Painting back in pride of place in Yorkshire after clean-up

Thomas Lawrence’s work Mrs Charles Thellusson with her son Charles (c.1804)will be hung back up in its giltwood frame in the Dining Room of Brodsworth Hall, near Doncaster, on April 11.

But not before conservator Mike Howden spruces up the frame – which is flaking and has crumbling plaster – in front of the estate’s visitors this week.

Prior to this the artwork itself has been expertly cleaned by conservator Carol Lyons at an English Heritage studio in Greenwich, a process which has unearthed new pentiments – an underlying image within a painting – which were previously not known about.

Caroline Rawson, a collection conservator for the North, said: “We are phenomenally lucky to have this exceptional painting as part of the Brodsworth collection.

“It is returning to where it belongs, and we are delighted to see the depth of colour now evident following the conservation and to know this significant piece is now in a stable condition.

“The heavy gilded frame has an important role to play in how the painting is presented within the Dining Room, resting on a crimson velvet covered shelf.

“To be able to reunite the conserved painting and frame in front of visitors is a rewarding moment and another example of how English Heritage is bringing behind the scenes conservation tasks into the public domain.”

The little boy in the painting is Charles Robarts Thellusson (1797 – 1856), who is seen standing on the lap of his mother Sabine Thellusson (née Robarts, 1775 – 1814). He was the eldest of her six children.

The painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1804 and it was only after Charles’s death in 1856 that the unusual will of his grandfather, the financier Peter Thellusson, was finally settled.

Peter had stipulated that his property would only be inherited on the death of “the eldest male lineal descendants of my three sons then living”.

The boy in the painting was the last grandson alive when Peter died in 1797, so his death finally triggered the inheritance.

After years of legal wrangling, Charles Sabine Thellusson (1822-1885), the son of the boy in the painting, eventually inherited half of a much diminished, but still significant, fortune which included the Brodsworth estate.  

He built the present Brodsworth Hall between 1861-1863.

Treatment of the painting the English Heritage studio over the last six months addressed numerous problems affecting how the double portrait looked.

Its existing varnish layer was discoloured, which was causing it to “flatten the perspective” in the painting as well as mask finer details.

A previous restoration treatment had also aged poorly, leaving discoloured re-touches which “disfigured” elements of the painting, and there were some areas of fragile, flaking paint.

Ms Rawson said: “The conservation of this well-loved painting is part of our on-going work to conserve and care for Brodsworth.

“Visitors will have noticed work underway, and we are making excellent progress welcoming, involving and informing our visitors throughout this major investment project.”

English Heritage became a charity independent of Government in 2015, and cares for properties across the country.

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