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Observations on the Portrait of Edward Grimston, and other Portraits of the same period. By George Scharf, Esq. F.S.A. in a Letter to W. J. Thoms, Esq. F.S.A.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

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Extract

I have carefully examined the very interesting portrait of Edward Grimston which the Earl of Verulam has been good enough to send to our Society for examination. I am glad to hear that his Lordship intends to have the surface, both back and front, protected by glass.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1867

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References

page 471 note a Dr. Waagen adds, in a note at page 76 of his Handbook of German and Flemish Painting, 8vo. 1860, “on the cotemporary but now lost frame was an inscription telling the name of the painter and that of the person portrayed.” This is a further instance of the disadvantage of merely inscribing signatures on picture frames, manifested also in the works of Joannes Corvus, in the portrait, for example, of Fox Bishop of Winchester, described in the Archmologia, vol. xxxix. page 47.

page 472 note a I regret that I did not subsequently inquire from my much-esteemed friend the late director of the Berlin Gallery whether the back of the panel had ever been examined to ascertain if there are traces of any heraldic device or inscription on it.

page 472 note b This, if actually the case, would be a very unusual method for artists of this school to adopt in signing their pictures. I subsequently examined the back of the panel, September 1865, and found the name Johanes Van Eyck clumsily written across the centre in black ink.—G. S.

page 473 note a Art and Artists in England, 1838, vol. i. p. 268.

page 473 note b For subsequent observations on this picture, which was No. 18 of the 1866 Portrait Exhibition at South Kensington, and attributed to Van Eyck, see a valuable paper by Mr. James Weale in Notes and Queries for December 3rd, 1864, page 452.

They were No. 27 of the 1866 Portrait Exhibition at South Kensington, and there described in the following terms: “Altar-piece, in the wings of which the Duke of Gloucester is represented kneeling, and in character of a pilgrim.” “The mitred figure is John Kempe.”

page 474 note a It is a good Flemish picture belonging to the close of the fifteenth century. The bridegroom is not royal, has an aged and careworn face, with a glory round the head, as in Raphael's well known Sposalizio at Milan. The ceremony, seen through an arch, takes place in an open space in front of a church.

page 474 note b Lord Orford's Works, 4to. 1798, vol. ii. p. 512.

page 476 note a L'Isle en Jourdain between Auch and Toulouse.

page 476 note b Sandford's Genealogical History, ed. 1677, page 290.

page 476 note c Miss Strickland's Queens of England, ed. 1852, vol. ii. page 170.

page 476 note d Eastlake's Materials, vol. i. page 216.

page 476 note e Mrs. Jameson's Legends of the Madonna, ed. 1852, page 114.

page 477 note a Crowe and Cavalcaselle, Flemish Painters, page 198. Strickland's Queens of England, 1852, vol. ii. page 165.

page 477 note b Villeneuve de Bargemont, Marseilles, 1819; quoted by Miss Strickland.

page 477 note c Quatrebarbes, Œuvres du Roi René, 4to. Paris, 1849, vol. i. page 152.

page 477 note d Engraved in D'Agincourt, plate cxvi. and in Quatrebarbes, Texte, page 148.

page 477 note e Kunstblatt for the year 1833, No. 12, page 47.

page 478 note a Compare Crowe and Cavalcaselle, page 119.

page 478 note b Passavant, Kunstreise, Frankfurt, 1833, page 92.

page 478 note c In this instance the device is really at the end of the inscription. (G. S.)

page 478 note d Compare Eastlake's Materials, page 190; and Waagen's Handbook, page 75.

page 478 note a See Vasari, Firenze, 1568, pp. 51, 857.

page 481 note a The sketch which I made at the time, June 18. 1863, is here reproduced; because since that time, owing to the carelessness of a picture-cleaner named Anthony, nearly all traces of the device have disappeared. When Miss Hill made her very careful copy of the picture in water-colours it was no longer visible. I believe, however, that since the monogram has been partially recovered.