Bowes Museum – IMS Photography

Portrait of the Emperor Napoleon III

Ian Malpass-Scott — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:36:00 +0000

Joséphine Coffin-Chevallier met John Bowes in 1847 in Paris. Together, they were to found the Bowes Museum, and this painting, even though made well before the museum took shape, shows the young woman with all the appearance of a benefactress. This portrait shows her at the age of 25, in her Paris home, with her dog Bernardine. She leans on a fashionable Boulle table, and a Boulle bookcase can be seen in the background. On the table rest the text of several plays in which Joséphine appeared when an actress at the Théâtre des Variétés on the Boulevard Montmartre in Paris, under the stage name Mademoiselle Delorme. John Bowes was the owner of this theatre, which he had purchased in 1847. Joséphine became John’s mistress and they were married in 1852.She became Countess Montalbo in 1868; the coat of arms with the countess’s coronet is therefore a later addition.

Provenance: Presented by Miss Edelston, 1954

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Jules de Vignon (1815-1895), after Franz Winterhalter (1805-1873)
Date: 1867

Image Details
Date: 7 Feb 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25s
ISO: 500
Licensing: Image of a Bowes Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

St Luke Drawing the Virgin and Child

Ian Malpass-Scott — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:36:00 +0000

Dieric Bouts is regarded as one of the leading 15th century Netherlandish painters. In the Northern European Renaissance, he was a pioneer in the technique of oil painting and renowned for his rendering of landscape. He was also the first of his contemporaries to use single-point perspective; a drawing method that shows how things appear to get smaller as they get further away, converging towards a single ‘vanishing point’ on the horizon line. Examples of his work are extremely rare in British collections.

The painting offers a glimpse of the artist’s studio, seen through a doorway on the extreme right. It provides valuable evidence of artists’ methods and materials during this period, and proclaims a confidence in their social status. This is further confirmed by the placing of the artist himself (as St Luke) at centre stage in the composition.

The view of the studio shows an easel, placed by a large window to take advantage of the natural light and, in some detail, the materials used for preparing the paint. This was a laborious and time-consuming process, usually carried out by an assistant. It involved grinding up the pigments, mixing them with oil, and then transferring the resulting colours to separate receptacles – in this case, shells. It was only by examining these under the microscope that the conservators were able to identify them definitely as mussel shells. There is also a palette for trying out the paints before application.

Provenance: bequeathed by the Founders, 1885

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Attributed to the workshop of Dieric Bouts the Elder (c.1415-75)
Date: c. 1470-80

Image Details
Date: 7 Feb 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Image of a Bowes Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

The Martyrdom of St Andrew

Ian Malpass-Scott — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:36:00 +0000

Provenance: bequeathed by the Founders, 1885

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Luis Tristán de Escamilla (1585–1624)
Date: c.1616–1624

Image Details
Date: 7 Feb 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Telephoto Camera 52mm ƒ/2.4
Focal Length: 52mm
Aperture: ƒ/2.4
Shutter Speed: 1/33s
ISO: 400
Licensing: Image of a Bowes Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

The Tears of Saint Peter

Ian Malpass-Scott — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:36:00 +0000

The artist, who was born in Crete, found many patrons in Toledo, becoming a wealthy man. He produced several versions of this picture during his long career in Spain. According to Saint Luke’s Gospel, Saint Peter denied Jesus on the night before his death, thus fulfilling Christ’s prophecy. When Peter heard the cock crow after his betrayal, he remembered Jesus’s words and ‘went out and wept bitterly’. Here, Saint Peter raises his tear filled eyes to Heaven, hands clasped in prayer as he repents his denial of Christ in Gethsemane. In the background is Christ’s empty tomb with Mary and an angel nearby. The artist uses the bright light and flashing sky to heighten the drama of the moment and arouse a spiritual fervour in the viewer. The subject was popular in the Catholic Church due to its association with making a confession of sin.

Provenance: bequeathed by the Founders, 1885

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: El Greco (1541–1614)
Date: c.1580–1589

Image Details
Date: 7 Feb 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Telephoto Camera 52mm ƒ/2.4
Focal Length: 52mm
Aperture: ƒ/2.4
Shutter Speed: 1/33s
ISO: 640
Licensing: Image of a Bowes Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

St Luke

Ian Malpass-Scott — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:36:00 +0000

St Luke was one of the four evangelists and is believed to have been a painter. He therefore became the patron saint of painters and is often shown with a brush and easel. Luke, Matthew, Mark and John each wrote a gospel, which are the books in the Bible telling the story of the life of Christ. The evangelists are thus often depicted writing, as in this work.

Provenance: 2002.10, Given by Mrs. Linda Murray in memory of her husband, Professor Peter Murray, through the Art Fund.

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Oil on oak panel
Artist: Juan Pantoja de la Cruz (1554-1608)
Date: Unknown

Image Details
Date: 7 Feb 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/25s
ISO: 600
Licensing: Image of a Bowes Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

St Jerome and St Ambrose

Ian Malpass-Scott — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:36:00 +0000

Juan de Borgoña, or his ancestors, probably originated in Burgundy. However, after a visit to Italy, he moved onto Spain, settling in Toledo in 1495 with a well developed early Renaissance style. His pictures were popular for their vivid colours and skilful depiction of costume. The gold and silver that was imported into Spain, from the newly discovered Americas, made the country one of the wealthiest powers in the world during the 16t century. The tooled gold backgrounds in these works are characteristic of Castilian painting from this period.

Together with St Jerome and St Ambrose, St Augustine and St Gregory were celebrated as the Fathers of the Church and were often represented in the wings of altarpieces.

These paintings once belonged to Alejandro Mon who was the Spanish Ambassador in Paris for a number of years during the 1850s and 1860s. He was a close friend of the Conde de Quinto from whose collection John and Joséphine acquired these paintings in 1862.

Provenance: bequeathed by the Founders, 1885

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Tempera and gold on panel
Artist: Juan de Borgoña (active 1494-1536)
Date: 1510

Portrait of Isaac Walker, jnr, (d, 1872)

Ian Malpass-Scott — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:36:00 +0000

Isaac Walker was head groomsman at Streatlam Castle from 1833 until his death In 1872. He is known to have shown a racing plate of West Australian in c. 1860 in the seddle room at Streatlam Castle.

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Oil on panel
Artist: British (English) school
Date: Unknown

Image Details
Date: 7 Feb 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Wide Camera 26mm ƒ/1.8
Focal Length: 26mm
Aperture: ƒ/1.8
Shutter Speed: 1/20s
ISO: 640
Licensing: Image of a Bowes Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

John Bowes’s Daniel O’ Rourke with Frank Butler Up

Ian Malpass-Scott — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:36:00 +0000

John Bowes’ horse ‘Daniel O’ Rourke’ (‘lrish Birdcatcher’ out of ‘Forget me not’) was under 15 hands high yet his trainer John Scott and his jockey, Frank Butler, thought highly of the little horse or the pony as they often called him, and though he had run a disappointing race in 1852 at the 2000 Guineas, they held to their opinion that he had a good chance for the Derby. ‘Daniel O’Rourke will win the Derby. It is all humbug the 2000’.

On the day of the race heavy rain began at six in the morning and went on until just before the start of the race. Daniel O’Rourke was at odds of 25 to 1, well down in the betting in the field of 27 runners. John Bowes described Daniel O’Rourke’s victory. ‘The horse won by gameness and by being very well ridden, the second horse is evidently better out the youth was on him lost his head, and besides had not the strength to keep him together….my horse, who tho’ barely fifteen hands high is very strong and kept struggling on.’

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Harry Hall (1815-1882)
Date: 1820-35

Image Details
Date: 7 Feb 2025
Camera body: iPhone Xs
Lens: Telephoto Camera 52mm ƒ/2.4
Focal Length: 52mm
Aperture: ƒ/2.4
Shutter Speed: 1/50s
ISO: 320
Licensing: Image of a Bowes Museum asset. This image cannot be licensed.

François Guizot (1787–1874)

Ian Malpass-Scott — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:36:00 +0000

Provenance: bequeathed by the Founders, 1885

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: Joseph-Désiré Court (1797–1865)
Date: 1820-35

Reading Lesson in a Convent

Ian Malpass-Scott — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 19:36:00 +0000

In 1802 Granet went to Rome to study at the French Academy housed in the Villa Medici. Like a number of students, he had a studio in the convent of the Santissima Trinità dei Monti church next door. This experience may have been the inspiration for this painting. At the age of twenty seven he went to Rome where this picture was painted and stayed there for many years. When he settled again in France in 1826 he was made Curator of the Louvre and then Director at Versailles.

Although the room is austere and the mood of the principal characters earnest, the nun entering with refreshments in the background may be taken to indicate that the atmosphere is not joyless and that there will soon be relaxation and laughter.

His treatment of the subject creates an air of stiliness, calm and order. Note the Neo-classical tones of grey, green,

terracotta red, blue and yellow.

Provenance: bequeathed by the Founders, 1885

Object description
Type: Easel painting
Location: Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham
Material: Oil on canvas
Artist: François Marius Granet (1775-1849)
Date: 1810