King Egfrid and Bishop Trumwine persuade Cuthbert to be made Bishop (One of a series of eight oil paintings illustrating the history of the English Border)
William Bell Scott (Edinburgh 1811 - Penkill Castle 1890)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1856 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil paint, canvas
Measurements
1854 x 1854 mm (73 x 73 in)
Place of origin
Wallington
Order this imageCollection
Wallington, Northumberland
NT 584366
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, King Egfrid and Bishop Trumwine persuade Cuthbert to be made Bishop, by William Bell Scott (Edinburgh 1811 - Penkill Castle 1890), signed and dated, at top of right hand stone pier: W B Scott June to Dec 1856. Cuthbert had retired from the cloister to a cell on a small desolate island off the north east coast where he lived for many years as a hermit. When he was asked to become Bishop of Hexham he was reluctant to leave his life of prayer and could only be persuaded to leave his hermitage by a visit from King Egfrid and Bishop Trumwine. The King is shown exchanging Cuthberts spade for the Crozier of a Bishop. After four years on the mainland Cuthbert, later St Cuthbert, returned and died in his hermitage (A.D. 684). The figure in the centre is a likeness of Mr Gow, for forty years Agent to the Trevelyan family, and the kneeling man is Mr Wright, a porter of the Museum in Newcastle. One of a series of eight oil paintings illustrating the history of the English Border painted between 1856 and 1861.
Provenance
Commissioned in 1855 by Sir Walter Trevelyan to decorate the courtyard at Wallington; began in 1857 and the series was exhibited at regular intervals at the Literary Society in Newcastle and completed in 1861 - the scheme of decoration was finished in 1863/64 when the spandrels high up near the vault were decorated with a progression of eighteen scenes from the Ballad of Chevy Chase, and the lower pilasters painted with local flora by other artists including Ruskin, Arthur Hughes, Pauline, Lady Trevelyan, as well as the portrait medallions, in the lower spandrels and portrait heads; given with the property to The National Trust in 1941 by Sir Charles Philips Trevelyan, 3rd Bt (1870 – 1958)
Credit line
Wallington, The Trevelyan Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
W B Scott Jan to June 1857 (signed and dated)
Makers and roles
William Bell Scott (Edinburgh 1811 - Penkill Castle 1890), artist