Tenacious Anne

The Great Picture

Great pictures can come in all manner of shape and size.  What makes it great?  That definition is truly in the mind of the viewer, being that art appeals to everyone on different levels.  For myself, and this blog, there has to be more; history, villainy, obstacles overcome, the thread that weaves the Great Picture into the fabric of more than one instance.  I love finding these nuggets of time, studying the events and digesting the information for my readers.

Let Uther Pendragon do what he can

The Eden will run where the Eden ran.

This unusual triptych, commissioned by Lady Anne Clifford in 1646, celebrates a long battle that was settled through sheer determination, fortitude and the death of others.  The family estates, willed by her father, George Clifford, to his brother in 1605, were to revert to Anne only if the male line should fail.  Anne was George’s only surviving child.  In a tenacious battle, Anne fought to gain control of the estates, falling out with two husbands and resisting an order to relinquish her claim from King James himself.  Both of her husbands had to good grace to die long before she did, thus adding by degrees to her wealth.

The artist Jan van Belcamp painted The Great Picture to the Lady’s own design and specification, depicting three points in her life.  The left panel of the triptych shows Anne at age 15, the year her father died.  The central section depicts her parents and her two younger brothers that died in childhood.  The final panel is Anne at age 56, Countess of Pembroke, Dorset and Montgomery, standing in front of portraits of her husbands.  This final stage of the drama takes place when she finally gained her northwestern inheritance.

Though she did not succeed in asserting herself over her male relatives in their lifetime, Anne outlived them all, making her mark as a patron of charitable causes and as a family historian.  Her close relationship with her mother partly accounts for her dogged self-belief and formidable character.  Lady Clifford erected a monument to her mother’s memory on the spot where they last said goodbye in 1616.  The monument, erected in 1656, is located near Penrith, England.

Countess Pillar

One of the properties in this contested portfolio is Pendragon Castle.   According to legend, Uther Pendragon and a hundred of his men were killed here when the Saxon invaders poisoned the well.  The castle was attacked twice by the Scots, in 1360 and 1541, leaving it in a ruinous state, until extensively repaired in 1660 by Lady Anne.  She added a brewhouse, a bakehouse, stables and coach house.  It remained one of her favorite properties until her death in 1676.

Pendragon Castle

View from Pendragon Castle

Lady Anne’s successor, the Earl of Thanet, had no use for the castle and removed everything of value, including the lead for the roof.  By 1770 the second story had collapsed and gradual decay furthered the building to become the romantic ruin seen today.

Lady Anne Clifford 1590-1676

This little vignette of history is just a small entry, with many, many more to be offered on these pages.  Do you have a favorite story of history?  I look forward to chatting with you about the microcosms of history where you find inspiration!

Cheers,
Mary Jo

Museum Monday at the Walters Art Museum

Glass of Lemonade, Gerard ter Borch, 1617-1681

On this week’s Museum Monday I am returning to the wonderful collection at the Walter’s Art Museum.  The breadth and variety of their online exhibit is worth a second look, and a diamond for the virtual tourist is their feature of art works not on display, but viewable online.

I have chosen to look at the work of Gerard Ter Borch (1617-1681), and his painting “A Glass of Lemonade” which can be found at the Walters Museum.  Ter Borch’s works are comparatively rare, about eighty have been cataloged: six at the Hermitage, six at the Berlin Museum, , five at the Louvre, four at the Dresden Museum, three at the Getty Center, and two in the Walters Art Museum and a pair of portraits at the Corcoran Gallery.

Gerard ter Borch, 1617-1681

He received his early education from his father, Gerard ter Borch the Elder, also an artist.  1632 found him in Amsterdam where he studied under William Cornelisz Duyster or Pieter Codde. The inscription on a study of a head is recorded during this time.  In 1634 he studied with Pieter de Moijn, a record of this period is the Consultation (1635) at the Berlin Gallery.

Treaty of Westphalia

In 1635 he was in London, subsequently traveling to Germany, France, Spain and Italy.  In 1648 he was at Munster during the meeting of the congress which ratified the treaty of Peace of Westphalia.  While visiting Madrid, where he received employment and the honor of knighthood from Philip IV; but in a consequence of intrigue, he was obliged to return to the Netherlands; he settled in Deventer, where he became a member of the town council.

Indian Courtesan, Walters Art Museum

Not on view at the Walters is a Portrait Miniature of an Indian Courtesan.  English artists visited India to paint both large-scale and miniature portraits of those serving abroad as mementos for friends and families back in the Mother Country.  They introduced the European technique of painting in watercolors on ivory to the local artists.  In this instance, an artists from Delhi has portrayed a courtesan dressed as a princess wearing elaborate Mughal gold and gem-set jewelry.

The Walters Museum has 127 pages of items not on view at the museum, but available to the intrepid virtual tourist.

Thank you for joining me on this week’s Museum Monday.  Art and the history behind it tells so much more than just the textbook microcosm of life.  If you have any suggestions of museums for this series, please comment in the space below.  I can’t be the only one who noticed the fancy shoes in Herr Borch’s portrait.  It is a truly enjoyable experience to visit these websites and view what is available for those of us without a travel budget!

Best wishes on this Monday!

MJ