Lighting historic art collections at Kenwood House with TM Lighting

TM Lighting is a world-leading art lighting specialist renowned for its award-winning design and manufacture of British-made, LED lighting for private and public art collections worldwide. When art is lit to its best advantage, it has the power to renew perspectives and bring a fresh energy to the viewing experience of art. Providing a personal advisory service for curators and collectors, it transforms collections in historic houses and palaces, museums and galleries.

SECOND AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

We were brought into Kenwood House in 2022 with the aim to transform the permanent collection. From its 17th-century origins, through the Enlightenment and opulent 20th-century when Lord Iveagh bequeathed it to the nation, Kenwood House has been home to the one of world’s most impressive collections of Old Master works. In a mission to bring a ‘Second Age of Enlightenment’ to the collection, two years ago TM Lighting developed the TM MasterLight for the project. This patented product allowed us to sculpt light with unparalleled precision.

While achieving English Heritage’s conservation and sustainability standards, we tailored each light individually to each artwork, introducing a lighting hierarchy to draw focus to the most significant pieces. A high-performance miniature LED picture light capable of illuminating four-metre-high canvases from a minimal profile. The historical integrity of this iconic mansion was paramount in this perfect marriage of contemporary and classic design. The TM MasterLight, with its minimal design, disappeared into the backdrop of the interior, allowing the paintings to take centre stage.

A TEMPORARY EXHIBITION LIT WITH A LASTING IMPACT

Three years on, we were invited to light a temporary exhibition, ‘Heiresses: Sargent’s American Portraits’, showing at Kenwood House until October 2025. Focussing on the transatlantic marriage phenomenon of the nineteenth century, the collection – pulled together from several significant institutions in the US – documents the real lives of American ‘dollar princesses’ and their life-changing contributions to politics, the arts and society during that time. This exhibition “explores a side to Sargent’s portraits not often considered: the real lives of the women behind the works”, comments Wendy Monkhouse, the senior curator of the exhibition.

Lighting a temporary exhibition in an historic space presented the usual challenges of how and where to mount the lighting while minimising reflections in the paintings and glare from the luminaires, to create an even wash of light. Without the benefits of a track and spotlight system as used in a conventional museum, we adopted three different methods of lighting these women in order to create a uniformity of light across the exhibition and highlight their profound influence:-

1. We developed a product to mount the ZeroForty spotlight to existing picture rails in the room, with interchangeable lenses to sculpt the light perfectly for each artwork.
2. We used the MasterLight Classic for the two tallest paintings in the exhibition locations
3. We mounted the MasterLight Classic onto the temporary wall created to display one of the key portraits

Two of the paintings – the arresting, full-length portraits of ‘Daisy Leiter’ (left) and ‘Pauline Astor’ (right) – were not able to use the same lighting solution as the rest of the exhibition, due to the geometry of the space. Reflections in the paintings obscuring the onlooker from seeing the paintings at their best, needed to be finessed. We sought permission to mount the MasterLight Classic to the back of the painting, and the result was a uniformity of light with no reflection in the paintings – an overall success.

We ran cables around the back of the picture rail in order to access power to these locations. An alternative and efficient way of doing this could have been to use the TM Lighting ArtRail™ – a low voltage electrified rail – providing the power to the picture lights and spotlights. Available in a variety of finishes including antique brass, the rail seamlessly blends into the heritage space.

‘Nancy Astor’ (middle portrait) is lit with the ZeroForty spotlights custom mounted on a bracket for the rail, as with the majority of the exhibition. Consequently, according to co-founding director at TM Lighting, Andrew Molyneux, “she is brilliant; she is serene; she is beautiful.” We also used this lighting solution for ‘Cora, Countess of Stafford’.

Meanwhile, for ‘Mrs Wilton Phipps’ (left) we mounted the MasterLight Round picture light onto the temporary light onto the wall. We were not able to light it from the rail because we would have to position the spotlights in such a way that would create glare from the lights obscure the viewing experience as visitors walked around the space.

Andrew Molyneux continues, “Authenticity exudes in the architecture and interiors of historic houses like Kenwood, allowing our team to innovate within the quirks of the space and deliver creatively.” Track and spotlights belong in spaces with vast, uninterrupted walls such as The National Gallery or Tate. At Kenwood, designed originally as a home, our work reflects this residential surrounding. Visitors expect the mood, atmosphere and historical references to sing and bring a sense authenticity as it does in Heiresses.

FOCUSSING AND CONSERVATION

Our focussing service comes into its own when setting the balance across an exhibition featuring different media. For example, Heiresses was in the main oil paintings with works on paper sewn throughout the exhibition. Each light fixture was individually dimmable to achieve ambient light levels – less than 50 lux for works on paper and less than 200 lux for oils. Where there is an oil painting next to a drawing, it may be required to lower the light level on the oil painting to gain maximum effect and good balance. Some paintings soak up light, while others need minimal light. Combining all of these elements leads to a well-balanced viewing experience. Our team is exacting and goes to the extra level of detail to ensure a perfect balance.

Wendy Monkhouse, senior curator at English Heritage comments, “the obsessive perfectionism to TM Lighting’s approach is simply remarkable. It wasn’t an easy job at all what with all the glazing, size differences and works on paper. Sargent himself would be impressed and amazed.”

Our installation and focusing team mounted the spotlights in position to ensure no glare from the lights or reflection, while maintaining uniform illumination over the canvas. Lighting from the perimeter of the room is naturally challenging to minimise the shadows. We customised the arm length to facilitate the focusing, and we used anti-glare louvers to minimise glare from the spotlights.  Friends of Kenwood commented on TM Lighting’s role at Kenwood House as “transformative. A brilliant success!”.