Brighton Museum & Art Gallery

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is a free-to-view municipally-owned public museum and art gallery in the city of Brighton and Hove in the South East of England.

History

The building which houses the collection is part of the Royal Pavilion Estate and was originally built for the Prince of Wales, later George IV and completed in 1805. It was initially intended as a tennis court but had never been finished, and later served as calvary barracks. ["Catalogue of Paintings in Oil Before 1837" (Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, 1964)]

After the death of George IV in 1830, his successor King William IV also stayed in the Pavilion on his visits to Brighton. However after Queen Victoria's last visit to Brighton in 1845, the Government planned to sell the building and grounds. However the Brighton Commissioners and the Brighton Vestry successfully petitioned the government to sell the Pavilion to the town for £53,000 in 1850 under the Brighton Improvement (Purchase of the Royal Pavilion and Grounds) Act 1850. [Dale, Antony (1977). "Brighton Town and Brighton People." Chichester: Phillimore, p.221. ISBN 0-85033-219-2.]

In September 1851 it was announced that part of the Pavilion was to be appropriated for annual art exhibitions and two months later the first of these was held. The local talent to which it was confined included Frederick Nash and Copley Fielding. The room devoted to the exhibition was the original South Gallery, now the First Conference Room, but later the exhibitions even spread to the Great Kitchen. ["Catalogue of Paintings in Oil Before 1837" (Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, 1964)]

The stable building of the Pavilion estate, adjacent to the current museum premises, was used as a museum as early as 1856. ["Catalogue of Paintings in Oil Before 1837" (Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, 1964)] It is now the site of the Brighton Dome - a performing arts venue.

The museum and art gallery occupied its current situation in the building in 1902. A major refurbishment of the museum and art gallery costing £10 million occurred in 2002. [http://www.brighton.virtualmuseum.info/] As a result the traditional entrance to the museum and art gallery became the entrance of the Dome, the latter taking the museum's former entrance.

Collection Highlights

"Dutch School"
*Lievens, Jan
*De Gelder, Aert
*Beert, Osias
*van Bassen, Bartolomeus
*Victors, Jan

"English School"
*Nash, Paul
*Wadsworth, Edward
*Beardsley, Aubrey
*Alma-Tadema, Lawrence
*Philpot, Glyn
*Proctor, Dod
*Nicholson, Ben
*Smith, Sir Matthew

"Flemish School"
*Mostaert, Jan

"German School"
*Juncker, Justus
*Cranach, Lucas

"Italian School"
*Beccafumi, Domenico

"American School"
*Calder, Alexander

Notes

References