One Hour at Chatsworth House

MUSEUM GUIDE | CABANA TRAVEL | WORLD OF CABANA

In this series, we travel the world's great museums - large and small - through the eyes and minds of Cabana Curators, asking one question: if you had only an hour to spare, what would you see? This week, Alice Martin, head of The Devonshire Collection at Chatsworth House, talks Cabana through the museum's most notable objects.

INTERVIEW BY EMMA BECQUE | CABANA TRAVEL | 4 APRIL 2025

Chatsworth House, planted in Derbyshire's picturesque and protected Peak District, has been shaped by seventeen generations of the Devonshire family, each leaving their mark on one of Britain’s most storied private estates. 

At its core lies the Devonshire Collection, an extraordinary assemblage of art, objects and archives spanning 4,000 years, cared for today by Alice Martin, head of the Devonshire Collections. From rare Old Master drawings to site-specific commissions by contemporary artists, Martin oversees not just the treasures of Chatsworth but also those held at Lismore Castle, Bolton Abbey and Compton Place. 

She approaches her role with reverence for the house as a historical monument and a living space that continues evolving with each generation. “There is almost a sci-fi quality to Chatsworth,” she says, describing the house as a palimpsest built upon the foundations of its Tudor predecessor. “Everything in this house was new once.”

For Martin, the collection is "an unbroken chain," a generational conversation unfolding through portraiture, and the architectural layers of the house itself. “The visitors are part of that gaze,” she reflects, “sharing the space with the generations who came before.”

In this guide, she shares a handful of her favorite works, revealing the deep sense of continuity that links centuries of commissions and collections.

Drawing by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1448–1494) 

"One of my favorite things in the collection is something you rarely see. It is an Old Master drawing, part of one of our core collections, so fragile and sensitive to light and environmental conditions that it can only be displayed for five months every five years. It is a portrait of a young woman, drawn in the 1420s by Ghirlandaio.

"We know she was one of the daughters of the patron who commissioned a chapel in Florence, and her face still appears on the wall of that chapel today. You can even see the tiny holes where the artist transferred the drawing onto the fresco.

"There is something incredibly moving about it. You are looking directly at a real person from 1420. Before photography, drawings offered a rare and immediate glimpse into someone's life. That immediacy is something you don't quite get in painting."

The Painted Hall

"If I had to pick something every visitor would see, it would be the Painted Hall. Even now, after all these years, walking into that space never fails to lift me.

"The ceiling mural, painted by Louis Laguerre, celebrates the Glorious Revolution and William and Mary's ascension. The First Duke built it between 1689 and 1694 as part of his vision of a ducal palace in the Peaks. It is a triumphal, theatrical space.

"Sometimes, in my role, I focus on conservation concerns and things that need repairing, but I never lose that feeling of awe in the Painted Hall, which was created to impress and still does." 

Jacob van der Beugel's DNA Installation, North Sketch Gallery

"One of my favorite contemporary works is Jacob van der Beugel's installation in the North Sketch Gallery. It was part of a major renovation project the current Duke and Duchess completed before they moved out of the house.

"Originally intended to be a traditional portrait gallery of the family, Jacob suggested a portrait in ceramics instead. What he created is extraordinary. The panels, made from ceramic tiles, represent the sequenced DNA of the Duke, Duchess, and their children.

"In the centre of the piece are small fragments of mirrored glass representing the DNA strands we all share. That is why I love it so much. It makes you part of the portrait, too."

Maria Sibylla Merian's Botanical Studies

"Maria Sibylla Merian is one of my absolute heroines. She was a Swiss-born naturalist who sold everything she had in 1699 at the age of 54 and travelled to Suriname, then a Dutch colony in South America.

"She made the most exquisite studies of the local flora and fauna. These hand-painted illustrations are as scientific as they are beautiful. Peter the Great collected her work, though she later slipped from history. She is in a renaissance now, and I always bring out her drawings when I give talks because they are so vivid, and her story is extraordinary. She was a woman far ahead of her time."

The Library 

"The library at Chatsworth is one of the most beloved rooms in the house. It is a space where most visitors would love to curl up with a book; honestly, I feel the same.

"The sixth Duke expanded it in the 19th-century and featured work by the architect Wyatville, including mahogany bookcases and a surrounding gallery. With plasterwork by Edward Goudge and paintings by Antonio Verrio, the ceiling is one of the few surviving parts of the 1st Duke's original interiors.

"But what I love most is that this isn't just a decorative library. It holds substance. The first librarian was the philosopher Thomas Hobbes, whose own collection is here. So is the scientific library of Henry Cavendish, who weighed the world and discovered hydrogen. The library is a space of real intellectual depth."

The Franz Hals Marriage Portraits

"We recently reunited two portraits by Franz Hals that had been separated for centuries. Our painting of the wife was brought together with the husband's portrait, which is held in the Barber Institute.

"The National Gallery helped restore the male portrait, which had been coming off its panel. The incredible detail is that both works were painted on the same oak tree, cut down in the early 1500s. Through scientific testing, we know they were made from the same wood cross-section.

"I find that so moving. This tree, minding its own business, is felled and split in half and becomes the canvas for two people who were life partners. Now reunited, their portraits form a profoundly intimate and interconnected pair."