CPRE’s Rupert Hardy looks at how James Thornhill brought the baroque to Britain: from Greenwich and St Paul’s to Sherborne’s staircase
The recent restoration of Sherborne House in Dorset has refocused attention on arguably the county’s greatest painter. James Thornhill was an eighteenth-century painter of historical subjects, working in the Italian baroque tradition. He is best known for his spectacular mural paintings in the Painted Hall at the Royal Hospital, Greenwich, the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, and various stately homes – including Sherborne House, now known as The Sherborne.
Born in Melcombe Regis (now part of Weymouth), Thornhill faced challenges early in life. His father absconded shortly after his birth, and he was taken in by his great-uncle, the distinguished physician Thomas Sydenham of Wynford Eagle. It was Sydenham who provided the funds for Thornhill’s artistic training, arranging an apprenticeship to fellow Dorset man – and distant cousin – Thomas Highmore. The apprenticeship began in 1689 and lasted until 1696. Thornhill later worked under the Italian artist Antonio Verrio at Hampton Court, refining his skills in the grand baroque style. His breakthrough came in 1704 with a commission at Stoke Court in Herefordshire, which led to work at Chatsworth and Blenheim – and ultimately his great public commissions at Greenwich and St Paul’s.Thornhill’s key advantage? He was English and Protestant – unlike most of his competitors, who were Catholic Italians and Frenchmen.
The Painted Hall at Greenwich
Often called Britain’s Sistine Chapel, the Painted Hall is Thornhill’s masterpiece. Its allegorical wall and ceiling decorations celebrate the Protestant succession from William and Mary to George I, glorifying political stability, commercial prosperity and naval power. It took 19 years to complete. On the west wall you can see George I with his extensive family: but on the right hand side the artist cheekily managed to include a portrait of himself close to the monarch (see opposite).
In 1715, he was commissioned to paint the dome of St Paul’s with ten scenes from the life of St Paul. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Tenison, reportedly said: ‘I am no judge of painting, but on two articles I think I may insist: first that the painter employed be a Protestant, and secondly that he be an Englishman.’
Thornhill nearly died while working on the dome: stepping too far back on the platform suspended from the dome, he was saved by his assistant pulling him back from a certainly fatal fall.
These works cemented his reputation as the foremost figurative artist of his generation, and he became George I‘s court history painter, being knighted soon after – the first English painter to receive that honour.
Hogarth and Thornhill’s daughter
Mural paintings played a vital role in British art history. They allowed patrons to express political ideals, dynastic ambitions, and philosophical messages – particularly in Whig country houses of the late seventeenth century.
Thornhill established a drawing school in Covent Garden, where William Hogarth studied – and fell for Thornhill’s daughter, Jane. Thornhill disapproved, seeing Hogarth’s low birth and and keenness to paint ordinary people in the street as unsuitable. The couple eloped, and the need to earn money spurred Hogarth to paint The Harlot’s Progress series. Lady Thornhill urged her daughter to leave the newly finished pictures where her father might find them, and when Thornhill saw them he said: ‘Very well, the man who can furnish representations like these can also maintain a wife without a portion.’
Sherborne and Beyond
At the height of his career, Thornhill was commissioned by Henry Portman, builder of Sherborne House, to decorate the grand staircase of the Palladian-style mansion. The resulting mural depicts a dramatic scene from Ovid’s Metamorphoses – the Calydonian Boar Hunt. In the myth, the goddess Diana, slighted by King Oeneus’s failure to honour her, sends a monstrous boar to ravage Calydon. His son Meleager leads the hunt, joined by the famed huntress Atalanta. Though Meleager kills the beast, Atalanta draws first blood, and he duly awards her the boar’s head and pelt. His uncles, outraged that a mere woman should receive the prize, seize it from her – and Meleager, in fury, kills them both.
Thornhill also painted locally at Down House and Eastbury Park (both now lost), Charborough Park, and created a reredos for St Mary’s Church in Weymouth. He illustrated books, undertook some architectural work, and repurchased his family’s estate in Stalbridge, rebuilding Thornhill House. From 1722 to 1734, he served as MP for Weymouth and Wyke Regis, and later helped repaint the Houses of Parliament – assisted by his son-in-law Hogarth.
Thornhill was, undeniably, a Dorset success story. One well worth remembering.
