28 Feb 2021
SINT AND SINNER: Above, St Jerome in the Wilderness, by Andrea Solario
In the latest of her regular columns, Dorothy Blundell takes a sideways look at the collections of The Bowes Museum where she is a volunteer
LONG before he met Joséphine, John Bowes was buying paintings. In 1830, aged 19, he made a brief Grand Tour of the continent and acquired his first painting, the Temptation of St Anthony. By 1844 he had bought 57 artworks, ranging from Italian pre-Renaissance to Dutch 17th century, as well as some 15th century art.
One of his purchases of 1841, and displayed in the religious picture gallery in The Bowes Museum, is St Jerome in the Wilderness, by Andrea Solario, one of the most talented pupils of the great Leonardo da Vinci.