The story
Anthony van Dyck painted himself with a sunflower around 1632 or 1633, soon after Charles I made him principal painter at the English court. He touches the gold chain the king had given him and points to the flower, which turns to follow the sun much as a courtier follows his monarch. The canvas belongs to the Dukes of Westminster, the Grosvenor family, and hangs at Eaton Hall, their seat just south of Chester.
Eaton Hall is primarily a private home, and the house you would find today is its third version in about a century. Alfred Waterhouse, the architect of London's Natural History Museum, built a huge Gothic mansion here in the 1870s. During the Second World War the Royal Naval College moved in from Dartmouth. The 4th Duke had Waterhouse's house pulled down in the 1960s, and its flat-roofed replacement was recased as a French-style château around 1990, leaving only his chapel and clock tower standing. The house stays closed to visitors, and the gardens open on a few days each year for charity.
