From top left to bottom right: Humphrey Tugwell (1704-1775), oil on canvas; Elizabeth Tugwell (1711-1801), oil on canvas; William Tugwell (1742-1774) oil on canvas; Thomas Tugwell (1744-1769) oil on canvas
July 2024, Bath, UK: Bath Preservation Trust has successfully acquired four Thomas Gainsborough paintings of the Tugwell family under the Acceptance in Lieu scheme. They will go on public display for the first time in September at No.1 Royal Crescent.
The four portraits will be celebrated in Being There, an exhibition that also features contemporary portraiture by 15 British or British-based artists working today. The exhibition in The Gallery at No.1 Royal Crescent will be open to the public from 14 September 2024 to 23 February 2025. Once the exhibition closes the paintings will be integrated into the future development of the historic house Museum.
Thomas Gainsborough was commissioned by a prosperous provincial manufacturer in around 1760 to undertake this group of four portraits. They depict clothier, Humphrey Tugwell, his wife, Elizabeth and sons William and Thomas. The Tugwells were prominent figures in the life of Bradford on Avon, where Humphrey Tugwell owned a dye house, mill and pin factory. The Wiltshire town is only six miles from the city of Bath, where Gainsborough established himself permanently in 1760.
The four portraits, still in their original carved Carlo Maratta frames, have remained with the sitters’ descendants and have never previously been sold. Bath Preservation Trust has been allocated the portraits for display at No.1 Royal Crescent through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme.
Dr Amy Frost, Senior Curator for Bath Preservation Trust said: “It is exceptionally rare for a set of four portraits of members of the same family by Thomas Gainsborough to survive together. Rarer still is the fact that the sitters are not aristocratic visitors to fashionable Bath, but middle-class manufacturers from a small West Country town. This set of Gainsborough portraits are remarkable for capturing two generations of a wealthy, upwardly mobile manufacturing family. Few comparable sets of portraits by Gainsborough survive, making these pre-eminent depictions of middle-class sitters and ones with strong local significance to the story of Bath and Bradford on Avon. This is a highly significant acquisition for No.1 Royal Crescent, and we eagerly look forward to sharing these with the public.”
Patrizia Ribul, Director of Museums for Bath Preservation Trust said: “Thomas Gainsborough would have been living in Bath at the time he undertook the Tugwell commissions, so it is fantastic that we now have the opportunity to display them here in the heart of the city. It is a very exciting year for all of our museums here at Bath Preservation Trust. No.1 Royal Crescent is launching its first temporary exhibition since the pandemic; the Museum of Bath Architecture reopened on 30 March; Beckford’s Tower reopened on 29 June following a £3.9million refurbishment; and the Herschel Museum of Astronomy is undergoing consultation on potential redevelopment.”
Culture Minister, Sir Chris Bryant, said: “Thomas Gainsborough is one of the titans of British art, so it is only right that these portraits by him are displayed in the city he once called home.
“Thanks to the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, this acquisition will allow No.1 Royal Crescent to display the artworks, giving access to these historic portraits for residents and visitors to Bath for the first time. Their delicacy, sensitivity and vibrancy are a delight. It is as if the sitters are in the room with you.”
Michael Clarke CBE, Chair, Acceptance in Lieu Panel, said: ‘I am delighted that these four portraits of Humphrey Tugwell and members of his family by Thomas Gainsborough have been allocated to the Bath Preservation Trust for display at The Royal Crescent, Bath through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme. Gainsborough was one of the greatest English portrait painters and based himself in fashionable Bath from 1759 to 1773. Tugwell was a highly successful merchant in nearby Bradford-on-Avon and made an important contribution to the development of the cloth trade in that town. These portraits of Tugwell, his wife, and two of their children will greatly enhance the collection at No.1 Royal Crescent. They demonstrate the major role played by the AIL Scheme in securing works of art for public collections around the country. I hope that this allocation encourages others to use the Scheme and to continue to support our national collections.’
The provenance of the suite of Tugwell paintings is as follows:
- Commissioned by Humphrey Tugwell in circa 1760;
- William Tugwell (1742-1774), son of the above;
- Elizabeth Tugwell (d.1847), daughter of the above who married Sir William Coles Medlycott (1767-1835);
- Sir William Coles Medlycott (1806-1882);
- Sir William Coles Paget Medlycott (1831-1887);
- Sir Hubert James Medlycott (1841-1920);
- Sir Hubert Mervyn Medlycott (1874-1964);
- Sir James Christopher Medlycott (1907-1986);
- Sir Mervyn Tegonwell Medlycott (1947-2021)
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For more information about the Acceptance in Lieu scheme and Arts Council England please contact Arts Council England’s communications team at: duty.press@artscouncil.org.uk
NOTES FOR EDITORS
These paintings were acquired through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme and their acceptance settled £88,125 of tax. Their offer was negotiated via Duke’s Auctioneers. Details of the works are as follows:
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
Four Portraits of members of the Tugwell family of Bradford on Avon
oil on canvas, 76.2 x 63.6cm, painted circa 1763
- Humphrey Tugwell (1704-1775), was apprenticed to Matthew Smith of Bradford, clothier, in 1720. He became a very successful clothier in his own right and held properties in Pippett Street (now Market Street), Woolley Street, and “Goodbys” in Church Street, also a dye-house and mill. He purchased Methwins (Priory House) in 1763 and his family lived there until 1811. Humphrey was churchwarden at Holy Trinity 1751-1755, 1774-1773. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Daniel Jones of Bradford, a dyer. Humphrey and Elizabeth had seven children.
- Elizabeth Tugwell (1711-1801), Humphrey’s wife
- William Tugwell (1742-1774), their third son married the heiress Betty Hayward of Freshford in 1765. He was a clothier like his father and was church warden at Holy Trinity between 1771-1774. His daughter, Betty married Sir William Coles Medlycott of Venn House in 1796. Sir Mervyn Medlycott is a descendant of that marriage.
- Thomas Tugwell (1744-1769), their son
The Acceptance in Lieu scheme is administered by Arts Council England. The Acceptance in Lieu Panel, chaired by Michael Clarke CBE, advises on whether property offered in lieu is of suitable importance and offered at a value which is fair to both nation and taxpayer. AIL allows those who have a bill to Inheritance Tax to pay the tax by transferring important cultural, scientific or historic objects to the nation. Material accepted under the scheme is allocated to public collections and is available for all. In the last decade this important government initiative brought £531.9m worth of treasures into public ownership for the enjoyment of all – see more at: https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/supporting-arts-museums-and-libraries/supporting-collections-and-cultural-property/acceptance-lieu#section-1
About Arts Council England
Arts Council England is the national development agency for creativity and culture. We have set out our strategic vision in Let’s Create that by 2030 we want England to be a country in which the creativity of each of us is valued and given the chance to flourish and where everyone of us has access to a remarkable range of high-quality cultural experiences. From 2023 to 2026 we will invest over £467 million of public money from Government and an estimated £250 million from The National Lottery each year to help support the sector and to deliver this vision.
No. 1 Royal Crescent is the first building at the eastern end of the Royal Crescent in Bath, Somerset, and is of national architectural and historic importance. It was built to the designs of John Wood the Younger in 1767 – 1774 and remains the epitome of Palladian architecture in Bath. Notable residents of No.1 Royal Crescent include Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany in 1776 (and forever immortalised in the rhyme The Grand Old Duke of York) and Henry Sandford, a retired Irish Member of Parliament, who became the first permanent resident, living at the house with his family from 1777 until his death in 1796.
Today, No. 1 Royal Crescent is a historic house museum, with the rooms furnished with historic furniture, pictures and objects that reveal what life was like for Bath’s fashionable residents – both upstairs and downstairs in one of the great houses of 18th century Bath. It is owned and maintained by Bath Preservation Trust. In 2021 No.1 launched an innovative, immersive experience that is designed to bring the house to life through a series of film and sound installations that give visitors a very real sense of what it would have been like to live in this very grand townhouse.
Bath Preservation Trust (BPT) campaigns for and promotes the conservation, sustainable enhancement and celebration of the unique historic built environment and amenity, green setting and global contributions of the City of Bath. Bath is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the only entire city in the UK afforded World Heritage Status. The core principles of BPT are: informed advocacy, learning for all, and the provision of authentic heritage experiences at its four museums (No. 1 Royal Crescent, the Museum of Bath Architecture, the Herschel Museum of Astronomy, and Beckford’s Tower), which focus on the architectural and historic importance of the city. BPT receives no statutory funding and is supported by visitor income, grants, legacies, donations and members who share a passion for the city and its environs.
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