• Date: c.1724
• Type: Painting
• Material: Oil on canvas
• Place Made/Found: London
• Artist: Charles Jervas
• Lender: Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund and the London Historic House Museums Trust

This portrait of Henrietta Howard was painted in 1724 when the initial designs for her new house, Marble Hill, were under way. It was commissioned by her close friend and fellow Twickenham resident Alexander Pope as a companion to a portrait of the writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. By 1784 it was hanging at Horace Walpole’s home, Strawberry Hill.

• Date: 1738
• Type: Painting
• Material: Oil on canvas
• Place Made/Found: Rome
• Artist: Giovanni Paolo Panini

The Great Room at Marble Hill contains a unique set of five imaginary views of Rome by Panini. Positioned above the doors and mantelpiece, they are thought to have been either purchased or commissioned for the room by Henrietta Howard. In this painting the direction of the light and the line of the perspective when seen from the doorway of Mrs Howard’s bedchamber both suggest that it was painted for the room.

• Date: c.1730
• Type: Table
• Material: Marble
• Place Made/Found: England
• Artist: Possibly William Kent
• Lender: Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund (Eugene Cermotti Fund)

This is the only remaining example from a set of four side – or ‘pier’ – tables which were designed and made for the Great Room, the principal reception room at Marble Hill. The design, possibly by William Kent, incorporates a peacock motif. The peacock is the symbol of the Roman goddess Juno, wife of Jupiter, the king of the gods. Henrietta Howard, the mistress of George II, may have identified with Juno.

• Date: c.1735
• Type: Screen
• Material: Wood, lacquer
• Place Made/Found: China

This eight-leaf lacquer screen was made to order, probably in the Chinese port of Canton. It bears the coat of arms of Henrietta Howard, painted in the original lacquer, and reflects her love of ‘chinoiserie’ with its colourful and fantastic ornaments. According to an inventory of Marble Hill drawn up in 1767 two such screens were used in the Great Room.

• Date: 1745
• Type: Painting
• Material: Oil on canvas
• Place Made/Found: London
• Artist: Thomas Hudson
• Lender: Bequeathed by Angus Whiteford Acworth to the National Art Collections Fund and presented to Marble Hill House 1981

This painting shows Margaretta Mabella Acworth at the age of 19 and was commissioned, together with a portrait of her new husband, Abraham, to celebrate their marriage in 1745. Abraham Acworth was a clerk of the Exchequer and had recently inherited a sizeable sum of money from his uncle. It is therefore not surprising that they chose Thomas Hudson, one of the most fashionable portrait painters in London, to paint their portraits.

• Date: c.1770 version of c.1735 painting
• Type: Painting
• Material: Oil on canvas
• Place Made/Found: London
• Artist: Charles Jervas

The Duchess of Queensberry lived at Petersham on the opposite bank of the Thames to her friend Henrietta Howard at Marble Hill. She longed for ‘wings like a dove’ in order to ‘fly away to Marble Hill and be at rest’. It was extremely fashionable for ladies to be painted in simple rustic roles and here the duchess is shown as a dairy maid. She had her own dairy at Petersham.

• Date: c.1738
• Type: Painting
• Material: Oil on canvas
• Place Made/Found: London
• Artist: Charles Philips

This portrait of George II is thought to allude to the death of Queen Caroline in 1737. The setting for the portrait is probably the ante-room to the new library in St James’s Palace. The library was built to house the Queen’s collection and it was here that she was taken ill. A bust of the Queen is positioned above the door, while the empty throne may symbolise her absence.

• Date: c.1762
• Type: Painting
• Material: Oil on canvas
• Place Made/Found: London
• Artist: Richard Wilson
• Lender: Purchased with the assistance of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Art Fund and the Pilgrim Trust

In Richard Wilson’s view of the River Thames, the south front of Marble Hill House can be glimpsed on the far bank among the trees. Inspired by the 17th-century paintings of Claude Lorraine, Wilson has transformed the Thames into an Italianate riverscape, a suitable setting for Henrietta Howard’s Palladian villa.

• Date: c.1745–1760
• Type: Settee
• Material: Mahogany, embroidery
• Place Made/Found: England
• Artist: Anne Northey
• Lender: Purchased with the assistance of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Art Fund

Anne Northey was the talented needlewoman responsible for creating the embroidered covers for this mahogany settee and the accompanying side chairs. She is thought to have adapted earlier petit-point panels depicting pastoral scenes, inserting them within her own gros-point borders of flowers. Anne was the wife of William Northey, Commissioner of Trade and Groom of the Chamber of George III.

• Date: 1745
• Type: Painting
• Material: Oil on canvas
• Place Made/Found: London
• Artist: Hubert François Gravelot
• Lender: Purchased with the aid of a grant from the Victoria and Albert Museum

This is a rare oil painting by the French artist Hubert François Gravelot, who helped to popularise the rococo style in England. He was better known for his engravings and taught drawing at the St Martin’s Lane Academy in London, where his pupils included Thomas Gainsborough. This elegant painting, of a man reading to a woman in a carefully rendered interior, was engraved in 1745 and became very popular.

• Date: c.1760
• Type: Painting
• Material: Enamel and glass
• Place Made/Found: China
• Lender: The Rosemary and Monty Lazenby Bequest, through the Art Fund

In keeping with Henrietta Howard’s own enthusiasm for ‘chinoiserie’, Marble Hill is now home to the Rosemary and Monty Lazenby Bequest of ‘chinoiserie’ paintings and furniture. This collection includes unusual Chinese mirror paintings carried out in enamel on partly silvered glass. The glass was manufactured in London and then sent to workshops in China for decoration. This example shows the influence of English portrait engravings.