How do we know this family liked blancmange? The great British art quiz

Mr and Mrs John Custance or Norwich and Their Daughter Frances’, William Beechey. Photograph: Norfolk Museums Service

This quiz is brought to you in collaboration with Art UK, the online home for the UK’s public art collections, showing art from moer than 3,000 venues and by 45,000 artists. Each day, a different collection on Art UK will set the questions.

Today, our questions are set by Norfolk Museums Service, which consists of 10 museums across the beautiful county of Norfolk.

Sites in Norwich include Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery, along with medieval merchants’ houses at Strangers’ Hall and the Museum of Norwich. Maritime collections abound at Great Yarmouth, Cromer and Kings Lynn. Discover rural history at Gressenhall and local treasures at the Ancient House at Thetford.

You can see art from Norfolk Museums Service on Art UK here. Find out more on the Norfolk Museums Service website here

1. 

   This painting is The Dutch Fair at Great Yarmouth painted in 1821 by George Vincent (1796-1831). What was Vincent imprisoned for just three years later?

   1. His involvement in a drunken pub brawl

   2. Stealing another artist’s painting from an exhibition

   3. For being in debt

   4. For distribution of seditious literature

2. 

   This painting depicts the Union Baptist Chapel, King’s Lynn, Norfolk by Henry Baines (1823-1894). In what year did the building open as the town museum?

   1. 1704

   2. 1804

   3. 1904

   4. 2004

3. 

   John Sell Cotman (1782–1842) is one of the foremost landscape watercolourists of the 19th century. Which pre-Raphaelite painter did he teach drawing to at King’s College in London?

   1. Dante Gabriel Rossetti

   2. John Everett Millais

   3. Ford Madox Brown

   4. William Holman Hunt

4. 

   Great Yarmouth’s beach and jetty were popular subjects with artists, and Norwich School painter John Crome (1768-1821) exhibited at least six paintings of the jetty. Built in 1560, how many times has the jetty been altered/rebuilt since?

   1. One to three

   2. Four to six

   3. Seven to eight

   4. Nine to 10

5. 

   Gwen John (1876–1939) is known for her portraits of female sitters, often unknown. Which famous French sculptor did John sit for in 1904?

   1. Edgar Degas

   2. Auguste Rodin

   3. George Braque

   4. Aristide Maillol

6. 

   Norwich-born Amelia Opie (1769-1853) was well-known and pioneering for her work in which area?

   1. Publishing novels and poetry

   2. Feminism

   3. Abolitionism

   4. All of the above

7. 

   How do we know that this family, painted by William Beechey (1753-1839), liked to dine on mackerel, fowls, a tongue and roast mutton followed by some pigeons, asparagus, tartlets, raspberry cream, and blancmange with currant jelly?

   1. A second portrait of the Custance family features a dining table set with a meal

   2. Novelist Fanny Burney refers to being entertained by the Custances in a letter to Dr Samuel Johnson

   3. The diarist Parson James Woodforde describes meals eaten with the family during his years in Norfolk

   4. A housekeeping book from Weston House details purchases of foodstuffs and menus

8. 

   Sir Robert Walpole (1676-1745) the powerful Whig politician, was one of the most influential of the Georgian era. Born in Norfolk, he built the magnificent neo-classical Houghton Hall in the north of the county, where he hosted lavish parties. This painting though shows him hunting in Richmond park, where he went frequently. What connection did he have with Richmond?

   1. He didn’t really like Norfolk

   2. Richmond was near London so it was convenient for his work

   3. The hunting was better in Richmond

   4. His mistress lived there

Solutions

1:C - Although he was a member of the famous Norwich School of Painters which included among others, John Sell Cotman and Joseph Stannard, life didn’t go according to plan for Vincent. Imprisoned in London’s Fleet Prison for debt in December 1824, he died in relative obscurity in 1831. The painting depicts Great Yarmouth’s annual herring fair, later known as the Dutch Fair. The Dutch invented the herring curing process which formed the basis for Great Yarmouth’s prosperity in this period. Image: The Dutch Fair on Yarmouth Beach, Norfolk, George Vincent (1796-1831), Great Yarmouth Museums, 2:C - The museum was originally founded in 1844 by members of the Lynn Conversazione and Society of Arts. In 1859 the Union Baptist Chapel was built and was painted by local artist, Henry Baines. In 1904 the museum moved to the Union Baptist Chapel. Today it is the home of Lynn Museum. On display you can see Seahenge, a bronze age timber monument discovered on the north Norfolk coast. Image: Union Baptist Chapel, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, Henry Baines (1823-1894), King’s Lynn Museums, 3:A - Cotman was appointed professor of drawing at King’s College in 1834 and wrote to his wife: ‘No man can be more happy, even in prospect, than I now am. Proud! proud!! proud!!! and happy Cotman!!!! Much as I have ever loved London I have never trod its gold-paved streets feeling so much as a man of business, and so much to belong to it, as now.’ Image: Silver Birches, c1824-28, John Sell Cotman (1782-1842), Norfolk Museums Service, 4:D - The jetty has been rebuilt or altered at least nine times. Other 19th-century artists who painted scenes of Great Yarmouth include John Constable, John Sell Cotman and JMW Turner. The latest version of the jetty was built in metal in the 1960s and none of the original timbers of the jetty survive. Image: Yarmouth Jetty, Norfolk, c1810-14, John Crome, Norfolk Museums Service, 5:B - Gwen John met Auguste Rodin following her arrival in Paris with her friend Dorelia McNeill in 1904. John and Rodin became lovers, with John writing to Rodin almost daily over the next 10 years. More than 1,000 letters are held by the Musée Rodin in Paris. Image: Girl in a Blue Dress Holding a Piece of Sewing, 19th-20th century, Gwen John, Norfolk Museums Service, 6:D - Amelia Opie is probably one of the most significant women in Norwich’s history. She published her first novel aged 21, although was best known for her work supporting the abolition of slavery. She was married to painter John Opie, but was widowed early. She was one of the few women depicted by Benjamin Haydon in his famous painting The Anti-Slavery Society Convention, in 1840, now in the National Portrait Gallery. Image: Amelia Opie, nee Alderson, 1836, Pierre-Jean David d’Angers (1788-1856), Norfolk Museums Service, 7:C - In his entry for 8 May 1781, Parson Woodforde describes an agreeable day spent with the Custances, his niece Nancy and Mr Du Quesne at their home at Ringland, near Norwich. During this time, the Custances were his close neighbours and there are numerous references to their social and community relationships. The family group is the subject of new work by artist Will Teather at Strangers’ Hall. Image: Mr and Mrs John Custance or Norwich and Their Daughter Frances, c1786, William Beechey, Norfolk Museums Service, 8:D - After his wife’s death in 1737, Robert Walpole married Maria, although she died in childbirth in 1739. Houghton Hall is now inhabited by Walpole’s descendant, the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley. The Hall is open to the public and houses a magnificent art collection, much of it amassed by Robert Walpole himself. Sir Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, as a Ranger of Richmond Park, 18th century, Johnathan Richardson the elder and John Wootton (c1682-1764), Norfolk Museums Service

Scores

1. 6 and above.

   A-ha – you certainly know your Norfolk-based art. Congratulations!

2. 0 and above.

   Not great. Or, like Norfolk, very flat.

3. 3 and above.

   A reasonable result. Normal for Norfolk, as the saying goes.