London Luminaries:Capricci and Conversations-Painting collection at Marble Hill Dr Tessa Killgarriff

The London Luminaries is a group of historic organisations who collaboratively work together to share knowledge and ideas about heritage.

The painting collection formed by Marble Hill’s first owner, Henrietta Howard, was relatively modest. Henrietta only owned 34 paintings including 5 ‘capricci’, fanciful views of Rome by Giovanni Paolo Panini. This talk will not only explore Henrietta’s collecting habits but will also examine how the current collection offers an insight into the 18th-century British art world. In particular, it will focus on the exquisite small scale portraits by Gawen Hamilton, Francis Hayman, and Hubert François Gravelot.

Dr Tessa Kilgarriff is Curator of Collections and Interiors at English Heritage with responsibility for two 18th-century villas, Chiswick House and Marble Hill House. A specialist in eighteenth and nineteenth-century British art, she received her PhD from the University of Bristol. Prior to joining English Heritage, she was Assistant Curator at Watts Gallery – Artists’ Village in Compton, Surrey and has previously completed curatorial projects at the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.