Many of the Old Masters in the sale came to the Thynne family at Longleat from the distinguished bibliophile Beriah Botfield. Longleat owes the majority of its Dutch pictures to the distinguished bibliophile and antiquary Beriah Botfield (1807-1863). Botfield believed strongly that he was related by blood to the Thynne family by virtue of his claim to descent from William Thynne or Boteville, the editor of Chaucer. Thus, when he died childless at the age of fifty-six, he bequeathed his old master picture collection and his library, to his supposed Thynne cousins. It is this legacy, handed down through successive generations of the Thynne family that forms the significant part of the old master picture sale to be held at Christie's on 14 June. The son of Beriah Botfield of Norton Hall, Northamptonshire, and heir to a Shropshire ironworks fortune, the younger Botfield became an avid collector at an early age. He started to buy books while still at Harrow, and as an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford, he collected examples of British minerals and British birds to complement his own studies in geology and botany. He was in his early thirties when he began to assemble his picture collection. His first recorded purchases were of 1841 and already in 1848, the collection deemed complete, he published his Catalogue of the Pictures at Norton Hall. However, the speed at which Botfield acquired his pictures does not seem to have led to reckless purchases. As can be deduced from the pictures in the sale, condition and authorship clearly mattered greatly to him. In several instances, the Norton Hall catalogue provides details about provenance. It attests to Botfield's widespread search for paintings and shows that he was active in many of the most prestigious sales of this time, both at home and abroad. He bought at least thirteen pictures in the present sale in Paris, including the Ter Borchs from the collection of Chevalier Cousin and the van Huysum from the sale of Aubert de Trucy, 13 March 1846. From Holland came eight works that include Frans Francken's Gallery interior, bought at the Kleinenbergh sale, 19 July 1841 and Lingelbach's The Campo Vaccino, Rome. On home soil, he purchased van der Poel's remarkable Explosion at Delft from the Duc de Morny's 'Duval' sale, at Phillips, 13 May 1846, for 38 guineas; Poelenburgh's Adoration of the Magi from the posthumous sale of William Beckford's pictures at Lansdown Tower in 1845; and Salomon Koninck's Philosopher and family in an interior from the Saltmarshe sale at Christie's, 5 June 1846, for 45 guineas. The principal motive behind Beriah Botfield's collecting is plainly revealed in the preface to his picture catalogue of 1848 in which he wrote: 'This collection has been formed with the sole intention of adding to the comforts of an English home the additional luxury of "walls hung with thoughts".' To this end, Botfield developed a predilection for Dutch and Flemish pictures. He favoured the tonal landscapes of van Goyen and Salomon van Ruysdael; the highly finished portraits of Ter Borch, Eglon van der Neer and Netscher; the interiors of Francken, Salomon Koninck and Teniers; and the Italianate scenes of Lingelbach, Poelenburgh and Weenix. This was, generally speaking, a French 18th century taste and one that was perhaps at odds with the more adventurous collectors of his day. It is landscapes that form the core of the collection. For someone who valued pictures for their ability to inspire contemplation, one can understand Botfield's appreciation of the atmospheric effects evoked by the tonalists van Goyen and Ruysdael. Van Goyen's rendering of light and atmosphere in the River landscape with fishermen drawing in their nets is particularly successful in this respect. The most highly prized work from this group was probably Salomon van Ruysdael's River landscape with Alkmaar beyond, dated 1651, a classic mature treatment of his favourite theme. In the same vein, Botfield was probably drawn to the Lingelbachs in this sale for their marvellous evocation of street life in Rome, and in the The Campo Vaccino, Rome, of 1656, he secured one of the artist's most ambitious and successful treatments of this theme. One of the outstanding pictures in the collection is a landscape of an entirely different kind, Jan van Huysum's Classical landscape with the worship of Bacchus. The harmonious composition, the rendering of light and distance, and the meticulous attention to detail combine to make this arguably van Huysum's finest achievement in this genre. This preference for highly finished detail can also be seen in some of the portraits. In this realm, Botfield was especially drawn to full-length portraiture, of which the earliest and most original is Thomas de Keyser's small-scale Portrait of a silversmith, painted at the height of his powers in 1630. The sitter is shown in a contemporary interior surrounded by objects that refer to his own interests, and from the silverware he has been identified almost certainly as the silversmith Christian van Vianen. Few clues are given as to the identity of Ter Borch's sitters, who are starkly depicted against a neutral background. This seemingly austere approach enabled the artist to focus intently on the individuality and sobriety of the couple. Painted on an unusually large format and rendered with a high degree of subtlety and refinement, these are amongst the artist's masterpieces in portraiture. One of Botfield's first recorded purchases was the Gallery interior by Frans Francken II and Hendrick van Steenwyck II, bought in Holland in 1841. Of all the pictures in his collection, none can have more vividly encompassed Beriah Botfield's interests. How he must have empathised with the picture's protagonists who are shown in the pursuit of knowledge, admiring paintings and studying the antique sculpture and manuscripts of an imaginary encyclopaedic collection. Henry Pettifer is a Specialist in the Old Master Picture department at Christie's London. Back to top  |  Back to article list Sale 6682, Lot 588 Salomon van Ruysdael (c.1600-1670) A river landscape with Alkmaar beyond, 1651 Oil on panel Estimate: £400,00-600,000 Johannes Lingelbach (1622-1674) The Campo Vaccino, Rome, 1656 Oil on canvas Estimate: £200,000-300,000