National Trust, Dunster Castle

Image credit: National Trust Images/Magnus Rew

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Dunster Castle, nestling on a prime site occupied since the Norman times, was given to the National Trust by Lieutenant Colonel Walter Luttrell (1919–2007), MC, in 1976. Neither the Luttrell nor the Fownes families were great art collectors. One of the most interesting works is a copy, even if painted only forty years later: 'An Allegorical Portrait of Sir John Luttrell (c.1519–1551)', after Hans Eworth’s original of 1550/1551, in the Courtauld Institute. The naval commander is shaking his fist, in anger, at a figure of Peace, over the Treaty of 1550 that returned to the French the port of Boulogne that he had captured in 1544. Another early copy is 'Two Urchins Eating a Melon and Grapes' after Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. The view paintings from the Castle, attributed to Robert Griffier, showing its environs, already recorded in the second surviving inventory of the house in 1741 are notable, as well as a series of monochrome painted panels of sculptural busts in niches, discovered in the summerhouse when Dunster was acquired.

Dunster, near Minehead, Somerset TA24 6SL England

dunstercastle@nationaltrust.org.uk

01643 823004

For opening times of the property please see our website.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/dunster-castle