Exhibitions 2

Norfolk Portraits (Castle Museum, Norwich, till 29 November)

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London, the seat of power, patronage and Urr ma •-•-• ..... . • Ts- --- includes numerous portraits either of or artictc:-- of their day such as. Van Dyck, Lely, Hoga- rth, Gainsborough, John Singer Sargent -hetlflan- The exhibition charts the nse of tne

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are reminded that when many of the por- traits here were commissioned there were no public art galleries, though Norwich, along with King's Lynn and Bath, started displaying its civic collection much earlier than many towns and cities. The collection is formidable: in 1936, the then director of the National Portrait Gallery called it Britain's best. As well as patronising lead- ing and rising national artists of the time, bygone Norfolk grandees energetically encouraged local talent — whether local 4.3 'NCH- ab---U-111-4- -E1U-11WJIS as [Tata -1s-Frr lion I. “Cri-L rims LLUI-a 1700 A .1I..1 CP Irl r.A 1a‘, .1,! f ....511ar=..;t_,A .=,_n!?A dp;x 1Arel0 Nowar1 ...--,-- -,-- -- - — - • ----..,7---f_—_______-- - ,!,',' , _ :!--, _

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,nfnrmahty . accomplished miniatures — an oval one of the sometime Norwich MP Sir Harborn Harbord is on show. Miles eventually set- tled in America, where he co-founded the Philadelphia Academy. One of his neigh- bours in Norwich was William (later Sir William) Beechey, a painter strongly influ- enced by Zoffany and represented here by a moving family group showing Mr and Mrs John Custance with their daughter Frances (c.1780). The Custances were archetypal squirearchy and great friends of

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lUf D_ ••41,-m. 3 Jon Yarmouth-born Edward Miles (1752- puerility—iii the gamelaw? — though-LIM I (c. Tim). His picture is a-iiiasterpie-Ce—di'lfoup portray; nyfinsilc-----sir--zwo,--- 15:1+

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portrait of his secretary and cOMPiiiii":-1 alas. triume tbrniush whick,ttunt._rlaWA.d01-.5.J.,_ them.'

Sog_firneziode;nepori:IttsAsuntttih;ia:th,;,:.; nortraimre peneral,in_ Past Antrra"_ thriv admired Sir

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898) a picture of the Yarmouth edUa" I

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classic. Steele remarked in the origuraI A01; S9 II rPlatinTIV. nieturee• = Mk fine ___eoshibitia