[thread] they say a picture’s worth 1000 words, & as naff as that expression may be, this one certainly is. this is a portrait of Evelyn Cavendish, Dowager Duchess of Devonshire, painted @NTHardwick in 1950 by Edward Halliday (1902-1984), born #OTD in 1902 (pic: @NTrust_Art_Coll)

born in Garston & educated at Liverpool Art College, @RCA + @the_bsr respectively, Halliday became a successful portrait & scenic painter. he also painted conversation pieces depicting informal assemblages of people– here's Halliday, his wife & their daughter c1958 (pic: @artnet)

in the collections @ChatsworthHouse, my research site, we have one of Halliday’s conversation pieces – this 1939 painting shows schoolgirls from @RydalPenrhos, who were evacuated to Chatsworth from Colwyn Bay in WWII. the girls would stay until 1946 (pic: Devonshire Collections)

what we *don’t* have in our collections, sadly, is the portrait of Duchess Evelyn Cavendish that began this thread. why? well, a picture’s worth 1000 words… so bail out now if drawn-out historical details aren’t your thing

if you’re eagle-eyed you'll notice Duchess Evelyn is mending a blanket in her portrait. it’s not actually a blanket but a tapestry, likely C15th or C16th (textile specialists, please hmu if you can identify it!). textile repair & conservation were key pursuits throughout her life

when Duchess Evelyn moved to Hardwick after the 1938 death of her husband Victor, the tapestries became a full-time occupation. her archive contains countless books recording her repairs, letters + ads she wrote seeking ‘menders’ (often older, local women) to do needlework w/ her

Duchess Evelyn loved Hardwick, with its draughtiness & (at that time) dereliction, long before she moved there permanently. in 1917 she wrote to her daughter-in-law, the incoming Duchess, that ‘it is nice to think of you [...] in possession as I know you'll go on caring for it.’

the Duchess was wrong. in Nov 1950, the family's fortunes changed dramatically when Evelyn & Victor's son and heir, the 10th Duke of Devonshire, died suddenly. faced with death duties at 80%, transferring a property to HM Treasury became a viable way to settle this colossal debt

Hardwick was accepted in lieu of inheritance tax in 1957, after lengthy exploration of all options. Duchess Evelyn was its last inhabitant, living there until her death in 1960. Halliday’s picture, painted in summer 1950 & given over with Hardwick, shows her just before the storm

this painting isn’t in our collections, but its outline is there. a bundle of letters between the artist, the Duchess, and her old confidante Francis Thompson, Chatsworth Librarian, tell its story. they tell of Thompson’s friendship with the artist, ‘Ted’ ...

… and they also tell of a struggle over historical representation. just after the 10th Duke’s death, Duchess Evelyn writes to Thompson dismissing a family member’s claim that Halliday shaded her chin wrong – ‘posterity will not mind what my chin was really like’, she says

the physical separation of the painting itself & the letters that tell its story, speaks to all that's lost when material culture is lost– the bigger picture (or tapestry) & the fragile, intricate threads that bind it. it speaks to the imprint left behind. thanks for reading!