Paintings
The Society has been collecting oil paintings since the early eighteenth century, most of them acquired as gifts or bequests from Fellows. The earliest is The Dream of the Virgin by Simone dei Crocefissi, which has recently been dated to c 1365–80; the latest are portraits of twentieth-century Fellows. Over two-thirds are by British artists or are of British subjects. In all there are forty-eight panel paintings and thirty-nine canvases and miniatures.
The most significant are the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century historical portraits bequeathed in 1828 by Thomas Kerrich. They include many British monarchs, with possibly the earliest surviving version of a portrait of Richard and a fine portrait of Mary by Hans Eworth. A second group of portraits of Fellows and antiquaries includes portraits by Richardson and Gainsborough. Another group of subject paintings includes views of demolished buildings such as Old St Paul's Cathedral and Richmond Palace and views of prehistoric remains such as Stonehenge.
Images of about one third of the collection are shown here, and copies for commercial use can be obtained from the Bridgeman Art Library, www.bridgeman.co.uk; contact research@bridgeman.co.uk.
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- Mary I
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- Margaret of York
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- Sir William Paulet
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- Philip the Good
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- Edward IV (arched frame)
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- Unidentified gentleman
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- Ferdinand of Aragon
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- "The Virgin Mary with her parents"
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- Beardless Young Man
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- St Erasmus
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- Henry VIII (framed)
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- Jane Seymour
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- Charlemagne
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- Henry VI
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- François I
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- Monsieur de Nassau
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- Monsieur de Ravestein
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- Henry VIII (pale green background)
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- Henry VII (Rawlinson bequest)
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- Henry VII (fictive cusped frame)
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- Old St Paul’s (imagined restored)
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- Old St Paul’s (sermon at St Paul’s Cross)
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- Old St Paul’s (procession through London)
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- Richard III (arched frame)
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- Richard III (broken sword)
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- Louis XII
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- Jan van Scorel
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- Mary of Austria
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- St Etheldreda
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- King of Denmark
