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Description: | 20th century British art
The University of Leeds Art Collection is recognised nationally as an important research resource and source of reference across a wide range of significant artists. A small selection of the works in the collection is on display in the Permanent Collection Room of the University Gallery. The collection consists mainly of European, principally British paintings, drawings and prints, dating from the 16th century up to the present day, with small collections of sculpture and photographs. The first recorded picture was a portrait of the Chairman of the Yorkshire College's Council, John Deakin Heaton, which was presented by his family in 1885. Since then, formal portraits of senior University members - acquired through gift or purchase - have constituted an important part of the Collection, including works by Pietro Annigoni, Lawrence Gowing, Oswald Birley, Henry Carr, Peter Greenham, Gerald Kelly, Henry Lamb and Fiddes Watt. These portraits decorate the Council Chamber and other University meeting rooms and public spaces.The Art Collection has been built on gifts,the single most important gift was presented by Sir Michael Sadler in 1923. Sadler was one of the earliest English enthusiasts for modernism in art, and his gift to the University included work by notable figures in the vanguard of early twentieth-century British art - Vanessa Bell, John Currie, Roger Fry, Charles Ginner, Duncan Grant, Nina Hamnett, Sir Charles Holmes, Augustus John, Bernard Meninsky, Edward Wadsworth and Alfred Wolmark.The Sadler Gift proved to be the starting point for what has become the main strength of the University's Art Collection: its holdings of English modernism. Eric Gregory's Bequest in 1959 added work by David Jones, Ben Nicholson, Matthew Smith, Henry Moore, Ceri Richards and Victor Pasmore. This aspect of the Collection has been further augmented by gifts and bequests, most notably those of W.H. Perkins, Margaret Drummond, H.S. Ede, Lord Boyle, and Stanley and Audrey Burton, representing, inter alia, Jacob Kramer, Malcolm Drummond, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Harold Gilman, Jacob Epstein, Terry Frost, John Hoyland, Patrick Procktor and Reg Butler. During the 1960s, Quentin Bell (then Professor of Fine Art ) acquired for the University a large group of drawings and watercolours by members of the Bloomsbury and Camden Town Groups, including Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Nina Hamnett, Harold Gilman, Malcolm Drummond, William Ratcliffe, Robert Bevan, Spencer Gore and Walter Sickert. At the same time, the University continued to collect works by its Gregory Fellows in Painting and Sculpture. Under the guidance of Professor Lawrence Gowing, the University purchased many contemporary prints, including works by Alan Davie, David Hockney, Tess Jaray, Eduardo Paolozzi, and Bridget Riley.Many others have contributed to the growth of the Art Collection, not least contemporary artists who have exhibited in the Gallery. The Contemporary Art Society has made a number of gifts, and the University has also benefited from the support of the MGC V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the National Art Collections Fund, and the [University of Leeds] Friends of University Art and Music.The Gallery has published a number of monographs on aspects of the Art Collection, and preparation of a complete catalogue is in progress, and will be published in due course. Study facilities are available by appointment.
The collections are rich in portraiture, animal painting, rustic genre, landscape and seascape.
Several of the gifts and bequests are of national importance, in particular the Sadler Gift (1923) which includes paintings and drawings by notable figures in early 20th century British art. These have been considerably enhanced by subsequent benefactors, perhaps most notably Eric Gregory (1959) and Stanley Burton; Mr W.H.Perkins (1958); Mrs Margaret Drummond (1965); Mr H.S.Ede (1965), Mr W.T.Oliver (1965), and Lord Boyle (1982). More recently, the gifts of Dorothy Turner (1992), Marie Hartley and Joan Ingilby (1999) extended the University's collection of regional artists.
During the 1960s and 1970s, a large number of watercolours, drawings and prints by 20th century British artists were purchased, including significant work by artists of the Bloomsbury and Camden Town Groups.
There is a collection of British and European prints ranging from the 16th century to the present day, including a large group of late19th-century European engravings, presented by Beatrice Ker Roberts in 1942.
There is a modest collection of Chinese and Japanese art, including a group of late 18th and early 19th century Japanese prints acquired from the Stewart Collection in the 1930s and a collection of eleven watercolours by Chinese artists from 1940-50. This is a closed collection. | Subjects: | Paintings Fine Art | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | FAX: | Fax: 0113 34 35561(mark for Attn: University Galle | Telephone: | 0113 34 32777 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:1130 | Go to resource |
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