Published 28/11/2013
Goodwood is the seat of the Dukes of Richmond, Lennox, Gordon & Aubigny, whose family art collection is one of the greatest in any English country house. Perhaps the best known paintings in the collection are masterpieces by Stubbs, Canaletto and van Dyck.
However, a lesser-known painting is this full-length portrait of the great Duke of Wellington, by the English artist George Dawe (1781-1829), has recently been expertly conserved. The before and after conservation photographs reveal how the painting had been languishing under two hundred years of dirt and discoloured varnish.
George Dawe: Painter of Heroes
The artist, George Dawe, although no longer so well-known in his home country, is still celebrated in Russia where he enjoyed a stellar career having come to the attention of Tsar Alexander I in 1819. He painted over 300 portraits of Russian generals for the Military Gallery of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg and became a celebrity throughout Europe.
