Collection: The Higgins Bedford

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Fine Art

  The Fine Art collections include oil paintings, watercolours, drawings and prints, miniatures and silhouettes; sculpture; The gallery has been collecting British watercolours since 1951, and has acquired 600 of the best known images and examples by leading artists from the late 16th century to the 1980’s. The collection includes works by Hogarth, Gainsborough, Turner, Girtin, Constable, Blake, Palmer, Millais, Rossetti, Landseer, Whistler, Beardsley, Gwen John, Sickert, Lowry, Hepworth, Nicholson, Henry Moore and Freud. The collection of prints is mainly of works by foreign artists, designed to complement the collection of British drawings and watercolours. Although it starts with examples by Durer, Rembrandt, Piranesi and Goya, the majority of the collection dates from Daumier, Millet, and the French impressionists onwards. It includes works by Degas, Cezanne, Bonnard, Matisse, Rouault Picasso, Braque, Klee, Beckmann, Dali and Giacometti. The sculpture collection includes works by Roubilliac, Gilbert, Rodin, Renoir, Epstein, Gill, Moore Hepworth and Witkin.

  Decorative Art

  The ceramics collection represents a near comprehensive survey of European ceramics from the late 16th century to the early 19th century. There is a small collection of 19th and 20th century ceramics mainly acquired from the Handley-Read collection. The furniture collection is mostly of the highest quality including 18th century pieces, 19th century pieces from the Handley-Read collection, and some 20th century pieces. Work by William Burges is well represented. Metalwork including the Wrest Park flagon; and objet’s d’art including the Hull-Grundy collection of jewellery.; The glass collection covers Venetian and German 16th and 17th century glass, English and Irish lead glass from the 17th and 18th centuries, Art Nouveau glass, Whitefriars glass, some 20th century glass and some Roman and Egyptian glass. The collection includes carpets and curtains used to furnish the Victorian mansion; a large tapestry designed by Edward Bawden and embroidered by members of the Bedford Music and Arts Club to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Silver Jubilee; a comprehensive collection of East Midlands and international lace including the Thomas Lester Collection of Bedfordshire Maltese Lace (Thomas Lester had a renowned lacemaking business based in Bedford). The costume collection includes fashion accessories. The largest part of the collection is women’s clothing from 1840 to 1930.;The Cecil Higgins Gallery holds a major archive of the work of Edward Bawden 1903-1989, comprising works from all periods of his career. The collection includes pictures, ceramics, furniture, watercolours, drawings, prints, printed matter (including typographic and advertising work), wallpapers and textiles which were the contents of his studio and were bequeathed by him to the Gallery. The earliest examples are illustrations for The Drawing Pin from 1922.;Collection relating to the work of William Burges 1827-1881, architect and designer and one of the leading exponents of the Gothic Revival. Important collectors Charles and Lavinia Handley-Read. The Bawden Archive. The William Burges Collection.

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC