John Postle Heseltine

File:Gainsborough Lane, Ipswich, (1874) by John Postle Heseltine.png, Ipswich by Heseltine]]

Heseltine was born on 6 January 1843 in Dilham, Norfolk. He was a son of Mary and Edward Heseltine. His brother was Rev. Ernest Heseltine, M.A. of Sandringham, who assisted the officiation of his eldest daughter Dorothy's marriage to Viscount Cantelupe in 1890.{{cite news |title=Weddings |url=https://fitlib-sparc-archives.org/?a=d&d=A18900628-US-NNFIT-SC-TT500-Q3-18900628-01.1.18& |accessdate=6 October 2020 |work=The Queen |date=28 June 1890}} Through his brother Ernest, he was uncle to civil servant Michael Heseltine, the Registrar of the General Medical Council between 1933 and 1951.{{cite journal |title=Obituary: Michael Heseltine |journal=British Medical Journal |date=22 March 1952 |page=663 |url=https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/1/4759/658.full.pdf |accessdate=6 October 2020}}

In 1859, at age 16, he was sent to Hanover to learn German. While there, he was introduced to etching on copper by Major van Usslar-Gleichen. Heseltine quickly became a skilled draughtsman and engraver and exhibited his first etching, Hastings, at the Royal Academy in 1869. He joined the Etching Club in 1877, and was a founding member of the Society of Painter-Etchers in 1880.{{cite web |title=John Postle Heseltine Sketchbooks 1925-1928 |url=https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/research/research-centre/archive/record/NGA14 |website=www.nationalgallery.org.uk |publisher=The National Gallery |access-date=26 August 2021}}

Heseltine was a stockbroker and senior partner in the family firm, Heseltine, Powell & Co., which was founded by his father and Charles W. Marten in 1848 as Marten & Heseltine, and dealt particularly in American railroad bonds and shares. After his father retired, Thomas Wilde Powell was senior partner and Heseltine was junior partner.{{cite book |last1=Lago |first1=Mary |title=Christiana Herringham and the Edwardian Art Scene |date=1996 |publisher=University of Missouri Press |isbn=978-0-8262-1024-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/christianaherrin00lago/page/13 13] |url=https://archive.org/details/christianaherrin00lago |url-access=registration |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Heseltine Powell and Company |url=https://aim25.com/cgi-bin/vcdf/detail?coll_id=16696&inst_id=118&nv1=browse&nv2=sub |website=aim25.com}} They supported bond issues for the New York and Erie Rail Road, Baltimore and Ohio Railroad (1873) and Pennsylvania Railroad (1876).{{cite book |last1=Poole |first1=Andrea Geddes |title=Stewards of the Nation's Art: Contested Cultural Authority, 1890-1939 |date=2010 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |isbn=978-0-8020-9960-0 |page=237 note 19 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2NDiDM3tcvIC&pg=PA237 |language=en}} Many years after his death, the name of the company changed to Heseltine, Moss & Co. in 1977 and the business became part of Brown Shipley Ltd. in 1987.{{cite book |last1=Carr |first1=J. |last2=Bricault |first2=G. |title=Corporate Financial Services in Wales 1989 |date=6 December 2012 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-94-009-2739-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RnHvCAAAQBAJ |access-date=27 August 2021 |language=en}}{{cite book |title=The Bankers' Almanac and Year Book |date=1988 |publisher=Thomas Skinner Directories |isbn=978-0-611-00725-4 |page=762 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aB0WAQAAMAAJ |access-date=27 August 2021 |language=en}}

{{Further|Heseltine Collection}}

File:HeseltineRembrandt1913.jpg

From 1893 until his death in 1929, Heseltine was a trustee of the National Gallery and advised on the purchase of paintings, particularly works from the Dutch and Flemish schools. Beginning in 1905 and lasting for the eighteen month period between Sir Edward Poynter's retirement as director and the appointment of Charles Holroyd, he shared responsibility for running the Gallery with Lord Carlisle, a fellow trustee.

"Heseltine was a keen collector of oil paintings, drawings and watercolours of the English and Continental schools. Among the old master drawings were specimens by Rembrandt, Rubens, Raphael, Michelangelo, Fra Bartolomeo, Holbein, Dürer, Constable, Watteau and Boucher." In 1912, after fifty years of collecting, he sold his collection of over 600 old master drawings to the London dealer Colnaghi & Obach for a price near $1,000,000.{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph To the New York |title=$1,000,000 IS PAID FOR 600 DRAWINGS; Celebrated Heseltine Collection of Works by Old Masters Sold to a London Firm. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1912/10/23/archives/1000000-is-paid-for-600-drawings-celebrated-heseltine-collection-of.html |access-date=27 August 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=23 October 1912}} Thirty-two of his Rembrandt drawings sold the following May at what was then a high average of over $3,750 per drawing.{{cite news |last1=Times |first1=Marconi Transatlantic Wireless Telegraph To the New York |title=REMBRANDTS AT HIGH PRICES.; One Drawing from Heseltine Collection Sold for $12,540. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1913/05/29/archives/rembrandts-at-high-prices-one-drawing-from-heseltine-collection.html |access-date=27 August 2021 |work=The New York Times |date=29 May 1913}} In his collection, Heseltine also amassed a substantial collection of etchings by the Norwich School of painters.{{cite web |title=Biography of John Postle Heseltine |url=https://www.campbell-fine-art.com/artists.php?id=177 |website=www.campbell-fine-art.com |access-date=27 August 2021}}

File:196 Queen’s Gate, SW7, May 2018 (2).jpg residence at 196 Queen's Gate]]File:Walhampton Park. Alterations to gardens.pngFile:Walhampton Park. Garden Cloisters.png

On 29 May 1866, Heseltine was married to Sarah "Sally" Edmondson (1838–1935), a daughter of Sarah ({{nee}} Watson) Edmondson and Christopher Edmondson of Settle, York. Together, they were the parents of seven children, including:{{cite book |title=Who's Who in the World, 1912 |date=1911 |publisher=International Who's Who Publishing Company |pages=595–596 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I-wRAAAAYAAJ |access-date=26 August 2021 |language=en}}

• Sylvia Heseltine (b. 1868), who married Maj. Sir Philip Hunloke,{{cite news |title=Sir Philip Hunloke |work=The Times |page=7 |date=3 April 1947}} a grandson of Sophia Sidney, Baroness De L'Isle and Dudley (the eldest illegitimate daughter of William IV of the United Kingdom through his relationship with Dorothea Jordan), in 1892.{{cite book |title=Burke's Genealogical and Heraldic History of Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage |date=1914 |publisher=Burke's Peerage Limited |page=592 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RVggAAAAYAAJ |access-date=26 August 2021 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Fox-Davies |first1=Arthur Charles |title=Armorial Families: A Directory of Gentlemen of Coat-armour |date=1910 |publisher=T.C. & E.C. Jack |page=837 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M2VHAQAAMAAJ |access-date=27 August 2021 |language=en}}
• Christopher Heseltine (1869–1944), England Test cricketer who married Ethel Alice Crosse, widow of Percy John Howes, in 1923.
• Dorothy Heseltine (1870–1953), who married Lionel Sackville, Viscount Cantelupe in 1890;{{cite news |title=LYMINGTON {{!}} Marriage of Miss Heseltine |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/84231784/lymingtonmarriage-of-miss-heseltine/ |access-date=27 August 2021 |work=The Hampshire Advertiser |date=28 June 1890 |pages=7}} After his death in a boating accident a few months after their marriage, she married George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys.{{cite book |last1=Walford |first1=Edward |title=The county families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland |date=1 January 1860 |publisher=Dalcassian Publishing Company |page=722 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TuHIDwAAQBAJ |access-date=27 August 2021 |language=en}}{{cite web |title=Dorothy (nee Heseltine), Lady Jeffreys |url=https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp61047/dorothy-nee-heseltine-lady-jeffreys |publisher=National Portrait Gallery, London}}
• Godfrey Heseltine (1871–1932), educated at Eton and Cambridge and served in the Boer War; he married Jessie Maud Fraser, widow of Sir Robert Wrey, 11th Baronet, in 1918.
• J.E.N. Heseltine, who became a Lt.-Col. of the King's Royal Rifle Corps in the British Army and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.{{cite web |title=Private Albert Money's Tale Of the King's Royal Rifles |url=http://www.bugbrookelink.co.uk/WW1/Articles/Aubers%20Ridge%20Account.pdf |website=bugbrookelink.co.uk |access-date=27 August 2021}}{{cite book |title=The King's Royal Rifle Corps Chronicle |date=1907 |publisher=Warren and Son limited |page=42 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N_bDqOpf4uMC |access-date=27 August 2021 |language=en}}
• Diana Elizabeth Postle Heseltine (1877–1955), who married Augustus Whitehorn Addinsell, a son of Samuel Augustus Addinsell.
• Clarissa Mary Heseltine (1878–1967), who married Charles W. Sofer Whitburn, son of Charles Joseph Sofer Whitburn, at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge in 1902.{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court News |date=9 October 1902 |page=3 |issue=36894| }} She was well known as a racehorse breeder, and at one point live at Amport House, near Andover, Hampshire.

Heseltine died at his home in Eaton Square on 2 March 1929 and his widow died on 11 January 1935.

From 1877 to 1925, Heseltine lived at 196 Queen's Gate in South Kensington, London, which was designed by architect Norman Shaw for Heseltine. From 1925 until his death in 1929, he lived at Eaton Square in London's Belgravia district.{{cite web |last1=Macadam |first1=Sheila and Edwin |title=John Postle Heseltine |url=http://www.shelwin.com/e/ancestry/heseltine/jphrevised.htm |website=www.shelwin.com |publisher=Shelwin |access-date=27 August 2021}}

In 1883, Heseltine acquired Walhampton House in Walhampton, Hampshire as his country house. He again hired Shaw to remodel the house and, essentially, reconstruct the entire eastern part of the house and the Conservatory where he added a flat roof to be used as a roof garden. Harold Peto added an Italian terrace and sunken garden, the Roman arch and the Glade and Chinese boathouse. Heseltine sold Walhampton House between 1910 and 1911 to Dorothy Morrison (a daughter of James Morrison), who shortly thereafter married the diplomat and historian Stafford Harry Northcote, Viscount Saint Cyres in 1912. Before her marriage, she hired landscape architect Thomas Hayton Mawson to redesign the vast grounds.{{cite web |title=Walhampton School |url=http://research.hgt.org.uk/item/hordle-walhampton-school/ |website=research.hgt.org.uk |publisher=Hampshire Garden Trust Research |access-date=27 August 2021 |language=en}} After their deaths in 1924 and 1926, the estate was left to Lady Saint Cyres' nephew and was eventually sold in 1948 to Audrey Brewer, who used the house and grounds to establish Walhampton School.{{Cite web|url=http://www.walhamptonarchive.com/authenticated/Browse.aspx?BrowseID=20&tableName=ta_timeline|title=Walhampton School|website=www.walhamptonarchive.com|access-date=2020-03-01}}{{cite web|title=Hordle Walhampton school|url=http://www.hordlewalhampton.co.uk/pages/frames/school_info/school_info.htm|publisher=Hordle Walhampton School|access-date=11 June 2010}}

During his lifetime, he donated several paintings to the National Gallery, including: The Virgin and Child with Six Angels and Two Cherubim, by Francesco d'Antonio; A Cowherd passing a Horse and Cart in a Stream by Jan Siberechts; A Garden Scene with Waterfowl by Anthonie van Borssom; The Sea near Palavas after Gustave Courbet; and Portrait of Johannes Feige by Lucas Cranach the Elder.

In July 1929, his widow donated four of his 'Note Books' and Jean-Étienne Liotard's Portrait of a Grand Vizir to the National Gallery in his memory.

Francesco di Antonio di Bartolomeo (active 1393-1433) - The Virgin and Child with Six Angels and Two Cherubim - NG1456 - National Gallery.jpg|The Virgin and Child with Six Angels and Two Cherubim, by Francesco d'Antonio

File:Jan Siberechts (1627-c.1703) - A Cowherd passing a Horse and Cart in a Stream - NG2130 - National Gallery.jpg|A Cowherd passing a Horse and Cart in a Stream by Jan Siberechts

Anthonie van Borssom - A Garden Scene with Waterfowl.jpg|A Garden Scene with Waterfowl by Anthonie van Borssom

File:Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) (after) - The Sea near Palavas - NG2767 - National Gallery.jpg|The Sea near Palavas after Gustave Courbet

File:Lucas Cranach (I) - Bildnis eines Mannes, vermutlich Johannes Feige (National Gallery, London).jpg|Portrait of Johannes Feige by Lucas Cranach the Elder

File:Portrait of a Grand Vizier (?).jpg|Portrait of a Grand Vizir by Jean-Étienne Liotard

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ John P. Heseltine] on National Gallery website
• [http://www.shelwin.com/e/ancestry/heseltine/jphrevised.htm John Postle Heseltine] on Shelwin genealogy website

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Heseltine, J.P.}}

Category:19th-century art collectors

Category:20th-century art collectors

Category:British art collectors

Category:1843 births

Category:1929 deaths

Category:Painters from London

John Postle