Discovered canvasses

Posted by Berkhamsted Admin on 05 Apr 2023

Modified by Berkhamsted Admin on 09 Nov 2023

Canvasses of religious scenes, donated in 1898

 

Suffer little children web
Christ painting 2 web

Chapel paintingsChapel watercolourWhilst clearing an attic in Deans' Hall, our Caretakers discovered two large, (thirteen feet in length) canvasses of religious scenes. The black and white photograph shows them in situ in the School Chapel in1923.

The canvasses were painted by and were a gift to the school from Sir John Leslie and feature in the list of Chapel gifts, formally dedicated in February 1898. Sir John had no connection with the school. They were taken down from the Chapel walls in 1926 but no details were recorded, certainly not in the school news pages, about their place of storage. For the most part they are in reasonable condition for articles that have been casually stored in a dark attic for nearly one hundred years. What to do with them though, that is the question?