fig. 41 Rose Hill, Northenden, near Manchester, main staircase showing the wall (left) on which The Icebergs hung, 1980. Photograph courtesy of Gerald L. Carr.
fig. 42 Mair Baulch standing next to The Icebergs outside Rose Hill, Northenden, Manchester, 1978. Photograph courtesy of Glen Baulch.
By that fall, however, Mrs. Baulch did have reason to focus on a large, dingy painting hanging on a little-used upper staircase. She had found a run-down stone cottage in the Lake District that she wanted to purchase for Rose Hill. Most of the boys in her care were from the inner city; the Lake District property would be an opportunity for them to renovate it and spend some time in the country. Her goal was a modest one: to raise roughly £14,000. Noting the inscription on the ice in the foreground, F. E. Church, 1861, she conducted some research on the painting and discovered that Church was an American artist. Some five years earlier she had visited the Art Institute of Chicago and had been enthralled by the museum’s collection of impressionist paintings. Remembering that experience, in early November 1978 she wrote a letter to the museum, enclosing a photograph of The Icebergs, and inquired if there was any interest in it. Over the next few months, she and the curator of American art, Milo Naeve, corresponded, discussing the painting’s history and its condition. The conversation gradually moved toward negotiation of a price for the painting. In May 1979 Naeve and Marshall Field, a member of the Art Institute’s board of trustees, flew to Manchester for a firsthand look. By this time the Manchester City Council had gotten involved with the fate of the painting, and the Art Institute’s first offer was refused. Ron Hall, the assistant director in the city’s Social Services Department, suggested contacting British art experts to evaluate the painting. Although the Art Institute persisted in its efforts to buy the painting, Hall decided to call Sotheby’s, an auction house in London.53 Thus it happened that in early June 1979 James Miller, a paintings specialist at Sotheby’s who handled American paintings that came to light in Great Britain, was asked to look at a painting in Manchester. It was described to him as a ship down in the water, signed by “Church.” He then received a photograph of the painting. He dimly recalled the chromolithograph that had appeared 74
on the cover of Huntington’s 1966 book on Church, and that the painting was last seen in England. The caller indicated that an offer for the painting had been made. Would Miller come take a look? Miller, who was new to the job and keen to establish his credentials, took the train to Manchester the next day. When he arrived at Rose Hill, he found the painting hanging, unframed, on a dark stair-case (fig. 41). Even though the painting did not show to its best advantage, he realized it was a significant picture. He asked to have it taken outdoors and there explained to the Baulches that this was in fact a long-lost painting by the American artist Frederic Church (fig. 42). He felt confident estimating on the spot that the painting had a value of at least $500,000 and suggested the Baulches put it in the city art museum for safekeeping. He also examined the painting, which he determined to be in remarkably good condition, and realized that a light cleaning would reveal a spectacular picture.54 The director of the Manchester City Art Gallery at the time was Timothy Clifford, who is now director-general of the National Galleries of Scotland. Clifford and Miller knew each other from their school days, and The Icebergs moved swiftly from the front lawn of Rose Hill to the secure environs of the museum.55 Clifford, who had no prior knowledge of the painting, agreed that it was a major work. He installed The Icebergs in his spacious offices. There in a grand room with a painted coffered ceiling, The Icebergs held court. Meanwhile, Clifford was making his own pitch to keep the painting, which had already been identified as city property by the Manchester City Council. Clifford argued that such a valuable work should remain on display for the public benefit as part of the museum’s permanent collection. However, the estimated value and the proposals that had 75