Compton Verney House
Encyclopedia
Compton Verney
Compton Verney is a manor and parish in the county of Warwickshire, England.Compton Verney House is an 18th century country mansion which has been converted into an art gallery....
near Kineton
Kineton
Kineton is a village and civil parish on the River Dene in south-eastern Warwickshire, England. The village is part of Stratford-on-Avon district, and in the 2001 census it had a population of 2,278....
in Warwickshire
Warwickshire
Warwickshire is a landlocked non-metropolitan county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, although the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare...
which has been converted into the Compton Verney Art Gallery.
The building is a Grade I listed house built in 1714 by Richard Verney, 11th Baron Willoughby de Broke
Richard Verney, 11th Baron Willoughby de Broke
Sir Richard Verney, 11th Baron Willoughby de Broke and de jure 19th Baron Latimer was a peer in the peerage of England, High Sheriff and MP....
. It was first extensively extended by George Verney, the 12th baron in the early 18th century and then remodelled and the interiors redesigned by Robert Adam
Robert Adam
Robert Adam was a Scottish neoclassical architect, interior designer and furniture designer. He was the son of William Adam , Scotland's foremost architect of the time, and trained under him...
for John Verney, the 14th baron, in the 1760s. It is set in more than 120 acre (0.4856232 km²) of parkland landscaped by Lancelot "Capability" Brown
Capability Brown
Lancelot Brown , more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English landscape architect. He is remembered as "the last of the great English eighteenth-century artists to be accorded his due", and "England's greatest gardener". He designed over 170 parks, many of which still endure...
in 1769.
The house and its 5079 acres (20.6 km²) estate was sold by Richard Greville Verney
Richard Verney, 19th Baron Willoughby de Broke
Richard Greville Verney, 19th Baron Willoughby de Broke was a British peer and conservative politician....
, the 19th baron, in 1921 to soap magnate Joseph Watson
Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton
Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton was a prominent English industrialist and philanthropist.Watson was the only son of George Watson, soap manufacturer, of Donisthorpe House near Moor Allerton, Leeds, Yorkshire...
who was elevated to the peerage as 1st Baron Manton
Baron Manton
Baron Manton, of Compton Verney in the County of Warwick, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1922 in recognition of war services for the Leeds industrialist Joseph Watson...
of Compton Verney only two months before his death in March 1922 from a heart attack whilst out hunting with the Warwickshire Foxhounds at nearby Upper Quinton. George Miles Watson, 2nd Baron Manton
George Miles Watson, 2nd Baron Manton
George Miles Watson, 2nd Baron Manton .Miles Watson was born near Leeds, Yorks., on June 21, 1899, the eldest of 4 sons of Joseph Watson, 1st Baron Manton, the Leeds soap magnate, and Claire Nickols, da. of Harold Nickols of Sandford House, Kirkstall, Leeds...
sold the property to Samuel Lamb. It was requisitioned by the Army during World War II and became vacant when the war ended.
In 1993 it was bought in a run-down state by Littlewoods
Littlewoods
Littlewoods is the name of a former retail and gambling company founded in Liverpool, Merseyside, England by John Moores in 1923.It started as a shopping catalogue company, processing orders by post in the early 1970s. In 1981, it expanded to a call centre, processing orders via telephone. At its...
millionaire Sir Peter Moores
Peter Moores
Sir Peter Moores CBE DL is a British businessman, art collector and philanthropist, a former chairman of the Liverpool-based Littlewoods football pools and retailing business in the United Kingdom....
and restored into a gallery capable of hosting international exhibitions. It is now run by Compton Verney House Trust, a registered charity.
The collections include Neapolitan
Neapolitan
Neapolitan may refer to:* Neapolitan, of or pertaining to the city of Naples, Italy and sometimes its wider Duchy or Province of Naples** Previously a nationality, during the time of the Kingdom of Naples or the Neapolitan Republics* Neapolitan cuisine...
art from 1600 to 1800; Northern European medieval art from 1450–1650; British portraits including paintings of Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
, Elizabeth I and Edward VI and works by Joshua Reynolds
Joshua Reynolds
Sir Joshua Reynolds RA FRS FRSA was an influential 18th-century English painter, specialising in portraits and promoting the "Grand Style" in painting which depended on idealization of the imperfect. He was one of the founders and first President of the Royal Academy...
; Chinese
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
bronzes
Bronze sculpture
Bronze is the most popular metal for cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply a "bronze".Common bronze alloys have the unusual and desirable property of expanding slightly just before they set, thus filling the finest details of a mold. Then, as the bronze cools, it...
including objects from the Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
and Shang
Shang Dynasty
The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley...
periods; British folk art
Folk art
Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic....
; and 20th century textiles including creations by Enid Marx
Enid Marx
Enid Crystal Dorothy Marx FRSA was an English painter and designer. She was born in London, England, on 20 October 1902 and died in London on 18 May 1998...
.