Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 March 1905 — Vicissitudes of Great Pictures. [ARTICLE]

Vicissitudes of Great Pictures.

Many and strange have been the vicissitudes of some of the world’s greatest pictures, and a fine painting which now graces Lord Leigh’s residence in Warwickshire, England, has an interesting history. This remarkable picture, which for some years consisted of a painting of flowers, was pronounced by an art dealer to be merely a mask for some other picture, and on receiving permission he gradually cleaned off the flowers, discovering underneath a very fine portrait of Charles 1., by-Vandyke. It is supposed that the portrait was thus disguised in order to save it from destruction by the Roundheads at the time of the” commonwealth.