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Description: | The collection has a strong representation of 16th to 18th century Flemish, Dutch and Italian painting, and early 18th to early 19th century British painting. Among the British painters are Raeburn, Ramsay, Romney, Stubbs, Zoffany and Gainsborough, who spent 16 formative years in Bath.
The paintings collection is particularly rich in portraiture and genre, but also contains religious subjects and a small important group of Dutch Italianate landscapes. Notable pieces include 'Dr Rice Charleton' by Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788), oil on canvas, c.1764; 'Reverend Robert Carter Thelwall and his family' by George Stubbs (1724-1806), oil on panel, signed and dated 1776; and 'Rosamund Sargent' by Allan Ramsay (1713-1784), oil on canvas, signed and dated 1749.
The collection of watercolours and drawings is comparatively less significant, but includes a landscape by Gainsborough and 'View of Pembroke Castle' by J M W Turner, as well as substantial groups of drawings by Sir George clausen and Sylvia Gosse.
The important collection of miniatures includes 16th and 17th century Flemish, German and Italian examples, but is substantially representative of the 18th century British school, containing a number of Bath-based artists. There are miniatures in watercolour and enamel, as well as silhouettes, and a rare group of 17th century portraits by Thomas Forster of notabilities in plumbago (black lead) on vellum.
Bath connections are well represented by Angelica Kauffmann's (1766-1808) portrait, c.1777, of 11-year-old Henrietta Laura Pulteney, heiress to the Early of Bath; Richard Cosway's portrait of Elizabeth Linley; and Nathaniel Hone's (1718-1784) miniature in enamel of Beau (Richard) Nash (1674-1762), signed and dated 1750.
Sculpture is chiefly represented by small bronzes ranging from antique to Italian and French 16th to 19th century pieces. and including Far Eastern examples. Amongst the post-classical pieces is one piece of outstanding quality, 'Woman Bathing', c.1580, by Susini. An important marble group, 'Diana and Endymion' by Joseph Plura made in Bath in 1752, was purchased in 1997.
The important fine art collection is a strength of the museum. | Subjects: | Watercolours Sculpture Paintings Art & Design Fine Art Drawings Prints | Source: | Cornucopia - Discovering UK Collections | Address: | Great Pulteney Street
Bath,
BA2 4DB | FAX: | 01225 333 121 | Telephone: | 01225 466 669 | Identifier: | oai:www.cornucopia.org.uk:2412 | Go to resource |
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