Collection: Wolverhampton Art Gallery

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Art Collection

  The collection of C18th work includes examples by Fuseli, Gainsborough, Zoffany, Wilson, Highmore, Wheatley, Wright of Derby and Raeburn. It also includes a group of works by locally-born Edward Bird RA.The 19th.C. collection includes an outstanding group of pictures by members of the Cranbrook Colony, including Thomas Webster, JC Horsley, AE Mulready and others.The Twentyman Collection includes paintings, drawings and ceramics by John Piper.The collection of British and American Pop art and Photo-Realism founded during the 1970s is of outstanding quality, and includes items by Lichtenstein, Warhol, Lindner, Rivers, Hamilton, Blake, Rosenquist and many others. The collection is now being developed through the acquisition of work by living British artists. The collection contains outstanding collections of 18th century portraits, of British and American Pop Art of the 1960s and a unique collection of artworks looking at the modern phase of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Our 20th century British art collection reflects important trends in British painting and sculpture from the first half of the twentieth century, as well as more recent developments. Our 21st century art collection shows that art can be a powerful voice in today’s society. It addresses issues of war, race, gender, civil liberties and national identity Our Asian art collection contains Japanese, Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern decorative items dating from the 1500s to the early 1900s. Our Georgian art collection has contains items bequeathed by local industrialists Philip Horsman, Sidney Cartwright and Paul Lutz. Gifts and purchases enlarged the collection during the twentieth century. Our Pop art collection, containing Pop Art from the 1960s and 1970s, is one of the most well known in Britain outside London’s Tate Gallery. It includes artwork from Britain and America. Our Victorian art collection includes paintings by Edwin Landseer, Francis Danby, Elizabeth Armstrong Forbes, John Faed and William Frederick Yeames, an impressive collection of Genre paintings – domestic scenes telling moral and sentimental stories and a collection of Elkington plate and fictile ivories – replicas of metalwork and carved ivory objects from some of the greatest European collections. The Victorian Genre collection has the finest collection in the UK of paintings by members of the Cranbrook Colony, a group of artists based in Kent including Frederick Daniel Hardy, George Bernard O’Neill and John Calcott Horsley. Our Northern Ireland collection is a unique collection of artworks looking at the modern phase of the conflict in Northern Ireland. It is the only one of its kind in the UK.

  Subjects

  Contemporary art; North American; Art galleries; Painting; Fine Art; Prints; Ceramics; Art; Sculpture; Paintings; Photography; Drawings; Western European; Art collections

  Victorian Art

  Paintings by the Cranbrook colony, Elkington plate and fictile ivories. Victorian Paintings Local industrialists Philip Horsman and Sidney Cartwright, the founders of Wolverhampton Art Gallery, donated their personal collections of Victorian art. Gifts and purchases have enlarged the collection, which includes paintings by Edwin Landseer, Francis Danby, Elizabeth Armstrong Forbes, John Faed and William Frederick Yeames. A selection of Victorian paintings is on show in Wolverhampton Art Gallery’s Victorian Room. Genre Paintings Genre paintings – domestic scenes telling moral and sentimental stories – are the core of our Victorian collection. Our collection of genre paintings by members of the Cranbrook Colony, a group of artists based in Kent, is the finest in the UK. Cranbrook Colony artists represented include Frederick Daniel Hardy, George Bernard O’Neill and John Calcott Horsley. Elkington Plate and Fictile Ivories The Government Department of Science and Education commissioned reproductions of historic metalwork and ivories in the 1880s. Museums and art schools used them to teach people about different styles of decoration. This was part of a government initiative to improve the quality of British design. Our collection contains replicas of metalwork and carved ivory objects from some of the greatest European collections. Elkington, a Birmingham-based company, made the metal replicas.

  Subjects

  Art; Sculpture; Paintings; Metalwork (product)

  Decorative and Applied Art Collection

  The collections encompass some Oriental ivories and Chinese ceramics and works of art, a collection of Elkington plate and fictile ivories, and a small collection of 18th. and 19th. C. glass Wolverhampton’s outstanding collections of enamels and Japanned ware are recorded under the entries for Bantock House Museum and Bilston Art Gallery, as are the dolls and toys collection, the Balston collection of Staffordshire figures and the Bantock collection of First Period Worcester porcelain. The collections also encompass some Oriental ivories and Chinese ceramics and works of art, a collection of Elkington plate and fictile ivories, and a small collection of 18th. and 19th. C. glass.

  Subjects

  Ceramics; Decorative and Applied Arts; Glass; Southeast Asian; Silver; Western European

  Archaeology Collection

  The largest part of this archaeology collection is decorative Cypriot domestic pottery from the Phoenician period (c.800-500BC). Other parts of the collection include: Pottery from ancient Mesopotamia (now Iraq) A selection of Roman glass from Cyprus Small groups of British, Greek and Egyptian artefacts Wolverhampton was one of many British museums to receive donations of archaeology from the Brassey family in the early 1900s. The family undertook excavations in many parts of the world, and brought the treasures they unearthed back to Britain. Donations from other individuals have enhanced the collection. This collection is not currently on display, but has been used by researchers and for education projects. decorative Cypriot domestic pottery from the Phoenician period (c.800-500BC).

  Subjects

  People (society); Social History; Archaeology; Ancient Egypt; Archaeological objects; Roman Empire; People; Western European

  Geology Collection

  The collection consists mainly of the bequest of Dr. Fraser, president of the Dudley and Midlands Geological and Scientific Society. It comprises almost entirely British fossils, from most periods in geological history.

  Subjects

  Fossils; Geology

  Social History Collection

  The collection is strong on local trades, both those curated at Bantock House and Bilston, and on others such as cut steel wares. Due to a focus until recent times on the products of local trades and industries, the collections are weak on Wolverhampton’s history as a market town, and on large-scale industry such as Villiers or Sunbeam. It is however strong on local trades, both those curated at Bantock House and Bilston, and on others such as cut steel wares.

  Subjects

  People (society); Social History; Metal working; People; Western European

  Ethnography Collection

  Ethnography

  Subjects

  People (society); Ethnography; People

  Numismatics Collection

  Numismatics

  Subjects

  Coins and Medals; Numismatics; Western European

  Transport Collection

  Transport

  Subjects

  Transport; Western European

  Arms and Armour Collection

  There is a small collection of mainly Japanese material.

  Subjects

  Arms and armour; Southeast Asian

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC