Possibly Sir Barrington Bourchier (1651-95)
attributed to John Verelst (fl. 1698 - London 1734)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1699
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
686 x 590 mm (27 x 23 1/4 in)
Order this imageCollection
Beningbrough Hall, North Yorkshire
NT 1191211
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, an unknown gentleman, probably Sir Barrington Bourchier (1651-95), attributed to John Verelst (The Hague 1648 - London 1734), c. 1699. A head-and-shoulders portrait of a man, wearing a long and voluminous centre-parted wig, plate armour and a white cravat. Against a brown background. The sitter is probably Sir Barrington Bourchier I (1651-95). The portrait is installed overdoor, facing a pendant of a woman likely to be Barrington’s wife second wife, Margaret Bourchier nee Hardwick (NT 1191210). On the reverse of the frame is the inscription: 'east door of bedroom, south east corner, first floor'.
Full description
One part of four pairs of overdoor portraits depicting successive male heirs of the Bourchier family and their wives (NT1191150 & NT 1191149; NT1191211 & NT1191210; NT1191138 & NT 1191137; NT1191146 & NT1191142). Three pairs of paintings are mid to late 17th century and thus predate Beningbrough Hall, which was completed in c.1716 by John Bourchier (1684-1736). The 17th century portraits probably hung at the Elizabethan precursor house to this new Hall. An inventory of 1695 and the will (1745) and subsequent codicil (1749) of John Bourchier II (1710-59) all refer to ‘pictures’ and ‘family pictures’, with stipulations in the will and codicil that these were to remain in the Hall, with some specified in Bourchier’s will as 'in the wainscott’. The portraits were installed over the doors of the principal south-facing first and ground floor bedrooms, two flanking the saloon and two the dining room respectively. The installation of the portraits on the first floor thus mirrored that on the ground floor until around 1892, when remodelling of the current Drawing Room removed a partition wall which reconfigured the arrangement of the doors. The portraits run in chronological order and are thought to most likely depict successive Bourchier heirs, beginning with Barrington Bourchier (c.1627-80) and his wife Frances (nee Strickland, 1624-1676) which are installed over the doors of a principal south-facing bedroom flanking the west side of the first-floor Saloon (NT 1191150 and NT 1191149). Mirroring this hang, over the doors of the room immediately to the east of the saloon, are this portrait and a woman in blue wearing a richly embroidered cloak affixed at the shoulder (NT 1191211 and NT 1191210). The man in armour has been recently reidentified as Sir Barrington Bourchier (1651-95), son of Barrington Bourchier (c.1627-1680) (see below for further discussion). The pendant is therefore likely to depict Margaret Bourchier (nee Hardwick), the second wife of Sir Barrington and mother of John Bourchier (1684-1736) who built Beningbrough Hall (see NT 1191146). In the bedchamber flanking the east side of the ground floor Dining Room are Verelst’s portraits of Sir Barrington II (1672-1700) and his wife Mary Bourchier (nee Compton, d.1700, both signed and dated 1699 (NT 1191138 and NT 1191137). Sir Barrington II was the son of Sir Barrington I (NT 1191211). It was his death (shortly after that of his two young sons and younger brother) that saw the estate pass to younger half-brother, John Bourchier (1684-1736), who is depicted in the last of the four pairs with his wife Mary (NT 1191146 and NT 1191142). These portraits are attributed to Jonathan Richardson the Elder (1667-1745) and may have originally hung over the doors of what was originally the grandest bedchamber in the house (now the eastern half of the drawing room). It was fashionable in the early 18th century to incorporate family portraits into the fixed decoration of a room. It would appear that Beningbrough’s overdoor portraits were arranged to run in chronological order from the Restoration heirs to John Bourchier, builder of the present Hall. As underlined by the will of John Bourchiers son, this dynastic and hierarchical hang appears to have been an intrinsic feature of the Hall, intended to be preserved for generations and has indeed survived successive changes. NOTES ON IDENTIFICATION OF THE SITTER: The identification of this portrait as Sir Barrington Bourchier (1651-1695) was first suggested by Pat Taylor in 'The Restoration Bourchiers of Beningbrough Grange (Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, vol 60, 1988). This identification is supported by 1) his wearing of armour - Sir Barrington was a Deputy Lieutenant of the North Riding and a militia officer in Viscount Fauconburg's troop of horse and 2) the location of the portrait - it fits in the chronological portrait sequence of past generations of husband and wife Bourchiers built into the overdoors of principal rooms running from the first to ground floor. The suggested 1699 date is based upon the two other very similar works at Beningbrough which are signed and dated 1699 (NT1191138 and NT1191137). As this post-dates Sir Barrington's death in 1695, it has previously been suggested previously that the sitter may be Mark Bourchier (1674-1699) of York who was the younger son of Sir Barrington. However, it is perhaps more likely that the portrait is of Sir Barrington himself and was either commissioned posthumously or simply painted at an earlier date; perhaps in London or because Verelst (or his father Herman) may have been active in Yorkshire before his first documented activity at Temple Newsam in 1698. Compiled from research undertaken by Matthew Constantine, Cultural Heritage Curator, Yorkshire
Provenance
Found at property; Accepted in lieu of tax from HM Treasury, from the estate of Lady Chesterfield (1878 -1957), in 1958
Makers and roles
attributed to John Verelst (fl. 1698 - London 1734), artist