maria Cosway Regency Ah-ts of Taste and Fashion, National Portrait Gallery, London. The sculptural running garlands of -carved bunches of laurel leaves and naturalistic flowers bound by a ribbon are of exceptional quality and, taken with the pale gilding, represent a determined Regency challenge to French Louis XVI taste.

Professional Notes 223

an articulator of Regency taste and fashion.

Consequently, on a more modest scale, it is not surprising to find many of the same characteristics evident in the heavy frame enclosing the portrait of the famously extravagant George, Marquis of Blandford, later 5th Duke of Marlbor- ough, which was commissioned by him from Cosway in 1797 (Catalogue no. 94; Blenheim Palace). A deep cavetto frame with richly ornamented fluting, roses in the corners and heavily modelled acan- thus ornament on the top edge at the corners, the exhuberant taste displayed is the epitomy of the Regency era, and a similar design was employed for that enclosing Cosway’s portrait of The Hans Sophia, Louisa and Mathilda Courtenay commissioned by Lord Courtenay in 1805 (Catalogue no. 151; Powderham Castle). However, the constant danger of exhuberance toppling over into excess is well illustrated by the massive frame overwhelming Maria Cosway’s rather tentative portrait of Caroline Princess of Wales, and Prices5 Charlotte painted in 1800. The heads were apparently retou- ched at the beginning of the following year by Sir Thomas Lawrence and the whole was given by the Princess of Wales in February 1801 to Lady Glenbervie when she was about to embark for the Cape of Good Hope (Catalogue no. 225). This extraordinary Regency con- fection is composed of an unlikely mel- ange of Neo-Classical and Rococo ele- ments surmounted by the Prince of Wales’s coronet and feathers, all brightly gilt, and provides an eccentric climax to the group of English picture frames discussed here.

The major exhibition of English pic- ture frames being organised by the National Portrait Gallery, London, for 8 November 1996-9 February 1997, will break new ground in that it is the first to be organised by a public institution in the United Kingdom, and it is sponsored by Paul Mitchell Ltd. Based on the Gallery’s exceptional though little- known collection, it will feature some 180 frames selected from its permanent

collection, most of them with their pictures, commencing with the earliest documented frame in the collection, that of 1505 on the portrait of Henry VIZ. Apart from the technical aspects of framemaking and the relationship between the picture frame and interior design, the organiser, Jacob Simon, promises that “frames chosen, or used by artists will be a dominant theme with some 90 examples covering the prefer- ences of some 50 artists including Lely, Pond, Hoare, Cotes, Reynolds, Romney, Stubbs, Lawrence, Rossetti, Watts, Sar- gent, John and Sutherland. The catalogue will form a handbook to artists’ frame styles, among other themes, and will be of great interest to curators, dealers, collectors and scholars”.

Parallel with the National Portrait Gallery exhibition, the sponsors, Paul Mitchell Ltd, will be presenting Frame- works: Form, Function & Ornament in European Portrait Frames from the 16th to the 20th Centuries at their London Gallery, and this is intended to set the subject in its international context. This exhibition is accompanied by a sub- stantial book with the same title, by Paul Mitchell and Lynn Roberts (ISBN 1 85894 037 0). However, the academic basis of the exhibition lies in the produc- tion, over nine years, of the picture frames article prepared by Paul Mitchell and Lynn Roberts for the forthcoming Macmillan Dictionary of Art, and this will be issued as an independent publica- tion in November 1996 as A History of European Picture Frames (ISBN 1 85894 036 2) with 56 specially constructed diagrams in the form of framemakcrs’ pattern books.

Photo Credits 1. Tate Gallery, London. 2. Wallington, Northumberland (The

National Trust) by courtesy of the National Gallery, London.

3. Jacob Simon, London, by courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Lon- don.

PF,TEK CANNON-BKOOKI:S