Archival research allied to technical inspection helps us to interpret the historical context of the Knole portraits. Events such as gallery moves, exhibition loans and conservation work may impact on the paintings by exposing them to variable environmental conditions.
1600
Knole House is re-modelled by Thomas Sackville.
1605
Earliest possible date for the boards used in the portrait paintings based on dendrochronology analysis.
1609
Death of Thomas Sackville.
1700
Portraits are likely moved to what is now named the Brown Gallery, with research suggesting that they may have previously hung in another location at Knole in the Cartoon Gallery.
1709
Inventory of Knole lists 32 heads in the Leicester Gallery and 21 heads in the passage (Brown Gallery).
1728
George Vertue records “a small gallery hung with Old pictures. on bord all alike in size & ornament heads all probably collected. By Tho. Sacvil Earl of Dorsett” in a notebook now held by the Walpole Society.
1730
Inventory made of the Horn Gallery (now Brown Gallery) .
1793
Restoration work carried out by Francis Parsons “For cleaning & Repairing forty old portraits on Pannels […] and the Frames mended and new Gilt, with Ribbons added to each Frame and label’d with the name and title of each portrait, and the Angle of each painted with ornaments”
1799
Inventory taken of the Brown Gallery that lists the currently known set of portraits.
1866
The two portraits of William Herbert and Thomas Howard are loaned to The Exhibition of National Portraits.
1890
The five portraits of Thomas Wolsey, John Fisher, Sir Francis Walsingham, John Whitgift and Richard Bancroft are loaned to the Exhibition of the Royal House of Tudor
1957
Selected paintings are sent to Bourlet & Sons Ltd for treatment, although the exact nature of the treatment to the paintings is not clear as records were subsequently lost in a fire.
1984
All 44 existing paintings undergo restoration treatment in-situ.
1988
The portrait of John of Austria is loaned to the Armada Exhibition at the National Maritime Museum.
1993-1994
Paintings 25-38 sent out for conservation treatment.
1996-1997
Paintings 39-46 sent out for conservation treatment.
1997
Portrait of Alfonso d’Avalos is water damaged and sent out for conservation treatment.
1997-1998
Portraits of Thomas Howard, 4th Duke of Norfolk and Francis of Lorraine are stolen and returned.
1998
Paintings 49-50 sent out for conservation treatment.
2016
All paintings are moved to the kitchen store (acclimatized to 60% – 70% relative humidity).
2019
All the paintings will be reinstated in an environmentally-controlled Brown Gallery. The final relative humidity range within this new setting is still to be determined.