Paintings from PM's country residence go on show

Clare Fitzsimmons

31 July 2008

A GLIMPSE inside Chequers is being offered at Compton Verney this summer.

Several portraits from the Prime Ministerial country estate are going on display at the award-winning art gallery between Stratford and Leamington as part of a new exhibition.

Portraits from Chequers: Kings, Queens and Revolutionaries will open on June 7 and run until December 14.

It presents a rare opportunity to view a select group of historically significant works straight from the official country residence of Prime Ministers since 1921. Some have not been seen in public for almost a century.

Included in the display at Compton Verney are Charles I and Henrietta Maria, both by Anthony Van Dyck; Lord and Lady Lee at Chequers, by Philip Alexius de László; John Pym, a miniature by Samuel Cooper; Lady Mary Grey, attributed to Hans Eworth; Oliver Cromwell, attributed to Robert Walker; Queen Elizabeth’s Locket Ring, containing portraits of herself and her mother, Anne Boleyn; and Lady Margaret Beaufort and James I, both by unknown artists.

Chequers is one of Britain’s most famous houses, yet as the country seat of the Prime Minister, it is not open to the public. It has an important collection of paintings, furniture and decorative arts. The house, which was built in the sixteenth-century, remained in the ownership of a single family, passing through the female line. It was eventually taken on a long lease by Sir Arthur Lee, later Lord Lee of Fareham, who was seeking a country retreat, and he finally bought the property in 1917.

The post World War 1 era brought about a new breed of politician; one who did not possess the country houses of previous prime ministers to entertain foreign dignitaries or relax from the affairs of state. Following discussions with the then Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, Chequers was given to the nation as a country retreat for the serving Prime Minister, as a result of the Chequers Estate Act of 1917, initiated by Lord and Lady Lee who had extensively restored the property. Since then, Chequers has become pivotal in the public and private lives of British Prime Ministers’, and has become the setting for many significant moments in political history.

For advance booking call 01926 645500 or visit www.comptonverney.org.uk

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