Bacon, one of the most celebrated painters of modern times, had a great-grandmother who married a Northumbrian coal-owner. One of his great-aunts married into the Mitchell family of Newcastle and lived at Jesmond Towers (now the La Sagesse school) which he described as 'not much smaller than the Palace of Westminster.' The family lived on the grand scale and Mrs Mitchell was able to rent Bamburgh Castle for the summer and invite the entire family to stay.
Bacon spent holidays during World War I with these two ladies, and it was at Jesmond Towers that he saw Charles Mitchell's paintings displayed in the enormous coved ballroom. It was his first experience of art as an integral part of everyday life.