My last post updated the story of various portraits owned by the Branfill family with the discovery that several of the paintings which hung in Upminster Hall were sold at auction in 2023 and that a family member still owned others. I hoped that the story wasn’t yet over, and I can now confirm another, possibly final, chapter of the story!
Just to recap, in 1881 Upminster’s historian T.L. Wilson recorded a list of 23 portraits of the Branfills and other relations which hung in the dining-room, drawing-room and staircases of Upminster Hall. My article last year tracked down many of these paintings and this article adds further information.
I mentioned that a portrait described at auction in 2023 as “Portrait of Mary Anna Branfill”, née Miers, the wife of Benjamin Aylett Branfill, painted by Carl Werner (not listed by Wilson) might be a companion portrait to that listed by Wilson as “Col B.A. Branfill” by Werner. I later discovered that in 2023 this latter painting had been donated to the Suter Art Gallery in Nelson, New Zealand where Branfill had settled in 1881 and had died in 1899. The gallery has only recently taken a photograph of Benjamin Branfill’s portrait which you can see below, alongside the painting of his wife Mary Anna.
Image courtesy Anderson & Garland
Image courtesy Suter Art Gallery Nelson New Zealand
I was intrigued to find out who Carl Werner was. The online gallery catalogue included a photo of an annotation on the painting which said that it was by Carl Werner and dated 1860. The writing matched that on other Branfill portraits and appears to have been added by Benjamin Branfill himself, probably before he emigrated to New Zealand in 1881, leaving the paintings in Upminster Hall .
The catalogue described the artist as Carl Friedrich Heinrich Werner (1808-1894) who biographies described him a German water colourist – there is no indication that he was an artist who painted in oils or painted portraits. While Carl Werner did visit England and paint there, this appears to have been in the early 1850s and much of his time in the late 1850s and early 1860s he seems to have been in Spain and later Egypt and other nearby by countries
Searches on Ancestry revealed cartes de visites photographs of Col Branfill and his wife Mary Anna nee Miers which had been taken by a Mme Werner in Dublin. The coincidence of the surname Werner was too much to ignore and further research indicated that from 1864 a Mme Werner, photographer and Louis Werner, an artist, were listed at 15 Leinster Street in Dublin. A Dublin Directory listing from 1863 showed Louis Werner, portrait painter at 112 Baggot Street, Lower.
More digging showed that Louis Werner was born in Alsace, France in 1824 and had settled in Dublin and married Augustine Fieffe there in 1857. Although he was originally a painter of religious images Louis Werner found that there was little demand for such paintings in Dublin from Ireland’s leading aristocracy who were Protestant. Reinventing himself as a portrait painter Werner received numerous commissions from the Irish nobility. In 1864 they moved to 15 Leinster Street and his wife established a photography studio there alongside his artist’s studio.
Benjamin Branfill was a much-travelled career soldier who in May 1859 was a Captain in the 86th Regiment who was assigned as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General in Ireland, where he lived in Dublin until 1864. He did make regular visits to England and although Mary Branfill seems to have returned to her family home in South Wales to give birth to the couple’s children, their second son Capel Aylett Branfill was born in 1859 at 17 Hume Street, Dublin and baptised at St Peter’s Church, Dublin.
The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto has in their collections Benjamin Branfill’s surviving journals and family papers, including his journal for 1860-1861. I contacted them to ask whether this journal had any references to visits to Werner’s studio and they kindly sent me a scan of the entries for August 1860 which indeed confirmed that they made several visits.
On Tuesday 7th August 1860 Benjamin Branfill noted that “After office went to Werners to sit for my portrait which Mary has persuaded me to have taken” and two days later he again recorded another visit after work “to Werners for a sitting”. He recorded that he was there again on Saturday 11th, Tuesday 14th, and Tuesday 21th. On Wednesday 23rd after work he “walked down towards M. Werners in Baggot St where Mary had been sitting for her portrait” and on Saturday 25th he again walked to Werners, where Mary was again sitting for her portrait, and after seeing to more personal matters he returned there later.
(Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto MS. Coll. 00746)
These entries confirm that in August 1860 both Benjamin and Mary Anna Branfill were having their portraits painted by M. Werner at Baggot Street, which the Dublin street directory confirms was the address of Louis Werner, portrait artist. This proves that although Mary Anna’s portrait was later annotated by her husband Benjamin as by Carl Werner both the painting of himself and that of his wife Mary Anna were actually painted by Louis Werner in Dublin.
– * – * – * –
Another painting listed by Wilson as hanging in Upminster Hall, the whereabouts of which remained unknown, was “Jacob, Lord Astley” which had been in the Branfill family until it had been sold by them some years ago. The family retain a copy of this portrait made later for them by a family friend whose hobby was copying paintings from photographs. By coincidence last Autumn I was contacted by the Collections and House Officer at the National Trust property of Seaton Delaval Hall in Northumberland whose collection includes two versions of the same painting of Sir Jacob Astley. She told me that a few months previously a lady visiting Seaton Delaval Hall told them that her family owned a portrait just like the National Trust one which had been bought by her parents about 40 years ago. When she had recently seen the National Trust painting on a TV programme, the visitor had realised that they had a copy of the same portrait, and she was interested in finding out who the artist was. Her painting had part of an exhibition label on the back referring to the National Portraits Exhibition of 1866 at the South Kensington Museum. The catalogue for this exhibition indicates that this portrait of Astley was owned by “Mrs Branfill”, so the version that her family bought was undoubtedly the portrait that hung in Upminster Hall listed by Wilson.
The version at Seaton Delaval was loaned to the National Trust by the Astley family in 2009, along with a copy made by Rhoda Delaval, Lady Astley (died 1757) who was an amateur painter who copied many of the portraits in the Astley and Delaval family’s collections. The Astley family believed that the earlier version, which is dated 1640, was painted by Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641). However, when it was loaned to the National Trust it was catalogued as by “English School”, presumably as the specialists at the time didn’t feel like it could be attributed to van Dyke. Also, when this painting was exhibited in the Art Treasures Exhibition in Manchester in 1857 it was described in the catalogue as by “artist unknown”.
Sir Jacob Astley. Unknown artist, 1640
(National Trust, Seaton Delaval Hall 1276843)
It is unclear why the Branfill family owned a painting of Sir Jacob Astley, the 1st Baron Astley of Reading (1578-1652), who was a royalist commander during the English Civil War with no obvious links or family connections to the Branfills. Astley was a contemporary of the royalist Captain John Aylett of Magdalen Laver, Essex the grandfather of Damaris Aylett who married Andrew Branfill who bought Upminster Hall in 1686. Whatever the connection, we at least now know that the version which hung in Upminster Hall still survives in private ownership!
The final item of Branfill interest concerns items which I saw advertised in October on a well-known auction site relating to Upminster Hall and the Branfill family. After successfully bidding for three items I contacted the seller who indicated that he had bought these items as part of lot at auction in Wotton-Under-Edge. I agreed to buy the remaining 80+ items, which included various documents concerning the Upminster Hall Manor Court, the lease of Upminster Hall Farm in 1850, and some items from the eighteenth century which contain a few nuggets relating to the Branfills in Upminster. I have donated these items to the Essex Record Office who also hold another donation which had been bought in a West Country bookshop, and which no doubt originated from the same source.
Lease of Upminster Hall to Matthew Howland Patrick 1770
(Essex Record Office A16400)
For those who may wonder why this is my first Upminster web post for over a year I can confirm that I am in the process of shaping the various items that I have researched and written since January 2014 with the aim of publishing these in book form. There is still quite a bit to do but hopefully I’ll know more later this year. Watch this space!
With thanks to Dr Kyla Mackenzie, Curator and Collections Manager, The Suter Gallery, Helena Oliveira, Collections and House Officer, The National Trust, Seaton Delaval Hall, and Andrew Stewart, Reading Room Coordinator, Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto.
Sources:
Anderson & Garland, Spring Country House & Fine Interiors Auction (March 2023) Lot 650 – Carl Friedrich Heinrich Werner – Portrait of Mary Anna Branfill
Suter Art Gallery, Nelson, New Zealand Portrait of Benjamin Aylett Branfill Accession 1553
Wikipedia (France) entry for Louis Werner https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Werner
Louis Kübler, “The Alsatian painter Louis Werner”, Alsatian Archives of Art History, vol. 13, 1934, p. 131-149 Archives alsaciennes d’histoire de l’art | 1934 | Gallica
Benjamin Aylett Branfill (1828-1899) papers: Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, University of Toronto Ms. Coll. 00746
National Trust Seaton Delaval Hall:
Sir Jacob Astley, 1st Baron Astley of Reading (1579 – 1652) 1276843 (Unknown artist, 1640)
Sir Jacob Astley, 1st Baron Astley of Reading (1579-1652) 1276692 (Copy made 1745-1757 by Rhoda Delaval, Lady Astley).
Essex Record Office:
Records of the Branfill Family of Upminster Hall Essex Archives Online – Catalogue: A16400
Records of the Branfill family of Upminster Hall, being letters and papers concerning personal and estate matters Essex Archives Online – Catalogue: A16112
Thom’s Irish Almanac & Official Directory (accessed via Ancestry & Find My Past)
Related Upminster History website articles:
Old Upminster 