Demon Uncovered in Petworth Reynolds
November 1 2023

Picture: BBC
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The National Trust shared a suitable Halloween story yesterday regarding a demon uncovered during a recent conservation project. The conservation of Joshua Reynolds' The Death of Cardinal Beaufort lead to the reappearance of a demon hiding in the shadows and beneath layers of dirty varnish.
To quote the article linked above:
John Chu, the National Trust's senior national curator for pictures and sculpture, explained: "It didn't fit in with some of the artistic rules of the times, to have a poetic figure of speech represented so literally in this monstrous figure.
"When it was first shown at the Shakespeare Gallery in 1789 it generated more controversy than any other work on show.
Critics argued that "while it was considered acceptable in literature to introduce the idea of a demon as something in the mind of a person, to include it visually in a painting gave it too physical a form", said Mr Chu.
Several friends and commentators tried to persuade Sir Joshua not to include it - or, on the painting's completion, to paint it out.