Ruth's Blog

In our April 2024 blog post we recorded that we had acquired four items relating to Louth-born Mrs Charlotte Alington Barnard, née Pye, who later was known as Claribel.  One of these is a large, framed oil painting, more than 1 metre in height.

When we purchased this painting, it was in very poor condition and the frame badly damaged.  It has been restored by local firm Eskdale Restoration and it recently came back to the museum.  It looks great, so let me tell you about it.

Those who are familiar with Claribel may recognise this full-length standing portrait.  We see Charlotte as a red-cheeked toddler wearing a pale-coloured dress and a floral apron.  On her head is a white bonnet.  She is holding up one of her blue shoes in her right hand and clutching at her skirt with her left hand.  In the early 19th century, the depiction of one shoe on and one off indicated innocence.  See for example “One Shoe Off” by John Brewster, 1807.

Much of the background of the painting is indistinct, but there is a glimpse of a rural landscape beyond trees on left.

Charlotte was born in Louth on 23 December 1830, so this portrait must show her in about 1832 or 1833.  Although Charlotte was the third child born to her parents Henry and Charlotte Mary Pye, she was the only one to survive more than two weeks.  She would have been very precious to them.

The restoration of the painting included cleaning and varnish removal, consolidation to stabilise paint, and refilling and retouching areas of paint loss.  Regarding the frame, degraded material was removed, surfaces were consolidated, black bole and gold leaf applied and burnished, and three corner ornaments were remodelled.

No trace of an artist’s signature was found, but as much of the background on lower half of the painting is not original, if there was a signature it may have been removed when previous work had been carried out.  It seems that the background of the painting was pre-painted, suggesting that the artist may have been a travelling journeyman.  Alternatively, Charlotte’s parents were affluent with nation-wide connections, so the artist may not have been local to Louth.  The creator of this eye-catching portrait remains unknown!