One of our star items at Nostell is our oil painting by Angelica Kauffmann, titled ‘Self-portrait of the Artist hesitating between the Arts of Music and Painting’, dated 1794. For the majority of this year, the painting (fondly known simply as ‘Angelica’) has been on display in the Angelika Kauffmann Museum in Schwarzenberg, Austria, as the chief object in the exhibition, ‘Angelika Kauffman and the Music’.
Angelica returned last week, and the furniture in the Small Drawing Room had to be moved to one side to accommodate her re-hanging. The room looked rather disorganised, as you can see in the photograph below.
The Small Drawing Room looking unusually untidy
It took us a morning to put all of the furniture back into their original positions. As an experiment, we filmed the moving on a time lapse camera, and are quite pleased with the results!
If you watch the video below, you’ll see two members of the house team scurrying around to get everything right in time for the opening of the house – enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAKywNtGato&feature=plcp
Below is a photo of the finished room, with Angelica back in pride of place on the south wall. Everybody is pleased to see her back where she belongs! You can find out more about the painting by looking on the National Trust’s collections website at: http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk/object/960079
The Small Drawing Room back to its usual neatness and splendour!
We hope to record more time lapse videos during the winter period to share with you. Who knows what you’ll see us getting up to next!
You can also view Nostell’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/NostellPrioryNT and watch other videos that we have made over the past few years.
The House Team
Nostell Priory Conservation Blog 