Horace Walpole arrives at Weston Park

By Gareth Williams, Curator to the Weston Park Foundation

As the Victoria and Albert Museum closes its successful exhibition, Horace Walpole & Strawberry Hill, I am delighted that a rare portrait of Horace Walpole has arrived at Weston Park and is displayed in the Granary Art Gallery.

The portrait of Walpole, best known as the collector, author of the gothic novel The Castle of Otranto and builder of the flamboyant gothic villa Strawberry Hill at Twickenham is normally unseen by the general public.

The picture was not included in the recent V&A exhibition, however, being the work of William Hogarth, whose painting career Walpole championed, it marks a fascinating post script to the recent re-appraisal of the master of Strawberry Hill. Depicting the ten-year old Walpole gesturing besides a sun dial, with his small dog skipping into the picture, Hogarth captures something of the spirit of Prime Minister Robert Walpole's son who was to grow up to be a major influence in literary, architectural and artistic fashion.

The display of the Hogarth portrait of the ten year old Walpole is the latest work of art that is Conditionally Exempt for tax to go on display at the Granary Art Gallery. Opened last year in the former Palladian Great Barn of the Weston Park Estate, the Granary was part funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and by regional development agency Advantage West Midlands. It is currently also home to a Conditionally Exempt "View of Schaffhausen" by J.M.W.Turner, a rare 16^th century portrait of Queen Elizabeth I and an important group of portrait miniatures. This latest addition to the Gallery will be hung – like the other items – alongside monthly changing contemporary selling exhibitions of artwork.

The Granary Art Gallery is fast developing a reputation for its display of conditionally exempt works of art, items that would have otherwise been included in the calculations for inheritance tax, on the basis that they be displayed to the public for an agreed length of time.

In many instances owners of exempt works have met with difficulties in finding a way of showing their items to the general public, especially of they do not have a large enough property or the facilities expected by the visiting public. We have those facilities and more importantly for the works of art, the gallery has a full environmental control system.

Horace Walpole by William Hogarth will be with us for at least six months.