{"id":173460,"date":"2025-09-27T17:18:14","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T17:18:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/173460\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T17:18:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T17:18:14","slug":"blenheim-palace-paintings-to-be-restored-as-part-of-1m-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/173460\/","title":{"rendered":"Blenheim Palace paintings to be restored as part of \u00a31m project"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris McHugh, in Woodstock<\/p>\n

\"OPUSOPUS CONSERVATION<\/p>\n

The Great Hall ceiling painting by Sir James Thornhill is one of the two paintings being restored<\/p>\n

Two 18th century masterpiece paintings at risk from a damaged palace roof are being protected by a new \u00a31 million conservation project. <\/p>\n

Blenheim Palace said the works were at risk of being “lost forever” if the project was not carried out. <\/p>\n

The paintings being restored include the Great Hall ceiling work by Sir James Thornhill, from 1716, and Louis Laguerre’s paintings of the Battle of Blenheim located in the Saloon.<\/p>\n

The scheme forms part of a \u00a312 million restoration of the palace’s roof<\/a>, set to finish in 2026.<\/p>\n

\"CHRISCHRIS MCHUGH\/BBC<\/p>\n

Water damage from the leaking roof now lies just metres away from the ceiling painting in the palace’s Great Hall<\/p>\n

The palace said a combination of “age, climate change and penetration from rainfall” had led to the declining state of the roof, attic timbers and ceilings.<\/p>\n

Work on the roof and paintings is running concurrently, which the palace described as the “most ambitious undertaking” in its history. <\/p>\n

The BBC was shown water damage to the Thornhill painting’s surrounding stonework being painstakingly cleaned by conservators. <\/p>\n

Kelly O’Driscoll, head of Built Heritage at Blenheim Palace, said the painting had been damaged by years of dirt and water ingress.<\/p>\n

“We could end up losing this painting… it’s a race against time to get it looked after”, she said. <\/p>\n

\"CHRISCHRIS MCHUGH\/BBC<\/p>\n

Thornhill’s painting was conceived as a celebration of the 1st Duke of Marlborough’s military successes<\/p>\n

Lizzie Woolley, director of OPUS Conservation, said damage was currently limited to a metre away from the edge of the ceiling painting. <\/p>\n

“If you leave it and the roof continues to deteriorate, you risk it coming closer in and damaging this masterpiece.” <\/p>\n

The year-long project is funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund and the Blenheim Foundation. <\/p>\n

The palace said the work would include new studies of the paintings and hands-on training for the “next generation of heritage professionals”.<\/p>\n

The palace said the Tate, The Courtauld Institute of Art and the University of Oxford would all contribute to the research. <\/p>\n

\"CarmelCarmel Jane<\/p>\n

The works are part of a \u00a312 million restoration of Blenheim Palace’s roof<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chris McHugh, in Woodstock OPUS CONSERVATION The Great Hall ceiling painting by Sir James Thornhill is one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173461,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[76,354,355,49,48,356,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-173460","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-design","14":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173460"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173460\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}