The Mystery Portrait Part 1

I’ve always found paintings fascinating and inspirational, wanting to know the stories behind the faces and to understand the symbolism. Recently my curiosity took me to a fine art dealer’s studio in London where I had a wonderful time deciphering the tale behind a picture that has always intrigued me.

The painting, known as The Triple Dobson Portrait, hangs at Ashdown House. It dates from the period of the English Civil War. The names of the sitters, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, his brother Prince Maurice and the Duke of Richmond are helpfully painted onto it. It definitely has a story to tell. Prince Rupert’s scarlet cloak lies discarded over a chair; his faithful dog looks on, and in his hand is a document of some description. One of his companions is dipping a cockade into a glass of red wine. The royal colours and those of Prince Rupert, the grey and the black, are swathed around the pillar and on the cockade.

The Ashdown picture is unfinished. There is no glass for the wine and a lot of the details of the clothing in particular have not been completed. That is one of the mysteries about the painting: Why was it never finished?

In London I saw a finished version of the same picture hanging on the wall in the fine art studio.The

difference took my breath away. Where the Ashdown painting was a draft, this was simply stunning, huge, beautifully detailed and so fine. The lace was exquisite. There were even wrinkles in the table cloth! It made “our” painting seem rather clumsy! My expert told me that this finished version had a full provenance and they knew its entire story. It was painted in the winter of 1645-1646, in Oxford, by William Dobson, court painter to King Charles I. It is indeed Prince Rupert in the portrait, but not Prince Maurice or the Duke of Richmond. The soldier on the right, Colonel John Russell, had commissioned it and it had been in his family ever since. The identity of the man in the middle was still in question.

The painting tells the story of a moment in time. After Rupert had given up Bristol to the Parliamentarians he quarrelled badly with his uncle Charles I who thought he had relinquished the city too easily. Rupert was court-martialled, and though he was cleared, unpleasant rumours hung over his loyalty and that of his troops.

The portrait is a refutation of those claims. The scroll in Rupert’s hand is the ruling of the court martial, clearing him of all accusations. The combination of his own colours and those of the King underline his loyalty, as does the glass of wine, which is to be raised in a loyal toast, and of course there is the dog – the ultimate symbol of steadfastness.

So if this portrait had been painted for John Russell, who had commissioned our copy? My expert pointed out to me something that should have been obvious but that I hadn’t appreciated before, that since a triple portrait featured three people there were usually three copies of it. This raised the intriguing possibility of a third version, the whereabouts currently unknown. But since we already have sufficient of a puzzle with our own version, that one will have to wait!

Here we come to the heart of our mystery. The most likely suggestion is that our portrait is the one

intended for Prince Rupert. His connection to Ashdown House, via his mother Elizabeth, the Winter Queen, and as a friend of Lord Craven makes this plausible. Again, we can guess at why the portrait was never completed. It was painted in wartime, the fortunes of the Royalists were falling apart and there simply wasn’t time. As for the names, they were painted on – incorrectly - in the Victorian period.

Until we can find proof of the painting’s history we cannot be sure. But I do love a good mystery and I feel the plot of another timeslip story shaping up!

As a footnote, today is the 397^th anniversary of the coronation of Elizabeth of Bohemia, whom I wrote about in House of Shadows. Here’s a toast to Her Majesty!

A Tale of Two 17th century Houses

A couple of weeks ago, on the way back from the fabulous RNA conference in Telford, I visited Stokesay Castle. Stokesay was built in the 13^th century but I was particularly interested in its 17^th century history as my current book is set in the Civil War period. During this time, Stokesay belonged to the Craven family so there is also a connection to the work I do at the former Craven hunting lodge at Ashdown House; I couldn’t wait to visit.

Stokesay is small as castles go, more of a fortified manor house, but with everything you could want from a

real castle – towers, a moat, a gatehouse. It was the timber-framed gatehouse that particularly fascinated me since it looked medieval to my untrained eye. I was astonished to read that it had been built for William Craven in 1640 – 41 at the not inconsiderable cost of £530. Built by local craftsmen, the style was based on that of townhouses in nearby Ludlow.

Craven also made alterations to the interior of the castle, including adding this splendid chimney piece in the medieval solar.

As a Royalist, Craven garrisoned Stokesay on behalf of King Charles I during the Civil War, the only time in its history that the castle was put to military use. However the parliamentarians took Stokesay in 1645 and demolished the curtain wall, but happily they left the gatehouse standing.

Almost twenty years to the day after he had built Stokesay, William Craven constructed Ashdown House in

a very different style. Clearly fashions in architecture and perhaps his taste in building had changed during that period.  Ashdown is a typical Restoration building with Dutch and French influences. The two buildings could hardly look more different!

Hair!

I absolutely love long hair – both on men and women - which is probably part of the reason why I write historicals.  But I have to admit that some of the hairstyles of the past have been less than flattering, which is why I never allow my heroes or heroines to follow hair fashions slavishly.  I prefer to let them be more natural.  And as for wearing wigs – no way!

Just the thought of my heroes having something so itchy (and probably full of lice) on their heads is seriously off-putting.  Imagine trying to run your fingers through it, only for the entire wig to end up in your hands while you’re left looking at a head full of stubble?  No thanks.

Everyone laughs at the “Roundheads” from the English Civil War, although in reality not all that many of them actually sported the so called “pudding bowl” hair cut.  On a battlefield, it would have been difficult to distinguish them from the Royalists as they mostly all had long hair.  Instead they’d wear some sort of token to show which side they were on.  I was very pleased when I came across that piece of information, because in my novel The Gilded Fan the hero has be on the Parliamentarian side (for various reasons) and I couldn’t imagine finding him handsome with his hair shorn just below his ears.  It’s just not a good look!

Women too, can get it wrong.  Take the Regency ladies, for example - Jane and Lizzy Bennett in the TV adaptation (yes, the one with Darcy in his wet shirt coming out of the lake) looked pretty enough.  Personally, I thought that whenever they let their hair down to brush it in the evenings it was so much nicer!  And having tried it myself a while back, for a Regency Day organised by the RNA, I have to say that an ordinary Regency hair do, with plaits close to the head and a little top knot, made me look at least ten years older, if not more!  I didn't like it at all.  If I ever dress up again, I’ll have to find a better style.

Long hair on men seems to be something readers either love or hate though – what do you think?  Love it or loathe it?

Christina x

www.christinacourtenay.com

 

Double the Romance

The beginning of 2013 has been a busy time for me, with two books released in e-book format within the first week of the year! 

First of all, my new full-length novel The Gilded Fan came out.  It’s the sequel to The Scarlet Kimono, although it can be read as a stand-alone, and both novels are set in the 17^th century, partly in Japan and partly in England.  The heroine of The Gilded Fan is the daughter of a Japanese warlord and an Englishwoman, and as a half foreigner she is forced to flee the country of her birth when the Shogun (ruler) decides to evict anyone with foreign blood.

She considers England a barbaric country and I had great fun writing about her arrival in Plymouth.  And although she thinks she has overcome the worst of her problems when she is welcomed by her mother’s relatives, she doesn’t realise that things are about to get much worse – the English Civil War is just starting!

Here is the blurb:-

How do you start a new life, leaving behind all you love?

It’s 1641, and when Midori Kumashiro, the orphaned daughter of a warlord, is told she has to leave Japan or die, she has no choice but to flee to England. Midori is trained in the arts of war, but is that enough to help her survive a journey, with a lecherous crew and an attractive captain she doesn’t trust?

Having come to Nagasaki to trade, the last thing Captain Nico Noordholt wants is a female passenger, especially a beautiful one. How can he protect her from his crew when he can’t keep his own eyes off her?

During their journey, Nico and Midori form a tentative bond, but they both have secrets that can change everything. When they arrive in England, a civil war is brewing, and only by standing together can they hope to survive …

(It will be published in paperback on 7th February.)

My other new release for Kindle was Once Bitten, Twice Shy, a Regency novella, which was previously published by My Weekly Pocket Novels and Linford Romance.  It features a hero who has sworn never to marry again and I have to admit I loved writing about a heroine who might make him change his mind!

Here is the blurb for that:-

Once was more than enough!

Jason Warwycke, Marquess of Wyckeham, has vowed never to wed again after his disastrous first marriage, which left him with nothing but a tarnished reputation and a rather unfortunate nickname − ‘Lord Wicked’. 

That is, until he sets eyes on Ianthe Templeton …

Ianthe lives in the shadow of her beautiful twin sister, Serena and longs to escape the “mindless entertainments” she is forced to endure in London. She soon finds herself captivated by the enigmatic Wyckeham and tempted by his promises of a new life in the idyllic English countryside …

But can Wyckeham and Ianthe overcome the malicious schemes of spiteful siblings and evil stepmothers to find wedded bliss? Or will Wyckeham discover, all too painfully, that the past has come back to bite him for a second time?

Christina

www.christinacourtenay.com