“Lord Mansfield received important guests here, as they admired his books and Robert Adam’s stunning decoration. Adam drew on the architecture of ancient Roman buildings and his own theories about colour to create one of the most innovative late 18th century British interiors.” (Kenwood Guide)
If you are in Paris visit the Musée Jacquemart-André and Musée Nissim de Camondo conveniently located close to each other; in London the Courtauld Gallery and the Wallace Collection; four small gems often overlooked by tourists flocking to the Louvre and the National Gallery.
” ‘I have been here before,’ I said; I had been there before; first with Sebastian more than twenty years ago on a cloudless day in June, when the ditches were white with fool’s-parsley and meadowsweet and the air heavy with all the scents of summer … “ (Brideshead Revisited, The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder, Evelyn Waugh)
I last visited Kenwood about forty years ago for an outdoor concert conducted by Edward Heath in a white dinner jacket of which Jeeves would have disapproved. I don’t think Heath would have taken kindly to be told he would be mistaken for a waiter, as Bertie was. I went back last Wednesday with two friends and went, for the first time, into the house. The MacGuffin was a Reynolds exhibition. To put it simply we have Lord Mansfield to thank for the architecture at Kenwood but he took most of his best pictures with him when he moved to Scone Palace. We have Lord Iveagh to thank for the picture collection and, as it happens, Joshua Reynolds was his favourite artist. A favourite among many including Vermeer, Rembrandt, Frans Hals, van Dyck, Hoppner, Turner, Gainsborough, Boucher, Landseer, Constable, Romney, Lawrence ….. sixty-three paintings.
Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh, (1847 – 1927) bought Kenwood as an old man in 1925 to give to the nation with his collection of paintings: the Iveagh Bequest. He gave this gift with a large endowment fund, stipulating that entry to Kenwood must be free in perpetuity. English Heritage abide by his condition, no doubt through gritted teeth, although the endowment has long since been dissipated.
Lord Iveagh bought this Vermeer for £1,050 in 1889. I show it because it was too fragile to go the blockbuster Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum this year. I took lots more photographs of pictures that appealed to me but you must see them for yourselves. It is a Five Star destination, well worth the trek up to Hampstead, not easy to get to on public transport. I went with two sunshine girls: one to drive, one to navigate.