British picture restorers, 1630-1950 - W

Erich Wagner (1890-1974). Picture restorer.

Not included here since outside the scope of this directory, but see Regine Schmidt (ed.), Erich Wagner 1890-1974, exh.cat., Oesterreichische Galerie, 1988, and Runeberg 2005 pp.341, 351-2.

James Walker, 15 Duke St, Edinburgh 1845-1851 (in 1851 listed as his home), Assembly Rooms, George St 1851-1854, 36 Hanover St 1857-1860. Picture liner and cleaner.

James Walker (b.1809) was born in Eccles, Berwickshire, the son of James Walker and Euphan Fairbairn. He is perhaps to be identified with the James Walker, carver, gilder and artists' colourman, who was trading from 31 George St in 1839 and 1840. He was recorded in the 1851 census at 13 Duke St, Edinburgh, as a master picture liner and cleaner, age 41, born in Eccles, with his wife, Eliza, age 37, and employing a boy. He moved to the Assembly Rooms at 54 George St in 1851, trading as a carver, gilder and picture cleaner, in premises previously occupied by the picture frame maker, John Taylor (see British artists’ suppliers on the National Portrait Gallery website).

Walker advertised as a picture liner, cleaner and restorer in the Edinburgh Post Office directory, 1845, and again in almost identical terms in 1847. He set out the advantages of lining pictures, claiming, ‘His mode of lining gives a smooth and solid surface to the Pictures... and... renders the Picture ever afterwards impervious to damp', furthermore drawing attention to ‘his mode of transferring Pictures painted on pannel to canvas', a process which, he said, he had fully studied on a recent lengthened residence on the Continent.

James Walker, picture cleaner, received payment of £19.4s in 1847 from John Hamilton of Bardowe (National Archives of Scotland, GD161/box 20, papers of Buchanan Family of Leny, Perthshire, information from NAS card index).

Wallace Collection, London

Not included here since institutional histories are outside the scope of this directory. The following restorers in this directory treated works in the Wallace Collection: Samuel Mawson 1848-56, Francis Leedham to 1855, John Peel before 1858, William & Philip Evans 1857-9, George Morrill before 1865 and his son William 1870s, James Spender before 1876, Horace Buttery 1879-84, Frederick Haines & Sons 1899-1912, Frank Nowlan 1901, Helmut Ruhemann 1937, William Holder & Sons 1937-9, William Vallance 1947-51, Roy Vallance 1956-74.

Parry Walton, ?parish of St Bartholomew the Great, London 1665, ?parish of St Martin-in-the-Fields 1668, Lincoln's Inn Fields by 1676-1702. Still-life painter, copyist, picture restorer, picture dealer.

Bainbrigg Buckeridge, writing in 1706, described ‘Parrey Walton' as a copyist and still-life painter, who studied under Robert Walker, identifying his ‘particular excellence... in knowing and discovering Hands', and adding that he was ‘remarkable for mending the works of many of the great masters' (Buckeridge 1706 p.476, who is followed by Horace Walpole in his Anecdotes of Painting in England). There is a still-life by Walton in the Cartwright collection at Dulwich (Mr Cartwright's Pictures, exh.cat., 1987, Dulwich Picture Gallery, no.76).

Parry Walton (d.1702) married Elizabeth Guy in October 1663, and had children, who can probably be identified as Peter Walton (see below), christened in May 1665 at St Bartholomew the Great as the son of Pery Walton, and Elizabeth Walton, born and christened at St Martin-in-the-Fields in 1668. Parry Walton's father-in-law, Peter Guy, merchant tailor, in his will made 9 April and proved 16 July 1675, left property to his grandson and godson, Peter Walton, Parry's son. The painter, John Greenhill, had lodgings at Walton's in Lincoln's Inn Fields and died there in 1676 (Vertue vol.1, p.30).

In his own will, made 25 March and proved 9 April 1702, Parry Walton, painter of Lincoln's Inn Fields, left the residue of his estate to his wife and executrix, Elizabeth, subject to modest legacies to his son, Peter, and his three married and two unmarried children, Elizabeth Bracken, Sarah Emery, Anne Draycott, Thomas Walton and Alice Walton. He placed unusual restrictions on his elder son, Peter's bequest, relating to the property which Peter Guy had bequeathed his son many years before. His younger son, Thomas had been apprenticed to Charles Cutler of the Vintners' Company in 1697 (Cliff Webb, London Livery Company Apprenticeship Records: Vintners' Company 1609-1800, vol.43, 2006, p.307). In December 1702, two sales were held of his ‘Excellent Collection of Italian Pictures' at his ‘late Dwelling-house in Holbourn Row in Lincolns-Inn-Fields, within four doors of Great-Queen-Street' (Daily Courant 1 December and 11 December 1702).

Restoration work: Parry Walton was named Keeper of the pictures in the Royal Collection on 29 April 1679 (J.C. Sainty and R.O Bucholz, Office-Holders in Modern Britain, vol.11, Officials of the Royal Household 1660-1837, 1997, p.51). He received a salary of £200 a year. In 1682 he was termed as ‘Cleanser' of the pictures, and in 1688 ‘Mender and Repairer'. He was followed by his son Peter in this office in 1701 (Millar 1991 p.15).

Walton lined and cleaned Rubens's ceiling paintings in the Banqueting House, Whitehall in 1687, claiming payment of £212 the following year and receiving final payment of £100 of a total £300 in 1693 (William A. Shaw, ed., Calendar of Treasury Books, 1685-1689, part 4, 1923, p.1986, and Calendar of Treasury Books, 1702, vol.17, part 2, 1939, pp.637, 707-8, also recording payment for work at Hampton Court, see below; see also Millar 1977 p.87). Walton's work was done under the supervision of Christopher Wren, who described himself as an ‘eye witness of the paines and skill he hath used in this worke', deeming his charges as very modest and reasonable (Wren Society, vol.18, 1941, p.67, see also Martin 2005 p.111).

Walton repaired the Raphael cartoons at Hampton Court at a cost of £200, receiving payments in 1691 and July 1693; this or additional work appears to have been done with Henry Cooke (Vertue vol.3, p.43). Walton was paid for lining and repairing three sections of Mantegna's Triumph of Caesar for £60 in 1693, also at Hampton Court, work which had been proposed by Queen Mary as early as 1689 (Millar 1977 pp.86-7). He restored Tintoretto's large Esther before Ahasuerus (Shearman 1983 p.239).

For the Duke of Somerset, Walton undertook the 'lineing, primeing and mending the peece of the Senatores of Titian', namely The Vendramin Family (National Gallery), receiving payment of £20 on 20 March 1683 (see Penny 2008 p.220). At Petworth for the Duke, he charged £25.10s in 1689-90 for ‘lineing cleansing priming and packing all of Vandykes Pictures, 2 large ones, and the Queens Picture', having earlier supplied ‘two Italian pictures & 7 frames' (Gervase Jackson-Stops, ‘Picture Frames at Petworth', Country Life, vol.168, 1980, p.799). Elsewhere, he also repaired Van Dyck's much damaged Sir Kenelm and Lady Digby with their two children, perhaps in the 1680s, according to George Vertue, writing in 1741 or 1742 (Vertue vol.6, p.121; the painting was subsequently repaired by a painter named Wignal).

Walton restored paintings for Mary Beale and her husband Charles in 1677 and 1681, the two years for which Charles's pocket-books survive (Talley 1981 pp.302-3). In August 1677 Walton was paid £1 for lining, cleaning and mending an Italian fowl piece belonging to Dr Patrick, including getting out cracks and puckerings, in April 1681 £1 for mending and piecing two pictures of Lord Fauconbridge's father and mother, and in November 1681 £1 for mending an old picture for Mr Secretary Jenkins. Charles Beale records visiting Walton's at Lincoln's Inn Fields in November 1681 to see four portraits by Van Dyck, notably Lady Carnarvon, which was sold to ‘Mr Riley' for £35, and also a head by Holbein of ‘Lord Cromwell'. Charles Beale also records that his wife painted a portrait of ‘Mr Walton's son' in November 1681, possibly Peter Walton (see below).

Activities as a picture dealer: As a picture dealer and adviser, Walton played an active role. Together with ‘Mr Baptist' (John Baptist Gaspars), Walton valued at £311 a collection of paintings sold by ‘Mr Flescher', presumably Balthasar or Tobias Flessier, to the Marquis of Worcester, c.1674 (Gloucestershire Record Office: Badminton Muniments, D2700/QA3/1). Walton assisted in the dispersal of Peter Lely's collection of pictures in 1682 in three ways, appraising the collection with Mr Baptist, varnishing the collection before sale (he was paid £2.10s on 17 November 1681 for these tasks, plus a further £3.15s) and purchasing four pictures at the sale itself for £16.14s (British Library, Add.MS 16174 ff.16, 29, 42, see also Talley 1981 p.359).

In 1684, and again in 1686, Parry Walton and Grinling Gibbons (‘Two of His Majesties Servants in Ordinary'), received royal permission to hold a sale of Italian pictures in the Banqueting House in Whitehall (London Gazette 22 May 1684, 10 May 1686). Walton held six further sales between 1688 and 1692 (Pears 1988 pp.61, 241 n.54).

There is evidence that Walton would clean pictures coming up for sale. In 1692 Sir Charles Lyttleton wrote to Christopher Hatton, 1st Viscount Hatton, seeking advice about selling pictures, ‘In a letter I lately had from your Lordship you said something by way of caution to my dealing with Mr Walton, which pray, my Lord, be a little more plain with me. Have you had any experience of his not dealing fairly with you? For I have been advised and know not who to trust better in the disposal of my pictures. The method I use with him: I send them to a house close by him, for he has not room in his own, it is already so full, and there he cleans them and mends what is worn or torn; and, after, I am to get a couple of painters who, together with himself, appraise them; which Appraisement the two Painters set their hands to the Lists of; and then they will be exposed in an auction...' (E.M. Thompson (ed.), ‘Correspondence of the family of Hatton', Camden Society, vol.2, 1878, pp.171-2, spelling modernised).

For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Peter Walton, Somerset House, London to 1745. Picture restorer.

Peter Walton (1665-1745) succeeded his father, Parry Walton (see above), as ‘Mender and Repairer' or ‘Surveyor and Keeper' of the Royal Collection pictures on 1 March 1701 at a salary of £200 (J.C. Sainty and R.O Bucholz, Office-Holders in Modern Britain, vol.11, Officials of the Royal Household 1660-1837, 1997, p.51, see also Millar 1991 p.15). In this capacity he prepared a catalogue of pictures belonging to Queen Anne at Kensington, Hampton Court and Windsor Castle, c.1705-10 (Millar 1963 p.38; extracts given in Vertue vol.6, p.161). In 1723, he was described as one of the ablest judges of pictures; according to the painter, Thomas Wright, writing to James Stanley, 10th Earl of Derby, Walton was ‘keeper of the Kings Store Houses of Pictures and has the care of most of the fine collections belonging to the Nobility' (Russell 1989 p.157).

For much of his career Walton was based at Somerset House, as when in 1732 he received a royal visitation by river: ‘On Saturday in the Evening her Majesty, the Prince of Wales, The Duke and the five Princesses went in Coaches... to Chelsea Hospital... and went on board the Prince of Wales's fine Barge,... and... they proceeded to Somerset House... where [they] viewed Mr. Walton's Progress in cleaning and mending the Royal Pictures' (London Evening Post 8 July 1732, see also Geoffrey Beard, ‘William Kent and the Royal Barge', Burlington Magazine, vol.112, 1970, pp.488-92). The previous month it had been reported that Walton was preparing a plan for the Queen to enlarge the picture gallery at Somerset House and that he was repairing several paintings (Read's Weekly Journal 24 June and 1 July 1732).

Walton had a daughter Mary, born in 1714 and christened at St Anne Soho. ‘Walton' was a member of the Rose and Crown Club of artists (Vertue vol.6, p.35, see also Bignamini 1991). Peter Walton, ‘from Somerset house', was buried 17 March 1745 at St Paul Covent Garden (William H. Hunt (ed.), The Registers of St Paul's, Covent Garden, vol.4, 1908, p.411). In his will, made 9 November 1727 and proved 19 March 1745, Peter Walton, storekeeper to His Majesty, left his estate to his wife Margaret and daughter Mary. Subsequently his name was mentioned when a collection of pictures belonging to his son-in-law, the late Thomas Butler, was advertised for sale (Public Advertiser 20 November 1755).

Peter Walton visited Woburn Abbey for a fortnight in 1692 to repair some of the portraits, charging £19.5s, including £4 for repairing Jerome Custodis's Lady Elizabeth Bruges and £3 for the same artist's 3rd Lord Chandos (Scott Thomson 1937 pp.298-9). He was also active as a picture dealer and adviser, selling pictures to Charles, 6th Earl of Dorset, in 1695/6 and 1696/7 (Centre for Kentish Studies: Sackville Manuscripts, U269/A196/11, A197/2).

Walton was paid £5.7s.6d on 24 December 1708 by the Earl of Sunderland in satisfaction of a bill for variously cleaning, repairing, straining and varnishing nine portraits, three half-lengths, Lely's Lady Spencer, Lely's Sir Thomas Isham and Cornelius Johnson's Lady Craven, at £1 each and the heads at 10s each (British Library, Add.MS 61655 f.180). He received part-payment from the Duchess of Marlborough on 16 June 1709 for work to the value of £192.10s undertaken for the Duke, variously lining, straining, repairing, varnishing and cleaning paintings or, in one case, glueing a panel; this work included a series of mythological paintings described as by Titian, including two large double pieces at £30 each and five single scenes at £20 or £15 each, as well as various works by Rubens and Jordaens (British Library, Add.MS 61355 f.3, 61678 f.189).

According to George Vertue in 1731, Walton some years previously cleaned the picture of Lord Chancellor Bacon at Gorhambury, attributed to Paul Vansomer, when some parts were painted over (Vertue vol.4, pp.10, 16).

For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Charles Hadfield Ward (trading as Robert Ward), 25 York St, Derby 1901-1925, 12 ½ Friargate 1925-1932 or later, 12 Friargate 1935-1952 or later. Carver and gilder, later picture restorer.

Charles Hadfield Ward (1881-1969) was born in the Derby registration district in 1881, marrying there in 1908. In censuses, he was recorded at 25 York St, Derby, in 1901 as a carver and gilder, like his father, Robert, with his mother Mary and seven brothers and sisters, and in 1911 again as a carver and gilder, working on his own account at home, with wife Eliza and daughter Gladys.

In 1922, Robert Ward whether the father, born c.1846, or the son of the same name, born c.1865, advertised from 12 ½ Friargate as a carver, gilder and picture frame maker, picture restorer and dealer in fine arts, offering to clean and restore paintings and engravings, and claiming that the business had been established in 1847 (Kelly's Directory of Derbyshire, p.38).

In an obituary notice, following his death in his 90th year, Charles Hadfield Ward was described as one of the best-known picture restorers in the Midlands, having carried out work at Haddon Hall, Kedleston Hall and Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire (Rosemary Meynell, The Times 15 March 1969). ‘The art of restoration', he would say, ‘lies in knowing when to stop'. His father had inherited the secrets of his trade from Charles Hadfield of the firm of Mosley & Nephew, who were said to have held a royal warrant. He traded as Robert Ward & Son. He was followed by his daughter, Margaret, according to his obituarist.

Edward F. Watson, 2 Poland St, Oxford St, London 1830-1831, 49 Poland St 1833-1837, St James's Gallery of Art, 201 Piccadilly 1838-1877. Picture dealer and picture restorer, artist, carver and gilder.

It seems that Edward Façon Watson (1804-92) was the individual christened at Kirton in Holland, Lincolnshire, on 13 February 1804, recorded or transcribed as Edward Faken Watson. He was a very occasional exhibitor at the Royal Academy and the Royal Society of British Artists from 1839 to 1870. He had an account with the artists' suppliers, Roberson, 1842-63, from 201 Piccadilly (Woodcock 1997). In the census in 1861 Watson was listed as an artist and picture restorer, age 50, and in 1871 as a carver and gilder, age 68, born in Lincolnshire. At his retirement in 1877, he held a sale of watercolours and picture frames (The Times 10 March 1877). He died at home at the age of 88 or 89 in 1892 (The Times 12 July 1892). Charles Edward Clifford (qv) took over his business as a picture restorer in 1877.

As early as 1844 Watson was advertising his services as a restorer, ‘To amateurs and collectors of old pictures - Mr Watson of 201 Piccadilly, begs to inform the Nobility and gentry that he continues to restore old paintings (however much defaced), upon the most approved and scientific principles, without restoring to that kind of quackery so commonly practiced by persons unacquainted with works of art.' (The Art Union February 1844 p.50). Watson published a promotional pamphlet, A few observations on picture cleaning and restoring, 1863 (copy in V&A National Art Library, 40.B Box II); he continued to offer a pamphlet of this kind to prospective clients.

As Façon Watson, artist and picture restorer, he advertised that he restored all works of art, including pictures on copper ‘that are Blistered and Peeling Away', works on paper (‘crayon drawings carefully restored... Drawings mounted, restored and framed. Engravings restored, however much Stained or Spotted with Mildew'), and miniatures on ivory (‘imperceptibly joined, if broken') (The Artists' Directory 1875, p.190). In the same advertisement, he claimed, ‘None but Practical Artists, who have been educated in the difficult, scientific, and important Art of Picture Restoration should be entrusted with valuable Works of Art to restore.'

Watson also sold picture frames. In 1843 E.F. Watson advertised, as agent to the Art Union of London, a 'Characteristic Frame expressly for the Engravings given to its members' (The Art-Union June 1843 p.133). He offered imitation ormolu frames in carved and gilt wood, 'enclosed in a highly-polished rosewood case, faced with plate glass, and backed with velvet' (November 1844 p.321); these cost one-fifth the price of ormolu frames. In the same advertisement he referred to paintings added to his Picture Gallery. Later, he was offering ‘Carved Florentine and other Frames in great variety' (The Artists' Directory 1875, p.190).

For abbreviations, see Resources and bibliography.

Wignal, see Parry Walton

John Woodburn 1797-1811, Allen Woodburn 1818 (as a gilder), Messrs Woodburn, also known as Woodburn brothers 1817-1836, Samuel Woodburn 1826-1827, Samuel and Allen Woodburn 1836-1853. At 112 St Martin's Lane, London 1799-1853. Picture and old master drawing dealers, print dealers and publishers, picture framemakers.

See British picture framemakers on the National Portrait Gallery website.

Joseph Wright of Derby, Derby 1753-1756, 1757-1768 (visiting Newark, Lincoln, Boston, Retford and Doncaster), Liverpool 1768-1771 (visiting Lichfield and Derby), Italy 1773-1775, Bath 1775-1777, St Helen's House, Derby 1777-1793, 26 Queen St, Derby 1793-1797. Artist and occasional picture restorer.

Joseph Wright (1734-97) is known for his landscapes, portraits and night scenes, rather than as a picture restorer. However, like many artists he would sometimes restore pictures for favoured patrons, or arrange for their restoration. Such services often go undocumented but in Wright's case, his account book provides an insight into his picture restoration work on three occasions. Wright also used this account book to record practical information on lining pictures, in his note, To Line a Picture.

Wright cleaned and repainted three pictures for Sir Robert Wilmot, apparently subcontracting the job of repairing the priming of a half length portrait to a Mr Roe for 12s. At Elvaston, Derbyshire, for Lord Harrington, perhaps in about 1780, he undertook work to the value of about £8.18s, including cleaning a full-length picture, providing a new straining frame and lining a picture of King Charles, cleaning and repairing two landscapes and gilding the frames and cleaning and retouching an historical picture by Paulo Veronese for 10s. He received £3.3s in April 1789 from a Mr Fox for repairing three pictures for Lord Melbourne.

Sources: Wright's account book (National Portrait Gallery), see Elizabeth E. Barker, ‘Documents relating to Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-97)', Walpole Society, vol.71, 2009, forthcoming; see also Rica Jones, 'Notes for Conservators on Wright of Derby's Technique and Studio Practice', The Conservator, no.15, 1991, pp.19-20.

Stephen Wright (d.1780), Master Mason to the Board of Works, see William Kent and William Oram

Noticed a mistake? Have some extra information? Who should be added to this directory? Please contact Jacob Simon at jsimon@npg.org.uk.