Cleanedpaintings

After months of conservation preparation, planning and scaffolding, the oil-on-canvas, gold-framed, multiple portraits finally hang together on permanent display in the first floor stairwell outside the Norwood Gallery

The Last Shot had hung alone for many years since its companion was hidden away in the art store in a state of disrepair.

Now, thanks mainly to the generosity of the Friends of Worthing Museum and Art Gallery, the Museum is able to celebrate fully two of the key gifts bequeathed by the first Mayor of Worthing and museum benefactor Alfred Cortis.

Laura Kidner, curator of art and exhibitions, said: “Visitors to the museum can enjoy the original glory of these grand and large-scale Victorian masterpieces, expertly restored by a number of different local professionals.

“While the more familiar Last Shot commemorates the final scene of the Queen’s Prize shooting competition at Wimbledon in 1887, a crowded group portrait of those involved including the Prince and Princess of Wales, Edward and Alexander, and Alfred Cortis himself, the Queen’s Prizemen depicts, more unusually, 27 individual portraits of each prizeman arranged in a long, chronological line.

“There are a number of entertaining stories connected to these pictures which can be found on the labels displayed. However we know that the artist, Ponsonby Staples was an eccentric Irish baronet, nicknamed Wimbledon Staples after it took him two exhausting years to paint the works. He lived to 90 years of age believing that walking barefoot would prolong his life!”