GALLERIES

Art UK

The Public Catalogue Foundation is a charity that was set up in 2003 to amass photographic images of all of the oil, acrylic, and tempera paintings that are owned by public bodies in Britain as well as those that belong to some private institutions. Many of the works are not on display. The Foundation started publishing a series of county guides in 2004.

Website: www.artuk.org

The Courtauld Gallery

The Courtauld Collection was born out of a visit that the textiles magnate Samuel Courtauld made to an exhibition that was mounted at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1922. This seeded in him an interest in art. Nine years later he founded The Courtauld Institute. This was the first academic body in Britain that taught art history as a discipline in its own right. It became part of the University of London.

Courtauld s personal collection bore the hallmarks of the systematic caution of an experienced businessman. It has been opined that the works that he owned reveal little of the person. He bought according to informed advice. He made no spectacular purchases - never spotting an underrated artist - but then he made no major blunders - the collection did not have any weak paintings or weak artists represented. He bought art from the previous century in a mature market.

The Collection is strong in the fields of the French Impressionists and the Post-Impressionists. Courtauld was the leading British collector of these two schools. That he did not acquire any works by Berthe Morisot led to her being largely unknown to the English-speaking world. He gave the Institute part of his personal collection while he was still alive and left it much of the rest at his death. The Collection has acted as a magnet for subsequent bequests.

In 1990 The Courtauld moved into the north wing of Somerset House, having previously been accommodated in a building upon Woburn Square.

Location: Somerset House, Strand, WC2R 0RN (orange, purple)

Website: www.courtauld.ac.uk http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery

Dulwich Picture Gallery

No l Desenfans married Margaret Morris. Using her dowry, the Frenchman and his friend Francis Bourgeois, a Swiss, established a picture dealership in Charlotte Street.

In 1790 Stanislaus Augustus King of Poland commissioned the two dealers to amass a collection of pictures that could serve as the basis for a national gallery of Poland. Bourgeois and Desenfans devoted themselves to the task, touring Europe in order to acquire works of art that were of an appropriate calibre. However, in 1793 the kingdom was diminished when much of her territory was stripped from her by her neighbours Austro-Hungary, Prussia, and Russia. Two years later the three engaged in a further partition and the country disappeared both physically and as a legal state. The two dealers decided to try to sell the collection as a complete entity. Among the parties that they approached was the British government. It was unreceptive to the idea of a national gallery being established.

The pair decided to try to transfer the works of art to an institution. In 1807 Desenfans died. Bourgeois continued to try to dispose of the collection as a whole. He approached the British Museum. In the wake of the French Revolution, the institution was wary of the dealer's relatively populist approach towards the displaying of art. He responded to this by concluding that the body would be an inappropriate recipient.

In 1811 Bourgeois bequeathed the collection to Alleyn's College of God's Gift for the inspection of the public . He left 2000 for the construction of a gallery to accommodate it. This was designed by his friend Sir John Soane. Using the basis of an Egyptian catacomb, the architect created a series of interlinked rooms that had overhead skylights. The Dulwich Picture Gallery was Britain's first public art gallery. The building created the template for the others that followed.

During the 20^thC Rembrandt's portrait Jacob III de Gheyn was stolen from Dulwich Picture Gallery four times.

The College underwent a major reorganisation in 1995. As a result, Dulwich Picture Gallery became an independent body.

Location: Dulwich Picture Gallery, Gallery Road, Dulwich, SE21 7AD

Hallam Street, W1W 6JF. Formerly, Charlotte Street. (purple, brown)

Website: www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art

Eric Estorick was an American academic sociologist who changed career and became a writer. In the 1940s he spent time in the United Kingdom and married a Briton. While the couple were on honeymoon in Italy, he became fascinated by the creations of the Futurist movement and started to collect Modern Italian works of art. In the mid-1950s he started to earn his living as an art dealer.

The Italian government expressed an interest in purchasing Estorick's personal collection. Prior to his death he set up the Eric & Salome Estorick Foundation to own all of his and his wife s Italian works of art. In 1994 a property was purchased to become the home of the Foundation's collection.

Location: 39a Canonbury Square, N1 2AN. The entrance is in Canonbury Road.

See Also: ITALIANS

Website: www.estorickcollection.com

Fleming Collection

The Fleming Collection is a collection of Scottish Art. It is owned by the Fleming-Wyfold Art Foundation.

Location: 15 Suffolk Street, SW1Y 4HG (blue, pink)

See Also: IAN FLEMING

Website: www.flemingcollection.com

The Guildhall Art Gallery

In the wake of the Great Fire of 1666, a panel judges assessed the property claims that were made. As an expression of gratitude for their work, the City of London commissioned a series of portraits of them. These paintings became known as the fire judges . They became the kernel around which the Guildhall Art Gallery collection developed. The Corporation went on to acquire portraits of monarchs and individuals who had rendered the City major services.

In 1941, during the Second World War, the Gallery's collection was removed from London for safekeeping. Three weeks later aerial bombs destroyed the emptied building. Following the return of peace, the Gallery s acquisitions became focussed upon London subjects.

When the Greater London Council was abolished in 1986, its art collection was acquired by the Gallery.

In 1999 the new Guildhall Art Gallery opened.

Location: The Guildhall Art Gallery, Basinghall Street, EC2V 5AE (purple, turquoise)

Website: www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/attractions-museums-entertainment/guildhall-galleries/guildhall-art-gallery

Military Art

The military museums that have substantial art collections include The Imperial War Museum and The National Army Museum.

Website: www.iwm.org.uk/history/art-at-iwm www.nam.ac.uk/subjects/art-literature www.rmg.co.uk/collections/our-collections-fine-art-collection

The National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait Gallery was founded at the prompting of the historian the 5^th Earl Stanhope. George Scharf was its inaugural Secretary & Keeper. In 1859 the institution opened in Great George Street. It moved to South Kensington and then Bethnal Green. 80,000 of the 96,000 that it cost to build its present home (1895) was provided for by the philanthropist William Henry Alexander, the site having been provided by the government. Its galleries are chronological in order and can be seen progressively while descending through the building.

In 2017 the National Portrait Gallery put on display for the first time a portrait of the Duke of Windsor, the former King Edward VIII. At the time the gallery possessed 419 images of the abdicant.

Location: St Martin's Place, WC2N 0HE (red, purple)

Website: www.npg.org.uk

The Royal Collection

Website: www.rct.uk

King Charles I's Collection

King Charles I had poor political judgement (he lost the Civil Wars and then had his head chopped off) but he did have an excellent eye for paintings. He built up one of the great art collections of 17^thC Europe. The monarch's sophisticated, aesthetic self-indulgence was one of the traits that separated him from his political critics. In January 1649 Charles I was executed

King Charles I appointed the Dutch artist Abraham Van Der Doort (c.1575-1640) to be the first Surveyor of the Royal Collection.

In July 1649, following the establishment of the English Republic, the beheaded sovereign's goods were sold at Somerset House. The French and Spanish Crowns had representatives present who bought on behalf of their respective courts. Oliver Cromwell retained a number of major works including Mantegna's Triumphs of Caesar series (1486-1505).

Following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, King Charles II aggressively encouraged the return of those items of his father's collection that were still in the British Isles.

See Also: THE BRITISH LIBRARY

The Duke of Monmouth

The Duke of Monmouth (1649-1685) was the eldest of King Charles II's (1630-1685) illegitimate sons. In 1685 the king died and was succeeded by his unpopular brother King James II (1633-1701), who was a Roman Catholic. Monmouth, a Protestant, led a rebellion against his uncle. The royal army was victorious at the Battle of Sedgemoor and the duke was captured. He was tried for treason and convicted. His sentence was execution. He was beheaded at Tower Hill by Jack Ketch (d.1686). However, it was then appreciated that the Crown did not possess a portrait of his grace. The head and corpse were reunited and a scarf place around the body. The artist was given a day in which to do what he could. The body was then interred.

Location: Trinity Square Gardens, Tower Hill, EC3N 4DU (orange, turquoise)

The Queen's Gallery

King Charles II, in honour of his father, tried to restart the Royal Collection. He commissioned the painter Sir Peter Lely to buy a series of drawings that had been made by Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo, Raphael, and Hans Holbein.¹ These were stored in a bureau and were forgotten about. Over forty years later, during the reign of King George II, the desk, by then in Kensington Palace, was re-opened and the trove discovered.

George II's heir-apparent, Frederick Prince of Wales, was interested in art and became an active buyer. He purchased the collection that had been assembled by the physician Dr. Richard Mead (d.1754). Frederick's son, King George III, bought on a sufficiently large-scale that his failures in judgement did not stop a solid collection being amassed. Prince Albert (d.1861), Queen Victoria's husband, had the Royal Collection put in order.

The Queen's Gallery opened to the public in 1962. It displays works of art that are in the Royal Collection.

Location: Buckingham Palace, Buckingham Palace Road, SW1A 1AA (orange, purple)

See Also: PALACES Buckingham Palace

Website: www.rct.uk/visit/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace

¹. These were largely from the collection of the 14^th Earl of Arundel (d.1646), who was one of the great collectors of early 17^thC England.

The Royal Collection Trust

The Royal Collection Trust is the sovereign's trading business. It was set up so that the Royal Collection could be managed without the use of public funds. The Trust has a subsidiary, Royal Collection Enterprises. This administers souvenir sales and admissions at Buckingham Palace, the Queen's Gallery, and Windsor Castle. The Trust's profits are spent upon restoration work at the castle and upon the Royal Collection.

The Royal Spanish Art Collection

Originally, much of the Wellington Museum's collection hung in the royal palaces of Spain. In 1808 Napoleon placed his own brother Joseph upon the Spanish throne as a puppet king. This caused the country's peoples to rise up against the French. This popular rebellion gave the world the term guerrilla warfare, guerrilla coming from guerra, the Spanish word for war. Quite apart from the strategic value of tying down some of the emperor's forces on the Iberian Peninsula, the uprising struck a note of sympathy in Britain - of a nation rising against its oppressors. Using Portugal as a base, the British pursued active military operations in Spain. In 1809 the Duke of Wellington was appointed to lead the expeditionary force that was operating there.

In 1813 the commander defeated Joseph at the Battle of Vittoria. In the French army's baggage train was a large proportion of the Spanish royal art collection. His grace offered to return the works to King Ferdinand VII. However, the rightful monarch declined the tender and instead gave them to the peer as a gesture of thanks.

Location: Apsley House, 149 Piccadilly, W1J 7NT (red, brown)

Website: www.wellingtoncollection.co.uk

The Goya Portrait of the Duke of Wellington

In 1812 the Spanish painter Goya was commissioned to paint Wellington. Most of the portrait was done in a series of sittings and the artist took it away for finishing. However, the general's military career progressed from glory to glory. He was awarded a succession of medals and honours that he felt should be incorporated into the work. The artist acted as he was instructed to. However, he found some of the medals hard to paint, notably the Order of the Golden Fleece. Upon viewing the finished work, the duke chose to give it to a distant relative.

In 1961 the National Gallery put Goya's The Duke of Wellington on display. Nineteen days later the painting was stolen. The movie version of Dr No (1962) features a moment in which James Bond, while he is being ushered through the evil scientist's underwater lair at Crab Key, notices the picture. In 1965 The Duke was recovered from the left luggage office of New Street Railway Station in Birmingham. Kempton Bunton, a disabled, retired bus driver, claimed somewhat improbably to have been the thief who had taken it.

Tate Modern

The Tate Trustees concluded that the gallery should house its international modern and contemporary art collection in a separate building. The Sir Giles Gilbert Scott-designed Bankside power station (1963) had been decommissioned in 1981. The idea that the Tate could use the facility to do so was first promoted to one of its officials by an architectural historian who was concerned about the former power station's survival. The structure's ground level covered an expanse that was of a similar size to the Tate. The prospect that the institution could acquire it became financially viable because the National Lottery was established. A strand of the latter's profits was earmarked to create projects that would commemorate the then forthcoming millennium.

The Swiss architectural firm of de Meuron & Herzog was awarded the contract to design the building's conversion. This was because the firm's members had come to be regarded as possessing an appreciation of the needs of artists. A distinctive feature of their plan had been not to subdivide the turbine hall by means of mezzanines and walls but rather to leave it as a single vast exhibition space that artists could respond to by creating works for display in it.

The Tate Modern building was formally opened by Queen Elizabeth in 2000. The monarch has a reputation for not being interested in modern art. She inaugurated the gallery with the words I declare the Tate Modern open and then left. (A few months later she opened the British Museum's Great Court. Upon that occasion she spoke for quarter of an hour about the worth of the museum.)

The Tate announced in 2007 that the Tate Modern was going to have an extension constructed upon the southern side of its site. The de Meuron & Herzog practice was also appointed to design this. In 2012 the subterranean The Tanks, part of the development, were opened temporarily. The film and performance space derived its name and outer form from the three large containers that had held oil that the Bankside power station had burned to generate electricity.

Location: 25 Sumner Street, SE1 9JZ (blue, brown)

See Also: ELECTRICITY Bankside

Website: www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern www.tate.org.uk www.herzogdemeuron.com

David Backhouse 2024