Fine Art collections

The Fine Art Collections in Norwich Castle Museum & Art Gallery comprise approximately 1,200 oil paintings and 10,000 watercolours and drawings representing almost 900 artists, as well as 8,500 prints. They consist of seven related groups:

Norwich School of Artists

These holdings form the most comprehensive collection of the work of the Norwich School of Artists in existence. The collection covers three generations of some fifty artists who form the nucleus of the School. All are well represented by an impressive, representative range of works in all media.

'The stature of the signature works, especially of the first generation Norwich School artists, is of wider than regional significance; indeed there is no comparitor among European Schools of painting of that period'.
Marjorie Allthorpe-Guyton, Director of Art, Arts Council of England

The two leading members of the School were John Crome (1768-1821) and John Sell Cotman (1782-1842), both of whom have international reputations in their own right. The artist Charles Daubigny (1817-1878) commented in 1870 that 'without Old Crome, Turner and Constable, the modern French School could not have existed'. (William Gaunt, Victorian Olympus, Cardinal, 1988). Crome’s identified oeuvre is particularly small and securely identified works number under one hundred oil paintings. Twenty-two of these are in the collection at Norwich. Also included are a group of his very rare watercolours and drawings and a complete sequence of etchings with examples of the different states. Similarly Cotman, a more prolific artist, is represented with the largest collection of his oil paintings in existence, thirty-six in total. Of the 800 watercolours and drawings, 100 are of ‘exhibition’ quality. A series of 130 of his numbered drawings for pupils to copy and complete sets of his 400 or so published etchings in their various editions are also included.

The Norwich School artists found subjects for their paintings primarily in Norwich and the countryside and coastline of Norfolk, but not exclusively so. In common with their contemporaries they also toured the British Isles, while Crome and Cotman were among the first to tour the continent in search of subject matter. The artists are too numerous to mention all of them, but among the more prominent of the landscape painters were Robert Ladbrooke, his son John Berney Ladbrooke, Crome’s most important pupils, James Stark and George Vincent and Crome's own sons John Berney Crome and William Henry Crome. Others were marine artists, most notably Joseph Stannard and his brother Alfred, and William and John Cantiloe Joy. The women of the School, Emily and Eloise Harriet Stannard and Emily Crome were still life artists, as was James Sillett who also painted miniatures. All these artists are each represented by between 5-35 paintings. The highly prolific Henry Bright, who was equally proficient in oil and watercolour, is well represented in both media (14 oils, 73 watercolours and drawings). An important artist, who had his roots in the Norwich School, was Frederick Sandys, the ‘Norwich Pre-Raphaelite’, who Rossetti called ‘the greatest of living draughtsmen’. As well as seven oils by him, the collection includes a series of magnificent chalk portraits in the Pre-Raphaelite manner.

Of the watercolour artists John Thirtle was, after Cotman, the most talented and is represented by almost 200 watercolours and drawings, mainly of the streets and rivers of Norwich and its surrounding countryside. Cotman’s sons Miles Edmund and John Joseph are also well represented, as is Henry Ninham whose collection of 350 watercolours of Norwich are a valuable record of the changing face of the City. The Rev E. T. Daniell produced a remarkable series of about 150 watercolours made on his travels of the Far East. Apart from a few watercolours in the British Museum, his work is virtually unrepresented in public collections outside Norwich. The youngest and most talented of the younger members of the School was John Middleton, whose freely painted watercolour landscapes appear remarkably modern and whose work is also poorly represented in collections outside Norwich.

In addition to these, numerous local and national artists who exhibited with the Norwich Society of Artists or who were connected with the Norwich School artists are also represented. These collections are supported by a wide range of related material: sketch books, personalia, contemporary catalogues, manuscripts, exhibition reviews, photographs, etc., as well as portraits of all the main artists and several of the more minor ones.

British School

The museum’s collection of British and European School paintings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries aims to place the Norwich School in context and to represent the development of British painting. The rich cultural heritage of the area has enabled the museum to acquire many fine works with a Norfolk provenance. An early example is a miniature of a Mayor of Norwich by Nicholas Hilliard. Another example is a more recent acquisition of a painting by William Hogarth of Francis Schutz in his bed. It is of immense interest to visitors because photographs show that coy descendants had employed another artist to overpaint the consequences of a night’s dissipation by Schutz. Restoration by the museum revealed him vomiting into a chamber pot.

A large-scale acquisition in 2000 was A Family Picture: Henry and Mary Styleman (1780-83), by Johann Zoffany, Sawrey Gilpin and Joseph Farington. Other British School paintings include works by John Wootton and Henry Walton depicting Norfolk families. An important terracotta sculpture by J. M. Roubilliac is of the Norfolk connoisseur, Sir Andrew Fountaine. Local hero, Horatio Nelson, is also featured. Landscapes by Thomas Gainsborough and Richard Wilson demonstrate the influence of these artists on John Crome. Later artists represented include David Roberts, G. F. Watts and Edward Burne-Jones, all with important works.

The museum is also responsible for the City’s collection of over a hundred Civic Portraits. This is an important collection dating from the late sixteenth century to the twentieth century, mainly of Mayors of Norwich, as well as local M.P.s and other dignitaries. The artists range from Gainsborough, Thomas Lawrence, William Beechey and John Opie to William Orpen and Hubert von Herkomer, as well as commissions from local portrait painters. Since at least 1936 the collection has been recognised for its strengths: ‘... no other municipality in the country possesses a collection of portraits ... with so long a tradition behind it, and of such a generally good level of quality ...’ (Henry Hake, Report of the City Committee to the Council on the subject of the preservation of Civic Portraits, 2 January 1936).

The City of Norwich has been and still is the centre of a flourishing community of artists and many of them have progressed to achieve national status. The most notable 20th century practitioners are Sir Arnesby Brown, Sir Alfred Munnings and Edward Seago. All three artists are well represented with oil paintings and watercolours, in particular Munnings with over thirty works. These include three major early works, which are considered amongst his best horse paintings, as well as a rare collection of advertising material he designed when an apprentice in Norwich, presented by his widow in recognition of his early Norwich associations.

Dutch and Flemish School

The earliest work in this collection of over sixty works is the remarkable Ashwellthorpe Triptych of c. 1512-20 by the Master of the Legend of the Magdalen. It depicts the Seven Sorrows of Mary in the centre panel and portraits of the donors, Christopher and Catherine Knyvett, with their name-saints painted on the wing panels. It is the earliest known Flemish commission by a regional family, and was purchased in 1983 with Government grant-in-aid and grants from the NACF and a group of local benefactors.

The seventeenth century Dutch landscape painters had a profound influence on the work of John Crome and his followers. This is demonstrated in a collection carefully constructed to include individual works by artists of influence such as Meindert Hobbema and Jan van Goyen. The collection has attracted many gifts and bequests, including figurative works by Peter Breughel and Jan Siberechts, a key painting by Abraham Begeijn and an impressive work by Tobias Verhaecht, The Tower of Babel. A drawing of a group of musicians by Rembrandt and a flower piece attributed to Andries Daniels were both accepted by the Government in lieu of Capital Transfer Tax and allocated to the Castle Museum. The collection was further enhanced in 1991 by the Patteson Collection of forty Dutch and Flemish paintings from a Norfolk collection, which the museum was able to acquire through the ‘acceptance in lieu’ arrangement with the Capital Taxes Office. These include ten fine works by Peter Tillemans, notably The Artist’s Studio which shows both the artist and the commissioner, Cox Macro, in the studio. This unique holding stands for the ‘imaginary temple in honour of Tillemans’ that Cox Macro wished to preserve for posterity. Others (eg by Abraham Hondius, Salomon Rombouts and Orizonte) represent the cultural heritage upon which the Norwich School was founded.

To browse database records of the Dutch and Flemish School pictures, click here.

Rembrandt Etchings

A significant bequest to the museum in 1951 was the Percy Moore Turner collection of almost 100 etchings by Rembrandt, considered the fourth most important collection in the country after the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum. 'England boasts three outstanding public collections of Rembrandt etchings. To these should be added the little known collection at Norwich' (Godfrey 1987). Turner had access to the markets of Paris, Vienna and New York, but his main source was Harold Wright of Colnaghi's. The most important print in the collection is an impression of the fifth state of Christ Presented to the People, printed on vellum.

British Watercolours

The museum’s large collection of watercolours falls into two main categories: John Sell Cotman and the Norwich School, and late 18th/early 19th century British School. The watercolours of John Sell Cotman and the Norwich School are discussed above.

Over the years the museum has acquired by gift and purchase watercolours by many British artists of the late 18th/early 19th century. They include early and late works by J.M.W. Turner, landscapes by Thomas Gainsborough, David Cox, Peter de Wint and Paul Sandby. Also represented are topographical views ranging from Capri to Cromer, taking in many views in England and Wales, Norwich and Norfolk, by artists such as Francis Towne, Thomas Girtin, William Havell, Edward Dayes, Thomas Rowlandson, Samuel Palmer and Humphry Repton. These were augmented in 1976 by the acquisition of twenty-five watercolours from the choice Bradfer-Lawrence Collection, purchased with Government grant-in-aid. Artists included in this collection are Adam Buck, Thomas Daniell, Thomas Hearne, George Fennel Robson, Michael Angelo Rooker and Francis Wheatley. The majority of the museum’s watercolours of this period is of outstanding quality and has been exhibited in different parts of the world under the auspices of the British Council to demonstrate the history of watercolour painting in this country.

The later Victorian watercolours are of less significance, but complete the story of the development of the British watercolour. The nucleus of these is the James William Walker gift of 1896, which included almost 900 watercolours. Walker was born in Norwich and later became Head of Bolton School of Art. The majority are landscapes of views in Britain and the Continent. Other works are by East Anglian artists, including some of the Broadland painters.

Modern and Contemporary

The small but significant modern collection covers the different movements in art from Impressionism to Surrealism, notably works by Alfred Sisley, George Clausen, Gwen John, W. R. Sickert and T. F. Goodall. The 1993 acquisition of the bequest from Lady Adeane to the Tate in East Anglia Foundation of fifteen modern works has greatly enhanced the museum’s holdings of the modern movement: Kees van Dongen, Marie Laurencin, Auguste Rodin, Emil Nolde, Picabia, Louis Marcoussis and Max Ernst. Paintings by Chagall, Magritte and Vlaminck from the original bequest were accepted in lieu of tax by HM Government and allocated to Norwich Castle. Together these augmented the museum’s existing work by Cubist and Surrealist artists: David Bomberg, Wyndham Lewis, Horace Brodzky and Roland Penrose. Of all the collections this probably has the most significant gaps, but the museum is actively attempting to fill these, notably through the purchase of a sketch by Edouard Vuillard.

As with the historical collection, the museum’s contemporary art collection has a bias towards artists connected with the region. For example, Michael Andrews, Pop Artist Colin Self and Mary Potter are represented, as well as artists who have taught at Norwich Art School and whose work is included in all major contemporary collections: Edward Middleditch, John Wonnacott and Ana Maria Pacheco. It has been augmented by the collection of the Norfolk Contemporary Art Society which is deposited with Norwich Castle and which includes an important early work by Allen Jones and works by Alan Davie and Terry Frost. The Society (established in 1955 and until recently the only regional contemporary art society to form in emulation of the London example) has also assisted with the purchase of major acquisitions, among them paintings by Bridget Riley and Howard Hodgkin. The museum continues to regularly acquire work through the Contemporary Art Society. It also actively collects contemporary prints and most of the major British artists are represented: Freud, Hockney, Allen Jones, etc., and suites of etchings by Eduardo Paolozzi and Henry Moore.

Topographical

The museum has a large collection of several thousands of prints and drawings relating to Norfolk and Norwich. Much of the material comes from two collections: the Todd Collection and the Rev James Bulwer’s Norfolk collection. The Todd Collection is a topographical collection of 26 boxes of hundreds of prints and drawings of the buildings of Norfolk based on Francis Blomefield’s History of Norfolk. The importance of this collection has increased following the loss of the Colman and Rye Collections previously housed in Norwich Central Library (destroyed by fire in 1995). The Bulwer Collection comprises well over 2,000 watercolours compiled by the Rev James Bulwer, an amateur artist and friend of Cotman. He commissioned many local artists, including Norwich School artists, to record the buildings of Norfolk, particularly the churches and their interiors, together with ecclesiastical art and archaeological items. These, combined with the other topographical prints and drawings in the museum’s collection, are a valuable source of reference both locally and nationally, not only for art historians, but for researchers, historians, architects and students.

Art Department
Norwich Castle Study Centre
Shirehall
Market Avenue
tel. 01603 493635
fax. 01603 493623
Norwich NR1 3JQ

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