A PAINTING that graced the walls of Stourhead more than two centuries ago has returned to the house after 140 years after a dramatic story of reunion.

Angelica Kauffman’s Penelope and Euriclea has returned to the National Trust property – more than a century after it was first sold at auction.

Henry Hoare II ‘the Magnificent’, the creator of Stourhead’s landscape garden, was an enthusiastic art collector and greatly admired the work of Kauffman – a leading female artist working in a male-dominated sphere who became a prominent figure in the art and cultural worlds.

He purchased the painting – that depicts a scene from Homer’s Odyssey: faithful servant Euriclea wakes Penelope, bringing news that Penelope’s husband Odysseus has finally returned from fighting in the Trojan War and a perilous 10-year journey home – in April 1773.

Henry displayed the piece in the Skylight Room, a picture gallery containing some of his finest and favourite works.

His grandson, Sir Richard Colt Hoare, was also a collector and his catalogue of pictures records Penelope hanging in the Dining Room in 1822, suggesting it was still regarded as an important work of art.

Penelope and Euriclea, by Angelica Kauffman, is back at Stourhead in Wiltshire. Picture: National Trust Images/James Dobson

A century later, amid debts and falling income, Sir Henry Ainslie Hoare auctioned off many valuable items from the Stourhead collection and on June 2, 1883, Penelope and Euriclea sold for the modest sum of 7 guineas.

After the 1883 sale, Penelope and Euriclea went into private collections and largely disappeared from public view, re-emerging briefly at auction in 1992.

Then, on May 12, Stephen Ponder, the National Trust’s cultural heritage curator, heard the painting was to be auctioned in New York just 12 days later.

“With so little time available, I hardly dared hope that we might be able to find the funding and make a successful bid to bring the painting back to Stourhead,” he said.

READ MORE: 300-year-old mystery of Stourton Castle solved at Stourhead
READ MORE: How you have a spring clean at Stourhead…

All financial options were explored, and thanks to the generous support of a National Trust fund set up by the late Simon Sainsbury and a member of the Hoare family, the conservation charity was able to secure the painting.

Almost exactly 140 years after the original auction, one of the lost treasures has returned to Stourhead.

“Seeing this beautiful painting for the first time was a very exciting moment, one of the highlights of my career,” Stephen added.

“The attempt to acquire it for visitors to enjoy was a tremendous team effort, and I am absolutely delighted that we succeeded.”

Painting conservator, April Johnson, works on the painting. Picture: National Trust Images/James Dobson

Emily MacCormack, senior collections and house manager at Stourhead, said: “The 1883 sale was a momentous moment in the history of Stourhead with many beautiful and significant paintings being sold to save the estate.

“It has been thrilling to see this painting, so loved by Henry the Magnificent, creator of the world-renowned landscape garden, return to Stourhead.

“It’s even more thrilling to be sharing it with visitors to the house for the first time in 140 years.”

Following preliminary conservation work to the frame and canvas by paintings conservator, April Johnson, to prepare the painting for display, it will be on view in the Picture Gallery, from Monday (October 2), to Sunday, November 5.

The picture will then feature in a wider exploration of Kauffman’s work in 2024.