Ghosts in a Picture Gallery: The 17th Century Collection of The Earls of Bradford
After Charles II’s restoration as King of England in 1660, one of the royalist supporters who had battled for Charles’ father during the English Civil War assembled an outstanding collection of paintings by the greatest painters of the age, such as Sir Anthony van Dyck and Sir Peter Lely.
Francis Newport, 1st Earl of Bradford of the first creation, was a courtier to both Charles II and to William III (William of Orange). The Earl purchased from the great sales of the time to create an assemblage of no less than 400 art works, including paintings from Sir Peter Lely’s own collection. The Bradford collection was noted by contemporaries such as the great diarist John Evelyn and later by Horace Walpole. Yet where are these masterpieces now?
Join Gareth Williams, Curator & Head of Learning to the Weston Park Foundation, to learn about the collection and see the paintings that are now at Weston Park in Shropshire. Williams will also describe the hunt to find the missing third of the original collection. Some pictures ended up with the Countess of Mountrath who was memorably described by Horace Walpole as ‘rich and tipsy.’ He will also illustrate a few paintings that are now featured in US collections, as well as one that has come to light hanging on the wall of the dining room at number 10 Downing Street!
Join Royal Oak as we look at art collecting in the 17th century—comparing the Bradford collection to the paintings collected by Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel—and examine the secret lives of these paintings and their sometimes eccentric owners.
Gareth Williams, Curator & Head of Learning, Weston Park Foundation
Gareth Williams is Curator & Head of Learning to the Weston Park Foundation, an independent charity that conserves Weston Park, the ancestral home of the Earls of Bradford on the Shropshire/Staffordshire border. He earned his BA and Master’s degrees from the University of Manchester.
Mr. Williams began his career in London at Sotheby’s and later served as Regional Director for the auction house for five years in Chester. Before joining Weston Park in 2006, Mr. Williams held a curatorial position at Nostell Priory, a National Trust property in Yorkshire. In addition to his curatorial and conservation work, Mr. Williams undertakes consultancy work at other private historic houses throughout the United Kingdom.
Mr. Williams sits on the regional committee of the Historic Houses Association, and in 2022 was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. His recent books include The Country Houses of Shropshire, 2021 and Weston Park: The House, the Families, and the Influence, published in June 2022.
