The Beecroft Collection

 

The Beecroft Art Gallery is home to one of the finest collections of art in the county. Consisting of some 2000 works, the collection includes pictures by Constable and Rossetti. Although space limitations make it impossible to display all the works at once, we try to ensure that there will normally be at least part of the permanent collection on display, in addition to any contemporary exhibitions then running.

 

Beecroft Catalogue.

 

A catalogue that includes in colour some of the best paintings in the collection is available for £1.99. This includes the works on display from the permanent collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The OnLine Gallery

 

We are pleased to include upon our website some of the works from our collection. Because of our programme of exciting contemporary exhibitions, only some of these works may be on public show at any one time. However, we have an ongoing commitment to show as many of our traditional works as possible, and so put a fresh selection of works on display for our visitors on a regular basis. 

 

In our on-line gallery we are currently only able to show a few of the many works in our collection. The gallery is divided into five categories:

 

Old Masters - Landscapes

 
Old Masters - Portraits

 
19th Century Works

 
20th Century Works

 
The Thorpe Smith collection of Local Views

Beecroft Old Masters Online

Clare Hunt, Keeper of Art for Southend Museums has been participating in a national project called the National Inventory of European Paintings. The project, which is administered by the National Gallery, aims to catalogue and make available online, all of the European oil paintings dating from 1200-1900 in museums and galleries in the country.

Some years ago, Clare obtained funding to enable her to research the paintings at the Beecroft Art Gallery which fit into this category, of which there are 48. The research enabled her to date pictures, identify artists (and correct some attributions that were wrong), and find out who owned some of them before they came to Southend Museums. The results of this research, and images of the 48 paintings, are now available on-line.

Image: ‘Breakfast Still Life’ by Gerrit Willemz Heda. 17th century. This artist’s father was also a painter of still life and Clare found a picture by him in the National Gallery which included the same silver chalice as the one here. They obviously shared a studio and studio props!

This inventory records nearly 8,000 pre-1900, continental European oil paintings in over 200 UK public collections. You can discover a wide range of information about European art in other UK public collections too, and find out about holdings of particular artists and schools, and search for particular works.

This website also includes:
• Further information about how to use the database
• Further information about the project that supported the creation of the inventory
• A full list of all the museums involved

Image: ‘Harvesting Scene’ Flemish School, around 1700.  Clare found out that this picture, which is one of a pair, used to be owned by the Countess of Orford who lived in North Devon. She sold the pictures at Christies in 1952 where they were bought by the Friends of the Beecroft Art Gallery.

if you would like to visit the website, click here (will open a new window).