Sir Austen Henry Layard

Archaeologist, art historian, collector, politician and diplomat.

National Gallery Trustee (1866–1894).

Layard was the son of Henry Peter John Layard, a civil servant in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), and Marianne, daughter of Nathaniel Austen of Ramsgate, banker. The family settled in Florence, enjoying the society of poets and painters. As a child, an altarpiece by Filippino Lippi hung over his bed. Aged 12 he was sent back to England for his education, and in 1834 he entered the solicitor’s office of his uncle, Benjamin Austen.

In July 1839 he left for Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) with Edward Mitford. In 1840 Layard decided to stay in Iran (then Persia), and between 1840 and 1842 lived partly in Baghdad and partly with the Bakhiari people who live in an area now forming border between Iran and Iraq. He later worked as an archaeologist in Turkey for Sir Stratford Canning, British Ambassador to Turkey, and from 1845–51 he excavated the cities of Nimrud and Nineveh. In 1847 he returned to London. In 1852 he became Liberal MP for Aylesbury. From 1869–1877 he was British Ambassador to Spain, and from 1877–1880 to Turkey. In 1884 he retired to Venice.

In the context of the British Foreign Office he was involved in debates around the slave trade within the Ottoman Empire (that encompassed North and East African as well as the Middle East), as discussed in Ehud R. Toledano, The Ottoman Slave Trade and Its Suppression: 1840-1890, Princeton 1983 (reprinted 2014), for instance, 262. The Ottoman Empire was one of the signatories of the 1890 Brussels Conference Act for the suppression of the slave trade.

Layard made annual trips to Italy to buy pictures both for himself and for the National Gallery.

No known connections with slavery.

Layard was involved in debates around the Ottoman slave trade in the context of the British Foreign Office (for which see Ehud R. Toledano, The Ottoman Slave Trade and Its Suppression: 1840-1890, Princeton 1983 (reprinted 2014), 262).

Donor: In 1886 Sir Henry Layard presented Arentino Spinello, Saint Michael and Other Angels (NG1216.1), Decorative Border with a Kneeling Flagellant and Saints Michael and Stephen (NG1216.2) and Decorative Border with a Seraph and Saint Catherine (NG1216.3).

In 1913 Sir Henry Layard bequeathed after Frans van Mieris the Elder, An Old Fiddler (NG2952), Caspar Netscher, Portrait of a Lady and a Girl (NG2953) and Nicolaes Maes, Portrait of a Man in a Black Wig (NG2954); this list excludes paintings transferred to Tate (NB in other entries we have included pictures which have been transferred to Tate - which here are N02946–2951, N02955–2956).

In 1916 Sir Henry Layard bequeathed Jacopo de‘ Barbari, A Sparrowhawk (NG3088); Gentile Bellini, The Sultan Mehmet II (NG3099); After Gentile Bellini, Doge Niccolò Marcello (NG3100); Workshop of Giovanni Bellini, The Virgin and Child (NG3078), The Adoration of the Kings (NG3098); Style of Ambrogio Bergognone, Two Panels from an Altarpiece: Saint Paul (NG3080) and Saint Ambrose (?) (NG3081); Francesco Bissolo, The Virgin and Child with Saints Michael and Veronica and Two Donors (NG3083); After Bonifazio di Pitati, Dives and Lazarus (NG3106); Francesco Bonsignori, The Virgin and Child with Four Saints (NG3091); Paris Bordone, Christ baptising Saint John Martyr (NG3122); Follower of Sandro Botticelli, The Virgin and Child (NG3082); Bramantino, The Adoration of the Kings (NG3073); Probably by Giovanni Buonconsiglio, Saint John the Baptist (NG3076); Vittore Carpaccio, The Departure of Ceyx (NG3085); Rosalba Carriera, Portrait of a Man (NG3126); After Rosalba Carriera, Rosalba Carriera (NG3127); Probably by Antonio Cicognara, Mystic Figure of Christ (NG3069); Probably by Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, The Virgin and Child with Saint John the Evangelist(?) and Saint Nicholas (NG3113); After Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, The Virgin and Child with Saint Paul and Saint Francis (NG3112); Lorenzo Costa, The Adoration of the Shepherds with the Nine Choirs of Angels (NG3105); Gerard David, Christ Nailed to the Cross (NG3067); Style of Anthony van Dyck, Portrait of a Woman (NG3132); Garofalo, The Virgin and Child enthroned with Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine of Siena (’Madonna della Scimmia') (NG3102); Gaudenzio Ferrari, Panels from an Altarpiece: The Annunciation: The Angel Gabriel and The Annunciation: The Virgin Mary (NG3068.1-NG3068.2); Possibly by Girolamo Genga, A Jesse-Tree (NG3119); Gerolamo da Vicenza, The Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin (NG3077); Giampietrino, Christ carrying his Cross (NG3097); Follower of Hugo van der Goes, Virgin and Child (NG3066); After El Greco, Saint Peter (NG3131); Italian, A Man and his Wife (NG3117); Italian, The Holy Family (NG3125); Italian, Portrait of an Old Man (NG3130); Italian, Florentine, Saint Peter (NG3120); Italian, North, Saint George and a Female Saint (NG3079); Italian, North, The Madonna and Child with Saint Nicholas of Tolentino and Saint Anthony of Padua (NG3094); Italian, North, Saint Catherine of Alexandria (NG3118); Italian, Venetian, Augustus and the Sibyl (NG3086); Italian, Venetian, A Naval Battle (NG3108); Italian, Venetian, The Labours of the Months: January – December (NG 3901.1 – 3110.6); Jacometto, Portrait of a Man (NG3121); Bernardino Licinio, The Madonna and Child with Saint Joseph and a Female Martyr (NG3075); Pietro Lorenzetti and Workshop, Fresco Fragments: A Crowned Female Figure (Saint Elizabeth of Hungary?) and A Female Saint (the Annunciate Virgin or one of the Marys?) (NG3071-2); Workshop of Bernardino Luini, The Virgin and Child (NG3090); Workshop of Master of the Magdalen Legend, The Magdalen Weeping (NG3116); Ludovico Mazzolino, The Nativity with a Shepherd (NG3114); Bartolomeo Montagna, Saint Zeno, Saint John the Baptist and a Female Martyr (NG3074); Moretto da Brescia, Praying Man with a Long Beard (NG3095); Moretto da Brescia, Christ blessing Saint John the Baptist (NG3096); Giovanni Battista Moroni, The Vestal Virgin Tuccia (NG3123); Giovanni Battista Moroni, Portrait of Leonardo Salvagno (?) (NG3124); Giovanni Battista Moroni, Portrait of a Man with Raised Eyebrows (NG3128); Giovanni Battista Moroni, Bust Portrait of a Young Man with an Inscription (NG3129); Follower of Joachim Patinir, Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt (NG3115); Niccolò Pisano, Two Stories from the Story of Moses: The Israelites gathering Manna and The Dance of Miriam (NG3103-NG3104); Andrea Previtali, Christ Blessing (NG3087); Andrea Previtali, The Virgin and Child adored by Two Angels (NG3111); Raffaellino del Garbo, Portrait of a Man (NG3101); Possibly by Girolamo Romanino, Pegasus and the Muses (NG3093); Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, Saint Jerome (NG3092); Lambert Sustris, The Queen of Sheba before King Solomon (NG3107); Cosimo Tura, A Muse (Calliope?) (NG3070).

In 1900 Lady Layard presented probably by Bartolomeo Montagna, The Virgin and Child (NG1696).

J. Anderson, 'Layard, Sir Austen Henry', in J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://doi.org/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.T049724
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

History of Parliament Trust (ed.), The History of Parliament: British Political, Social & Local History, London 1964-, https://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/
Checked and not found — Item on publisher's website

J. Parry, 'Layard, Sir Austen Henry', in C. Matthew et al. (eds), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford 1992-, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/16218
Checked and found — Item on publisher's website

J. Turner et al. (eds), Grove Art Online, Oxford 1998-, https://www.oxfordartonline.com/groveart/
Checked and not found — Item on publisher's website

UCL Department of History (ed.), Legacies of British Slave-ownership, London 2020, https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/
Checked and not found — Item on publisher's website