Art

The UK Supreme Court is home to a collection of artworks both new and historic. During the renovation of the building, the paintings and objects in the Middlesex Guildhall Art Collection were carefully removed, cleaned, and in some cases restored. A number of new works of art were also commissioned as part of the refurbishment.

The Earl of Northumberland, by Sir Joshua Reynolds

Hugh Percy, 1st Duke of Northumberland (c.1714-1786) was an aristocrat and politician who served as Privy Counsellor from 1762, and Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex from 1763 to 1786.

Details Oil on canvas 94 x 58 in. (2388 x 1473 mm)

Frame style: Rococo, carved and gilded, by the famous firm of Thomas Chippendale.

Duke of Northumberland, by Thomas Gainsborough

Hugh Percy 1st Duke of Northumberland (c.1714-1786) was an aristocrat and politician who served as Privy Counsellor from 1762, and Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex from 1763 to 1786.

Details Oil on canvas 90(1/2) x 59 in. (2299 x 1499 mm)

Frame style: Neoclassic, with entwined laurel-stem guilloche between pearled and palmette-wrapped borders, designed in the George III ‘antique’ manner of the 1760s.

Legacy, by Catherine Yass

Legacy, celebrating one hundred years of women in law and commemorating the centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act was unveiled in the Courtroom 2 in December 2019.

The artwork was commissioned by Spark 21, the charity which manages the First 100 Years campaign. Created by the internationally recognised artist, Catherine Yass, Legacy features portraits of three female legal pioneers:

• Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to sit the Bachelor of Civil Laws exam at Oxford University, and who often acted without charge to represent poor women in India.

• Dame Rose Heilbron, one of the first two women to gain a first-class honours degree in law in 1935 and who secured the right of women to withhold their identity in rape cases.

• Lady Hale of Richmond DBE, President of the Supreme Court from October 2017 to January 2020.

A fourth image features an unnamed student, representing the potential of the next generation of women lawyers to shape our society through their practice and reforms.

Lord Bingham, by David Poole

This oil painting of the late Lord Bingham (13 October 1933 - 11 September 2010), which hangs in Court 1, was kindly donated to The Supreme Court by his widow Lady Bingham.

The portrait shows Lord Bingham in his Garter Robes. Thomas Bingham had served as Senior Lord of Appeal in Ordinary between 6 June 2000- 30 September 2008.

Supreme Court emblem

The Supreme Court’s official emblem was designed by Yvonne Holton, Herald Painter at the Court of Lord Lyon in Scotland. It uses traditional symbolism, yet is delicate and modern at the same time.

The emblem combines four heraldic elements, equally represented in the design, reflecting the jurisdictions within the United Kingdom:

• England: a symmetrical five-petalled wild rose, with stalk and leaves, an English symbol since the Tudor dynasty.

• Wales: the green leaves of a leek, deriving from the medieval legend that St David ordered his Welsh soldiers to wear leeks on their helmets during a battle against the Saxons.

• Scotland: a purple thistle, associated with the tradition that an early Scottish army was saved when barefooted Viking invaders stepped on prickly thistles in the dark, crying out in pain and waking the defenders .

• Northern Ireland: a light blue five-petalled flax flower, representing the linen-weaving industry which was so valuable that nineteenth century Belfast was known as ‘Linenopolis’.

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