Grosvenor Prints

The Houghton Revisited exhibition currently taking place at Houghton Hall in Norfolk provides the opportunity to see some of Robert Walpole's collection displayed in its original setting for the first time since Walpole's famous collection was sold to Catherine the Great of Russia in 1779. Like several other famous collections, the paintings in the Houghton collection were engraved and published, in an ambitious project organized by the Georgian print world's 'Commercial Maecenas' John Boydell, with the result that even after the paintings had left for Russia, they continued to exert great influence on British artists and connoisseurs in engraved form. Here we show a selection of engravings from paintings in the Walpole collection: This full-length portrait of Robert Walpole hung in his 'blue damask bed chamber', although like several of the prints in this list it is not part of the Houghton exhibition: Sir Robert Walpole, afterwards Earl of Orford....

With two exhibitions dedicated to Bartolomé Esteban Murillo taking place simultaneously in London (at Dulwich Picture Gallery and the Wallace Collection ), we have put together a list of prints based on the paintings of the Seville-based artist. Murillo's paintings were highly regarded Britain in the 18th century, hence the number of fine engravings made from them. Examples of his religious paintings in Britain and the time are this Holy Family :   The Holy Family  Thomas Chambars after Murillo  Published by Boydell, 1764  platemark 515 x 390mm  £140 + VAT  At least two of Murillo's paintings were in the famous Walpole collection at Houghton, which was the subject of an ambitious series of engravings published by Boydell before the collection was sold to Catherine the Great. Most of the collection can still be seen at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, including a painting described by some as the The Immaculate Conception and other...