British picture restorers, 1630-1950 - K
A selective directory, to be revised and expanded regulary, 1st edition March 2009. Contributions and corrections are welcome, to Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.
William Kent. Architect, garden designer and decorative painter.
The work of William Kent (1685-1748) as an architect, garden designer and decorative painter has been extensively treated elsewhere (e.g. Colvin 2008 pp.612-9, John Dixon Hunt, William Kent: Landscape Garden Designer, 1987, Croft-Murray 1970 pp.229-35).
In his capacity as Surveyor or Inspector of Paintings in the Royal Palaces, to which position he was appointed in 1728, Kent was responsible for a number of restoration schemes. At Windsor Castle, he was paid £750 for work undertaken on repairing the paintings on two great staircases in 1729 and for repairing 15 ceilings and another staircase in 1730 (William A. Shaw, ed., Calendar of Treasury Books and Papers, 1729-30, 1897, pp.168, 402). At the Banqueting House, Whitehall, he was paid for lining and cleaning some of Rubens's ceiling paintings, which the King and Queen came to see in January 1734 (Croft-Murray 1970 p.235, Colvin 2008 p.613, Martin 2005 p.113). In 1743 George Vertue stated that the canvases had been taken down, lined and cleaned under Kent's care, the great middle piece some years previously and one of the end pieces ‘now lately' (Vertue vol.5, p.26); work on one of the side panels was undertaken by Stephen Wright at a cost of £48.10s in 1748 (Martin 2005 p.114).
Sources: Martin 2005 pp.113-4. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
Tilly Kettle, Oxford and the Midlands 1762-1764, Great Queen St, London 1764-1766, Conduit St, London 1767-1768, India 1769-1776, London 1776, 8 Berners St, London 1777, Old Bond St, London 1780-1783, Dublin. Portrait painter.
Early in his career, in 1762, Tilly Kettle (1735-1786) was employed to repair Robert Streeter's ceiling painting in the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford (Croft-Murray 1970 p.236). Kettle was primarily a portrait painter who worked in London and India. He died on his way back to India for a second visit in 1786.
Sources: James Milner, ‘Tilly Kettle, 1735-1786', Walpole Society, vol.15, 1927, especially pp.53, 77, 79; Mildred Archer, India and British portraiture, 1770-1825, 1979, pp.66, 92-94. For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.
Thomas King, Chichester from 1804, 52 East St, Chichester by 1814-1845. Artist, antiquary, engraver, medallist and sculpture restorer.
Thomas Aylward King (1775-1845) was educated in the Isle of Wight, moving to Chichester in 1804 (Journal of the British Archaeological Association, vol.2, 1847, p.373, accessed through Google Book Search). He was described in Pigot's Directory of Sussex for 1839 as an Antiquarian draughtsman and an Antiquary, medallist, artist and engraver. In the 1841 census he was recorded in East St, Chichester, as Thomas King, artist. He died in East St on 9 August 1845, when his age was given as 67. In his will, made 1 December 1843 and proved 10 September 1845, Thomas Aylward King, artist of East St, Chichester, made various bequests, including to his brothers and sisters.
King restored a painted wooden monument to John (d.1621) and William Cawley in Chichester Cathedral (north choir aisle), originally in the church of St Andrew, Oxmarket; it is inscribed on the left column base, ‘RESTORED BY THOS KING ARTIST & ANTIQUARY A.D. 1840' (see also Hampshire Telegraph and Sussex Chronicle 24 April 1843). He engraved illustrations for Dallaway and Cartwright's History of Sussex, 1815-32, and drew and engraved the print, 'Antiquities in Chichester Cathedral' in 1839, describing himself as ‘Thos. King Antiquary and Medallist' (example in West Sussex Record Office: Cowdray Archives, COWDRAY/5132/f.12).
Sources: Brian Stewart and Mervyn Cutten, Chichester Artists 1530-1900, Canterbury, 1987, pp.28-9 (repr. a striking self-portrait engraving, 1837, describing him as Delineator and Engraver of Antiquities in Sussex and as Antiquary and Medallist to the Philosophical and Literary Society of Chichester). Research notes for this publication can be found in the Cutten papers, West Sussex Record Office, Cutten A/1/1/3, kindly drawn to my attention by Timothy Hudson.
Noticed a mistake? Have some extra information? Who should be added to this directory? Please contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.
