Rembrandt, Vermeer and Reynolds at Kenwood House

I walked from Hampstead tube station and across Hampstead Heath up to Kenwood House to see the art collection yesterday. A bit of culture with a great cafe and a nice walk thrown in is my kind of ideal day out!

I haven't been to Kenwood House in years and years but my other half had visited more recently and suggested the venue for our weekly "day out".

Which is how I came to be pictured with Rembrandt - by himself!

Me - writing a Facebook post about Rembrandt and Vermeer
in the Drawing Room of Kenwood House

Kenwood House was bought by Lord Iveagh (Edward Cecil Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh 1847-1927) to save it from development. It subsequently became a place to display his amazing art collection - which was bequeathed to the nation on his death.

This was the most generous bequest of art in history - and was conditional on it being on display in the house for free!

On the left: The Guitar Player by Vermeer
On the right: Self Portrait with Two Circles by Rembrandt

It includes:

Rembrandt’s Self-portrait with Two Circles. READ ABOUT IT

Painted in around 1665, it was first reproduced as a print in the mid 18th century and was publicly exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in1877. As a consequence it was a famous and celebrated artwork when Lord Iveagh purchased it on 10 July 1888.

Rembrandt’s Self-portrait with Two Circles

I'm the sort of visitor who always likes to get a close-up of the brush marks!

Vermeer's  The Guitar Player

"....one of only 36 known paintings by Vermeer, an artist who specialised in depicting everyday life in domestic interiors. A young girl, possibly his daughter Maria, is interrupted from her guitar playing, as the string continues to vibrate. Vermeer has seated the girl so far to the left that her arm is cropped by the edge of the painting."

The Guitar Player by Vermeer

PLUS a very large collection of paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Franz Hals, Anthony Van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, George Romney and Albert Cuyp - amongst others.

There is in fact an exhibition which focuses on all the paintings by Sir Joshua Reynolds who was Lord Iveagh's favourite artist - and who is celebratig his 300th anniversary of his birth in 2023.

Some of you will remember Reynolds as the chap whose statue is in the area in front of the Royal Academy of Arts as Reynolds was the very first President of the RA (Note: I find it really very sad that the entry for Reynolds on the RA website spends MORE space and text on the "RA Collections Decolonial Research Project - Extended Case Study" than it does on Reynolds and what he did and why he was important. There is something very wrong when perspectives on the past get this distorted.)

Speaking personally, I'm not so much a fan of Reynolds. While I do not doubt his skill as a painter, I find some of his paintings very whimsical. Apparently he was nearly as bad as Turner for trying to develop new ways to paint - which cause his paintings to be something of a challenge on the conservation front.

Margaret Hyde "Daisy" Leiter (1898)

who became Margaret Howard, Countess of Suffolk

by John Singer Sargent

I very much liked the John Singer Sargent painting on the Deal Staircase of the Margaret Hyde Leiter, Countess of Suffolk who it is suggested was the sister of Mary Leitner - the role model for Lady Cora, the Countess of Grantham in Downton Abbey - an American who married Lord Curzon who became Viceroy of India!

It seems there's a bit of a tradition for Americans marrying into the aristocracy!