A painting exchange with Saltram House
10 August 2023
As part of our programme to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the birth of Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723-23 February 1792), The Box has partnered with The National Trust at Saltram House, in Plympton to exchange works from our collections.
The Box has loaned To Tell Them Where It’s Got To (2013), a painting by artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye (born London 1977) to Saltram. It's currently hanging in the Red Room at Saltram in place of Reynolds’ portrait of Francesco Bartolozzi (1773), encouraging a comparison of different approaches to portraiture.
In return, two paintings from Saltram are shown at The Box in the 'Reframing Reynolds: A Celebration' exhibition (until 29 October 2023): Reynolds’ portrait of Florentine engraver Bartolozzi and one of the artist’s great works, the newly cleaned portrait of The Hon.Theresa Robinson, Mrs John Parker (1773).
In contrast to the surrounding historic painting collection at Saltram, depicting known people in public displays of status, Yiadom-Boakye is inspired to create paintings of invented people created from found images, and her imagination.
Yiadom-Boakye initially leaned to paint by working from life but changed her approach whilst studying at Falmouth School of Art. She realised she was less interested in making portraits and more in the act of painting itself. The painting displayed was shown in 2022 at Tate Britain in the artist’s solo international touring exhibition and can be seen hung at Saltram until 31 October 2023 (11am–4.30pm every day except Wednesday. Admission is free for National Trust members, normal admission applies for non members).
Victoria Pomery, CEO at The Box comments:
Staging a major exhibition like ‘Reframing Reynolds: A Celebration’ would not be possible without the support of a range of partners, so we’re delighted to have collaborated with the National Trust to help tell the story of Reynolds’ life and career, and to have loaned a work to them as well. Saltram’s grand portrait of Theresa Parker is the first painting visitors see when they arrive in the exhibition and it looks stunning post-conservation. In return, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye has received great acclaim for her paintings in recent years, and we hope audiences to Saltram House will enjoy making the connections between her work and the other historic paintings it’s displayed alongside.
This is the first time in 250 years that Reynolds’ full-length portrait of his patron and friend Theresa Parker has been displayed outside of Saltram’s Saloon - the place for which it was commissioned - since its completion and display at the Royal Academy of Arts in 1733. It recently underwent cleaning at the Trust’s Royal Oak Foundation Conservation Studio and will return to Saltram for visitors to view again from 2024.
The Parker family at Saltram, close to Plympton where Reynolds was born, had an especially close and lifelong friendship with him. He painted them on numerous occasions and purchased art for them on the Continent.
Zoe Shearman, Property Curator at Saltram comments:
We are thrilled to have this opportunity to partner with The Box on a two-way loan exchange for the first time, as part of Reynolds 300; to display the contemporary work by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye as a temporary intervention in the historic painting collection at Saltram, and to re-contextualise the newly cleaned portrait of Theresa Parker by Reynolds in a traditional gallery space. Like Reynolds, Yiadom-Boakye is one of the most significant and acclaimed figurative painters of her generation.
The painting exchange forms part of the 300th anniversary celebrations of Joshua Reynolds at Saltram where visitors can also see 13 Reynolds paintings, a selection of mezzotint prints after Reynolds portraits (probably collected by Theresa Parker), and a discourse delivered by Reynolds at the opening of the Royal Academy, with annotations dedicated to Theresa Parker on display.
The National Trust has the largest collections of works by Reynolds in historic house settings in the UK, many of which were commissioned for the original owners of the houses and are still displayed there, bringing a particular relevance to them and their stories for visitors.
Other National Trust places showcasing their Reynolds’ collections this year include Petworth in Sussex, Wimpole in Cambridgeshire and Knole House in Kent.
Image credits
• 1. National Trust specialists hang To Tell Them Where It’s Got To (2013), a small portrait by artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye. Credit National Trust Images, Jay Williams.
• 2. Visitors in the Red Room at Saltram where To Tell Them Where It’s Got To (2013), a small portrait by artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye is now on display. Credit National Trust Images, Jay Williams.
• 3. Portrait of Theresa Parker (Robinson) by Sir Joshua Reynolds on display in the 'Reframing Reynolds: A Celebration' exhibition at The Box. Image by Dom Moore.
• 4. The south facade of Saltram House, Devon. Credit National Trust Images, Chris Lacey.