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.

The history of the collection

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 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 in 1808 when Burford was renovated, but it was largely dispersed in two sales in 1808 and 1833.

Identifying portraits that were part of the collection

Around 1700, inscriptions were added to a number of the portraits in the collection. These inscriptions purported to identify the sitter, although the identification is unreliable. The added inscription was typically in ochre, golden or yellow serifed capitals in the bottom left. Although this positioning, colour and style of inscription is not unique, it does serve to suggest a portrait may have been in the collection when attribution and title have changed.

Some works in the collection

There is an inventory of more than 60 works at Burford 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 and there is a transcript with prices on the Getty Provenance Database which also has a partial catalogue of the 1808 sale.
Among the portraits were:

File:William Lenthall from NPG.jpg|William Lenthall in his ceremonial robes; artist unknown
File:Cornelius Johnson - Portrait of a Woman, Traditionally Identified as the Countess of Arundel - Google Art Project.jpg|Inscribed Countess of Arundel by Cornelius Johnson, 1619
File:Lawrence Tanfield.jpg|A published illustration of the portrait of Lawrence Tanfield; artist unknown
File:Lady Tanfield.jpg|A published illustration of the portrait of Lady Tanfield; by Mark Garrard
File:Cornelius Johnson - Sir Alexander Temple - Google Art Project.jpg|Erroneously inscribed Ld Gust Hamilton, but known to be Sir Alexander Temple; by Cornelius Johnson, 1620
File:Sir Thomas More, his father, his household and his descendants by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg|Sir Thomas More and his family; a copy of a lost original by Hans Holbein
File:Elizabeth Heneage.jpg| Elizabeth Finch, Countess of Winchelsea, by Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger, 1600.
File:ElizabethCary.jpg|Elizabeth Tanfield, Viscountess Falkland, a print of an original that was attributed to van Somer. This was in the Lenthall collection.
File:6thDukeOfNorfolk.jpg|Portrait of Henry Howard by Gilbert Soest, c. 1670-1675