Portraiture SSN - Toolkit Demonstrator

Interpreting Portraiture Collections

Beningborough Hall Case Study

Pictures Tell Stories

This is a corridor hung in thematic groups to provide an introduction to the purposes, narrative strategies and stories of portraiture during the eighteenth century. Interpretation here is limited to exhibition labels, aimed primarily, though not exclusively, at traditional country house and gallery visitors.

Beningbrough Hall
(c) National Portrait Gallery, London

This is the caption text displayed beside the sculpture you can see in the hallway, under the title Hero Worship:

General James Wolfe (1727-59)
After a bust by Joseph Wilton (1722-1803)
Bronze, after 1760
NPG 2225

General Wolfe was killed leading the attack that seized Quebec from the French in 1759. In designing this posthumous bust, Wilton allegedly rushed to Portsmouth to have Wolfe's newly-landed coffin opened so he could sketch his face. Wilton found it 'too much distorted' and had to rely on association to create this idealised portrait of a hero. The bust combines the classical tunic and armour of an ancient Roman soldier with wolf motifs on the shoulders - a pun on the General's name.

James Wolfe after Joseph Wilton, c.1760 (NPG 2225)
(c) National Portrait Gallery, London

This is the caption text for the double portrait on the opposite wall of the hallway, showing a young woman in a white dress, with an older man:

Thomas Jenkins and his niece Anna Maria Jenkins
By Angelica Kauffamn (1741-1807)
Oil on canvas, 1790
NPG 5044

Thomas Jenkins (1722-98), the art dealer and banker, was sometimes considered England's unofficial ambassador to Rome. His niece, Anna Maria, went to live with him in 1788.

In 1790 she was searching for a husband and this portrait can be viewed as an advertisement of her charms. The rural setting, with distant view of the Colosseum, her white dress and the flowers she holds, all signify her beauty and purity. Welcoming potential suitors, her uncle takes off his hat and pats the dog - a symbol of loyalty - whose collar reads 'Jenkins'.

Anna Maria Jenkins and Thomas Jenkins by Angelica Kauffmann, 1790. (NPG 5044)
(c) National Portrait Gallery, London

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