The Horne Museum in Florence today presents to the public the restoration of the portrait of Herbert Percy Horne, founder of the house-museum on Via de’ Benci. The work, created in 1908 by English painter Henry Harris Brown, was restored by Daniele Rossi with the collaboration of Gloria Verniani and Umi Toyosaki, thanks to the support of Friends of Florence and a donation from Catharin Dalpino. Giuseppe Rogantini Picco, president of the Horne Foundation, Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda, president of Friends of Florence, Elisabetta Nardinocchi, director of the museum, and the restorer Daniele Rossi himself will participate in the presentation meeting, which takes place at 4:30 p.m.
The painting constitutes a particularly significant testimony, considering the paucity of existing images of Horne. The portrait, painted when Horne was 44 years old, depicts him at the height of his relationship with Florence and is a fundamental source for understanding the figure of the collector, art historian and creator of the museum. Despite the thoroughness with which he organized and kept records of the works he studied and collected, Horne left very few traces of his private life, as if he wanted to identify himself exclusively with his cultural activities and his collection. This lack of personal information is also accompanied by a limited presence of portraits: for a long time, in fact, his image was known mainly through two photographs. One, preserved at the William Morris Gallery, shows him as a teenager, having tea with the mother of architect Arthur Mackmurdo; another portrays him in his early thirties and has often been used in his biographies.
The restored painting is not merely a portrait, but represents a visual synthesis of his cultural universe. Through the image both his scholarly gaze and his strong connection, as an English collector, with the Florentine Renaissance emerge. In fact, Horne is depicted next to a statuette by Giambologna, while Benozzo Gozzoli’s Deposition appears in the background, both works belonging to his collection and still preserved in the museum. Entering the Horne Museum’s collections in 1933, following a donation by the artist himself, the painting was immediately recognized as a work of great merit, not least because of its pictorial quality, which brings Brown closer to the international portraiture of the early 20th century.
The work was done on an industrially prepared fine-weave canvas with a pearl gray ground. The colors, combined with linseed oil, are spread in brushstrokes of different consistencies and include pigments such as cinnabar red, yellow ochre, white lead, and coal black. Over time, dust and atmospheric residues had been deposited on the surface, as well as yellowed resin varnishes that attenuated the painting’s original luminosity.
During the intervention, these varnishes were partially reduced, without being completely removed, through the use of solvents and the use of an optical microscope. The canvas was kept on the original frame: the biets were consolidated and repositioned, also preserving the four original nails. Subsequently, a new brush painting with semisynthetic material was applied and touch-ups with stable mineral pigments were performed.
The gilded frame also underwent intervention: dust deposits accumulated in the carved floral motifs were removed using a fat emulsion gel. The restoration thus restored depth to the background, greater sharpness to the details and luminosity to the flesh tones, bringing out the technical quality and expressive power of the work. This intervention represents a significant step not only for the conservation of the painting, but also for the enhancement of the museum’s identity, which is closely linked to the figure of its founder.
"Once again Friends of Florence has intervened to restore to greater legibility a work that, depicting an Englishman who greatly loved Florence and its art, well symbolizes the attention of this institution which, through its president, Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda, has brought donations from all over the world to our city, testifying to how it is truly a heritage of Humanity," said Giuseppe Rogantini Picco, President of the Horne Foundation, commenting on the restoration.
Elisabetta Nardinocchi, director of the Museum, on the other hand, stressed the importance of the work: “Both for the quality of the painting and, above all, for what it represents, the painting lends itself well to being displayed in the rooms where the extraordinary collection that Horne wanted to furnish his Florentine palace is kept, so that all visitors can remember how much is owed to these educated and passionate foreigners who made Florence their second homeland, committing themselves personally to the protection of its memories, its art and its urban fabric.”
“We are delighted to have supported the restoration of the Herbert Percy Horne painting and to have contributed to its preservation for the present and future enjoyment of a work of such great significance to the Horne Museum and to the history of collecting in Florence,” said Simonetta Brandolini d’Adda, president of Friends of Florence. “We thank Director Elisabetta Nardinocchi for her willingness and opportunity to work alongside the Museum in such an important project and Daniele Rossi who led the intervention on the painting. We are also deeply grateful to Catharin Dalpino, a passionate donor and always close to Friends of Florence. For her, as for our entire Foundation, the gesture is ideally in the groove of all those Friends of Florence - in the broadest sense - who over time have chosen to return part of its beauty to the city, recognizing its universal value.”
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| Horne Museum, restored portrait of Herbert Percy Horne, founder of the Florentine house-museum |
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