Core Record

In the foreground, two men sit fishing on a river bank in a pool below a small waterfall. Standing beside them is a woman in red and another woman can be seen in the river behind her. To the left, a woman riding on a white horse drives two cows along a road. On the opposite bank, a man drives a small herd of cattle. Behind him in the distance is a mountainous landscape with a tower rising on the left.

Between 1984 and 1985, a research assistant, Dr Brendan Cassidy, was employed by Nottingham Castle Museum to research and write a catalogue of the foreign oil paintings in their collection. The catalogue never materialised, but drafts and notes relating to Cassidy's research can be found in the Artist Files and in the archive at the museum. All references to Cassidy relate to these documents.

There is a handwritten note in the file (presumably by Cassidy) which may refer to a label found on the back of this painting that was perhaps removed during restoration: 'Zucarelli (sic). On paper 99M in blue pen'. There is a handwritten note in the file (presumably by Cassidy) relating to the likely provenance of the painting: Christie's, 28 July 1883, no. 15 by Zuccarelli: A River Scene with Figures and Cattle, sold by Dibben [?], bought by Can [?] with two other pictures for £1.14.0.

Richard Godson Millns was born at Lyndhurst near Mansfield and was christened at Blidworth Parish Church, Nottinghamshire on 1 August 1835. He was the only child of Richard and Martha Godson Millns. His father was born in 1796, the eldest son of Ann Godson of Heckington, Lincolnshire and William Millns. The Godson family of Heckington were wealthy landowners and farmers and during his lifetime, Richard Godson Millns's father amassed a substantial estate of at least 700 acres and was a tenant farmer for the Duke of Portland. When he died in 1873 his estate was valued at nearly £20,000, which reportedly included valuable properties in Lincolnshire and Warwickshire and a collection of paintings. However, according to his will, none of the paintings bequeathed to the Nottingham Castle Museum came from his father's collection. Soon after he came into his inheritance, Richard Godson Millns purchased 39a Abbey Road, St John's Wood, London, where he lived until his death on 29 March 1904. He also owned a house on Chesterfield Road in Mansfield. He was unmarried but may have kept a mistress, one Emily Drake, to whom he left an annuity of £400 in his will. The heir to the remainder of his fortune was his cousin, Ernest Henry Godson, a solicitor from Sleaford, Lincolnshire.

The Richard Godson Millns Bequest of 23 April 1904 comprised 162 paintings and 15 miniatures. The majority of the oil paintings were seventeenth-century Dutch School. Millns's bequest also included several eighteenth-century British paintings, among them works by Richard Wilson and George Morland. Other items bequested were a number of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century prints, drawings by John Flaxman and David Wilkie and a collection of art reference books.

References: 'Nottingham Castle Musem, Munificent Bequest', Nottingham Daily Express, 12 April 1904; 'The Gifts to Nottingham Art Gallery', Nottingham Evening Post, 12 April 1904; 'A Rich Bequest to the Castle Museum, more about the Millns's Legacy', Nottingham Daily Express, 13 April 1904; letter from Ernest Godson Millns to G. H. Wallis, dated 18 June 1904, Donor File 1904-1-411 (3), Nottingham Castle Museum archives; 'The Millns Bequest: Rich Gift to Nottingham: Exhibition at the Castle', Nottingham Daily Guardian, 28 June 1904; Checkley, Simon, Richard Godson Millns (1835-1904): A Provincial Collector of Art, B.A. dissertation, De Montfort University, Lincoln, 2001.