The Lenthall pictures

The Lenthall pictures were a number of paintings owned by the Lenthall family and housed at Burford Priory. The collection was publicly commented on by art historians and tourists. It was largely dispersed in two sales in 1808 and 1833, although some works were retained by the family and sold in the late 20th century.

Many of the works were acquired by Speaker Lenthall after he purchased Burford Priory in 1637. However, the portraits of the Tanfields is evidence that some of the paintings may have been at Burford when it was purchased from Viscount Falkland. Lenthall was one of the overseers of Sir Lawrence Tanfield's will and had married into the family of his second wife. Some of the paintings may have been owned by Charles I and sold after his execution – a rumour to this effect was mentioned by Harold Nicolson. At least two portraits (including William Lenthall, grandson of Speaker Lenthall) were painted after Speaker Lenthall's death. By 1682, the collection contained 145 pictures.

The collection was commented on by the art historian George Vertue and also by Horace Walpole who offered the opinion that the portraits were "rubbish, but celebrated". The Georgian tourist, John Loveday, visited Burford to see the collection on 2 April 1736. He wrote down a detailed description of the More family painting and mentioned a number of others in the collection.

Two of the religious paintings in the collection, along with the portrait of Thomas More and his family and a number of other portraits were mentioned in Gentleman's Magazine in 1799.

The collection was moved to Besselsleigh (another Lenthall family home) in 1808 when Burford was renovated, but it was largely dispersed in two sales in 1808 and 1833.

There is an inventory of more than 60 works at Burford (mainly portraits) in the collection in the Oxfordshire Record Office. This was prepared by "Mr Lenthall" and recorded by Thomas Symonds in 1827. The 1833 sale contained 73 lots, the majority of which were portraits. There were nineteen classical or religious subjects and a couple of landscapes and still lifes. The full catalogue can be found on Google Books and there is a transcript with prices on the Getty Provenance Database which also has a partial catalogue of the 1808 sale.

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Wikipedia