'Dürer to Van Dyck – Drawings from Chatsworth House' is a new exhibition at the National Galleries of Scotland in Edinburgh showcasing more than 50 drawings and paintings preserved in the Devonshire Collections.
Included in the exhibition is the double portrait showing Van Dyck and Sir Peter Paul Rubens by Flemish artist Erasmus Quellinus II (1607-1678) which was recently recovered after being stolen in 1979.
Image below: Tico Seifert, Senior Curator of European & Scottish Art & Portraiture at the National Galleries of Scotland, studies Chatsworth's double portrait of Van Dyck and Sir Peter Paul Reubens, credit Neil Hanna, courtesy of National Galleries of Scotland.
Sharing the collections
The exhibition is the result of almost six years of planning and research by Chatsworth House Trust and the National Galleries of Scotland, and is part of the charity's aim to ensure that Chatsworth's art and artefacts are made accessible to as many people as possible.
As well as welcoming people to Chatsworth onsite and online, Chatsworth House Trust is committed to an extensive programme of loans to public institutions in Britain and around the world. In 2023, more than 3 million people worldwide were able to see works of art from the Devonshire Collections. The 2025 loans programme currently includes several international exhibitions.
This new exhibition in Edinburgh offers a unique opportunity for people to see such a comprehensive collection, including works by Albrecht Dürer, Hans Holbein the Younger, and Sir Peter Paul Rubens. There are also eleven works by Anthony van Dyck, and nine by Rembrandt.
All but two of the pieces in the exhibition are on show in Scotland for the first time, and several have never been on public display.
Images above, all © The Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth: 1. A Wolf & Fox Hunt, Anthony Van Dyck c1616-17, 2. Record of Eleven Head Studies, Anthony Van Dyck c1618-21, 3. View on the Amstel the road on the Amsteldijk leading to Trompenburg, Rembrandt van Rijn c1648-50, 4. The Virgin and Child with the Infant St John, Albrecht Dürer, c1516–18, 5. Head of a Roebuck with Monstrous Antlers (so called Wig Buck), unidentified artist, Hans Hoffman workshop, c1580-90, 6. Lion Mask, Jost Amman c1570, 7. The actor, Willem Bartelsz Ruyters as Bishop Goswin, Rembrandt van Rijn c1638, 8. Portrait of a Youth in a Broad-brimmed Hat, Hans Holbein the Younger, c1525
About the collection
Around 1800 drawings by the 'Old Masters' are preserved in the Devonshire Collections at Chatsworth. Most of the drawings date from the 16th and 17th centuries, although some are before and after this period. The collection is significant because it survived a period in the eighteenth century when many such collections were sold or otherwise dispersed.
The bulk of Chatsworth's collection of Old Master drawings were acquired by the first three Dukes of Devonshire, all named William Cavendish, between approximately 1688 and 1755.
However, it is the 2nd Duke of Devonshire who assembled the core of the collection, and it's his portrait that hangs on the wall of the Royal Scottish Academy as part of this new exhibition.
Picture above: 1. The 4th Earl and 1st Duke of Devonshire by Kneller, late 1680s, 2. The 2nd Duke of Devonshire by John Riley c1690, 3. The 3rd Duke of Devonshire by Knapton, late 1730s
The beginning
The 4th Earl of Devonshire (c.1640-1707) received his dukedom in 1694 for his support of Dutch-born King William III, being one of the co-signatories inviting him to take the English throne. He built and decorated Baroque Chatsworth and started the collecting of drawings in his early forties.
He is first recorded as bidding for items from the collection of artist 'Sir Peter Lely' in 1688. While we do not know which items the Duke purchased at this auction, as the purchase records have not survived, we know that the sale of the Lely collection, described as 'simply the best in Europe', put the drawings into circulation and, therefore, available for purchase; many of the drawings in the Devonshire Collection bear a 'PL' mark, stamped by Roger North, executor of the Lely estate.
In the 1680s, the Duke also acquired 14 fine pen and ink landscape drawings by Guercino from his Catholic artist nephew, Benedetto Gennari, who had brought them to be engraved in Paris.
The core collector
His son, the 2nd Duke of Devonshire (c1672-1729), also an important politician, is considered the family’s greatest collector, not only of prints and drawings, but also paintings, gems, coins and medals.
His first interest in Old Masters was recorded in 1710 when he offered to pay as much as £500 for a collection of drawings assembled by Padre Sebastiano Resta. Unfortunately, he failed to produce enough ready money and the drawings were sold to his friend and political ally, Lord Somers. On Somers's death in 1717, the drawings were put up for auction and he acquired around 80 of those previously owned by Padre Resta.
The 2nd Duke made significant acquisitions from the collections of Carlo Maratti, Thomas Howard 2nd/14th Earl of Arundel, and at least 225 of the 500 drawings available from the collection of Nicolaes Antoni Flinck, son of artist Govert Flinck who had trained in Rembrandt's studio. These include life drawings by Anthony van Dyck for Iconography and a sheet of head studies by Peter Paul Reubens, both on display as part of this exhibition.
Flinck's greatly admired collection of Italian drawings were likely also acquired at this time, including all of the Leonardo da Vinci grotesque heads, and fine works by Raphael, Giulio Romano, Baccio Bandinelli, Rosso Fiorentino, Domenico Campagnola, Parmigianino, Pordenone, Romanino, Domenichino, Guido Reni and Bartolomeo Schedoni.
The 2nd Duke continued to collect up to his death in 1729 acquiring individual drawings and albums of drawings privately and at auction.
In around 1720, the Duke purchased the 200 drawings that make up Claude Lorrain’s 'Liber Veritatis', the artist’s record of his painted compositions, which the French collector Pierre Jacques Fougeroux de Blaveau recorded on his 1728 visit to Devonshire House as being the Duke’s 'chief treasure'.
He may also have purchased Van Dyck’s Italian Sketchbook, a record of art that interested the artist on his 1621–27 tour through Italy. It may also have been him, or his son the 3rd Duke, who acquired 'Van Dyck’s Antwerp Sketchbook', which is now known as the Chatsworth copy of Rubens’s lost pocket book.
The 2nd Duke was generous with access to his drawings and kept them at Devonshire House, the family's chief London residence, welcoming collectors and connoisseurs. He was a passionate and knowledgeable collector, as recorded in a letter from French collector and art dealers Pierre-Jean Mariette (1694-1774) to the artist dealer Arthur Pond, which reads:
'You are lucky to be within reach of the fine drawings in the collection of the Duke of Devonshire. I hear that he is acquiring new ones every day, but what’s more surprising, and which is highly satisfying for those who have the honour of approaching him, is that he is himself such an expert and takes the greatest pleasure in showing them to others. It is especially in this that I consider you lucky; there are plenty of collectors, but almost no connoisseurs whose delight in their possessions is as much for others as for themselves.'
Continuing the collection
The 2nd Duke took the trouble to interest and educate his eldest son, William Cavendish (1698-1755), in the works of the Old Masters, and put together an album of drawings for his youngest son, James.
The 3rd Duke, like his grandfather, was a builder and restored Devonshire House after its 1733 fire, employing the architect, William Kent.
He differed from his father and grandfather in that he was not considered particularly intelligent; Samuel Johnson is recorded as saying that he was not a man 'of superior abilities, but he was a man strictly faithful to his word'.
His passion was politics and he continued the 2nd Duke's friendship with Whig Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, and was awarded the post of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1737.
He continued to acquire both prints and drawings but not as actively as his father and less is known about his acquisitions. However, it is known that, in 1742, he purchased Rembrandt's painting of the man in oriental costume which had been destined for Cardinal Mazarin's collection. In 1743, Horace Walpole recorded of him that 'Nobody knows pictures better'.
He also purchased a number of works once belonging to Nicholas Lanier from the widow of collector William Gibson and appears to have shown discrimination by selecting individual drawings rather than purchasing the entire collection.
Old Masters on display
The Duke died in 1755 and it wasn't until the mid 18th century that any new drawings were acquired.
In 1963, a charcoal landscape by Thomas Gainsborough was rediscovered and is thought to have been acquired by Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire (1757-1806). Later, in 1896, a black chalk drawing of a bowing Knight of the Garter by Sir Peter Lely was acquired from the collection of the Earls of Warwick.
The 6th Duke of Devonshire (William Cavendish 1790-1858) was also a passionate collector and builder and, in the spirit of his ancestor the 2nd Duke, took to sharing the drawings with visitors by displaying them in Chatsworth's Sketch Galleries. In his 'Handbook to Chatsworth and Hardwick' (1845) he wrote that the collection:
'...hardly ever saw the light in my Father’s time, nor in mine often, till I rescued them from portfolios, and placed them in the South Gallery below. Before that, a very few amateurs now and then got a peep at them in London – Lawrence, Mr Ottley, Mr Payne Knight, and so on...'
'..I have classed them according to the several schools of painting; but I am sure that the arrangement must be very imperfect, and it is beyond me to make any description of the merits of this rich and valuable possession. Few things at Chatsworth are more admired.'
Image above: Historic photograph of the South Sketch Gallery at Chatsworth, with the drawings displayed c1890,© The Devonshire Collections, Chatsworth
Following the death of the 6th Duke in 1858, he was succeeded by his cousin William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire (1808-1891). In 1868, the 7th Duke lent 128 drawings to the National Exhibition of Works of Art in Leeds, starting a tradition that continues today of lending the drawings to exhibitions so they can be shared with a wider audience.
At Chatsworth, many of the drawings remained on display in the Sketch Galleries until the early 20th century. Some deterioration was noted in 1870 and the principal masterpieces were removed in 1905 and treated, where necessary, by British Museum conservators before being stored in the Library. Later, they were transferred to their present specialised storage for improved long-term care.
On tour, in the house and online
The drawings are available for private viewing by appointment at Chatsworth, and the Chatsworth House Trust Collections team are actively working with galleries and organisations worldwide on an ambitious loan programme so that as many people as possible, regardless of their location, can experience the works in person.
Following major modernisation works to Chatsworth, part of a £32million 'Masterplan' project started in 2005, a light and temperature controlled room at the end of the State Apartment was given over to displaying a changing display of works.
Support from the Tavolozza Foundation also funded an online learning resource that enables an 'up close' study of some of the works in the collection. Learn more
Durer to Van Dyck: Drawings from Chatsworth House
The Durer to Van Dyck: Drawings from Chatsworth House exhibition is at the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh until 23 February 2025. Learn more about the exhibition and related talks here.
This potted history of collecting Old Master drawings by the Devonshires is taken from a more in-depth introduction written by Charles Noble, Gregory Rubinstein and Christian Tico Seifert for the hardback illustrated book accompanying the exhibition, available to purchase online here.
Main image credit Neil Hanna, courtesy of National Galleries of Scotland.
