Oil Painting, 'Lunette Sketch of Cupids Supporting an Escutcheon of the Prince of Wales for Wall Decoration', Thomas Stothard, ca. 1775 - 1834

Given by Henry Vaughan

Given by Henry Vaughan, 1869
Reference to this acquisition in : Science and Art Department of the Committee of Council on Education. List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington Museum acquired during the year 1869, also called Art Inventory. London, 1870. p.4. This notes that 37-1869 was 'Presented by H. Vaughan, Esq... Transferred from Training Schools'. From this one can assume that Vaughan had presented this to the Training Schools at an earlier date, and that this was transferred from there to the South Kensington Museum in 1869.

Henry Vaughan (1809-1899), art collector, was the son of a successful hat manufacturer, from whom he inherited a large fortune. He became an eclectic collector of art works, and was personally acquainted with J.M.W. Turner. During his lifetime he made gifts to various art institutions from his collection, and after his death bequeathed many more works; the V&A received two full-scale studies for John Constable's Hay Wain and Leaping Horse. According to the entry for Vaughan in Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography, he had a predilection for the works of Turner, Stothard, John Flaxman and Constable. The British Museum received a gift of over 300 drawings by Flaxman, Thomas Lawrence, and Stothard.

The 'Training Schools' developed out of the 'School of Design', founded in the 1830s to improve British industrial design. From its formation in the 1850s, the South Kensington Museum, as a part of the governmental 'Department of Science and Art', made many acquisitions to support the school, which from 1857 was based at South Kensington, and from 1863 was called the 'National Art Training Schools'. Hansard [HC Deb 07 June 1883 vol 279 cc1910-1] records a question addressed to the Vice President of the Committee of Council for Education in June 1883, as to 'whether purchases of pictures for the South Kensington Museum have been recently made; and, if so, whether it is intended to establish at that institution a second national collection of pictures, in addition to that of the National Gallery; and, if such be the case, by whose recommendation, and on whose judgment, the purchases of pictures for South Kensington have been made?'. In response it was noted that many paintings were acquired '...for use as examples for students in the Art Training Schools, and for circulation among the Schools of Art in the country. The purchases have been made on the recommendation of the Director for Art—at one time Mr. Redgrave—then Mr. Poynter—now Mr. Armstrong'. [Richard Redgrave (1804-1888); Edward Poynter (1836-1919); Thomas Armstrong (1832-1911). All were painters and works by them are in the V&A].

Historical significance: Thomas Stothard (1755-1834) was a highly prolific painter, book illustrator and designer. After his father's death in 1770 he began his working life apprenticed to a Huguenot silk weaver. At the completion of his apprenticeship in 1777 he entered the Royal Academy Schools, and there struck up life-long friendships with the sculptor John Flaxman and with William Blake. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1778 until his death in 1834, and from 1778 also began to produce illustrations for various publishers and magazines such as the Ladies' Magazine. He sometimes exhibited the original designs for such illustrations at the Royal Academy exhibitions. In his day he was highly respected as a history painter in oil, but the V&A collections of drawings and watercolours reflect his reputation during the 19th century predominantly as an illustrator, as well as a designer of a multitude of objects such as silver salvers to funerary monuments. As the Dictionary of National Biography notes, Stothard took 'advantage of the opportunities afforded by publishing and the industrial arts, while maintaining a reputation in the more respectable reaches of high art'. For example Stothard exhibited works on a grander scale than was his norm for Bowyer's 'Historic Gallery' (1790-1806). But many of the oils now in the V&A are on a modest scale and are perhaps designs for printed illustrations, rather than 'finished' history paintings. Stothard played a respected part in the art world of his day, and from 1812 until his death at the age of seventy-nine he held the post of librarian of the Royal Academy.

This painting depicts four putti holding decorative garlands. The Italian word 'putto' originally meant simply a 'child'. The word is now used as an art term, usually in the plural, 'putti'. These are usually infant male figures, naked and often winged. Putti are found in Western art from the Renaissance onwards and formed a standard motif in decorative schemes. It is not clear what the function of this oil painting was originally, but it is likely to be a design for part of a larger wall decoration. As a lunette, a semi-circular shape, the finished decoration would have been intended to fit above a door or window in an architectural setting. Stothard received a number of commissions to paint decorative schemes for houses; such as for the poet Samuel Rogers house at St. James's Place, and three decorative history paintings for the grand staircase at Burleigh House. In this instance the putti are supporting an escutcheon - a shield bearing the three feathers crest of the Prince of Wales. This must therefore predate the coronation of George IV in 1820.

This painting and another by Stothard of an arabesque decoration (museum number 35-1869), were originally acquired by the Art Training schools, presumably as examples of decorative work by an acknowledged master of such design. At the Training Schools a study of flower and plant forms was considered necessary so that students understood their structure before translating them into decorative motifs or patterns. Some paintings in the V&A still have a museum number indicating that they were acquired as 'School Examples', such as Fantin-Latour's Cherries, White Lilies and Nastutium (museum numbers S.Ex.4-1889, S.Ex.61-1882 and S.Ex.24-1884). These two paintings by Stothard would have been acquired to demonstrate to the students the way in which plant forms could be incorporated into design work.

37-1869