Our Provincial Art Museums & Galleries

WOLVERHAMPTON MUSEUM AND ART GALLERY.

Like many other towns, Wolverhampton owes the possession of a Municipal Art Gallery to the liberality of one of its inhabitants. In the year 1881, at a meeting of the Town Council, the Mayor announced that he had received a letter from a fellow-towns-man, who desired for a time that his name should not be made public, in which he offered to erect at his own expense, in some central part of the town, a building suitable for the purposes of a public museum and art gallery, on condition that the Corporation should find the site. This generous offer was unanimously accepted by the Council. Subsequently a suitable position at the south-east corner of St. Peter's Close was selected for the purpose, and the erection of the gallery commenced.

The Art Gallery and Museum was completed in 1884, and was inaugurated with a large Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition. At the opening ceremony it was publicly announced, what had been for some time an open secret, that the benefactor to the town was Mr. Philip Horsman.

The building is of Bath stone, and was constructed from the designs of Mr. Chatwin, architect, of Birmingham. It is a classic structure, the lower part being of the Doric, and the upper story of the Ionic order. The exterior is ornamented with panels sculptured in bold relief. The two groups on the facade in Lichfield Street are composed of a number of figures, somewhat in the Style of the Parthenon frieze, and are in strict keeping with the character of the building. Michael Angelo at Work upon his Statue of Moses forms the centre of one panel, representing Sculpture; he is supported on either side by Phidias and other Grecian masters, Niccola Pisano and Lorenzo Ghiberti as leaders of tile Italian School, and others.

In the second group, representing Painting, female figures are engaged in mural decoration, easel painting, the staining of glass, and the ornamentation of pottery, with an allegorical figure of Truth showing the ideal to be aimed at in all branches of art. On the side of the building facing St. Peter's Church is a long bas-relief, with figures emblematic of Architecture, Geometry, Astronomy, Chemistry, and other sciences in connection with which there are models of scientific inventions. These panels were executed by Mr. R. Bolton, of Cheltenham. Over the main entrance is a massive portico and balcony, resting on six red granite columns. In the interior, on each side of the entrance hall, are rooms devoted to museum purposes; whilst the whole of the upper story is an admirable series of well-lighted galleries for pictures.

The late Mr. Philip Horsman also contributed liberally towards the erection of the School of Art, a building which has subsequently been erected, adjoining the Art Gallery and corresponding with its outward design. During his life he presented numerous oil paintings and at his death in December,1890, he bequeathed, after providing that his widow should have the use and enjoyment of them during her life, the whole of the remainder of his pictures and works of Art to the gallery, on condition that they should he placed in a separate and special room, and that “none of the pictures or works of Art should be at any time, on any pretext, or for any purpose whatever, removed to the basement of the said gallery.” The public spirit thus displayed towards the promotion of Art education has been followed by many others in Wolverhampton, and before the Art Gallery was completed, a most valuable collection of paintings was bequeathed: to the town by Mrs. Sidney Cartwright, as a memorial of her late husband, who had Collected them with a view to their being dedicated to the public. This munificent bequest, valued at sixteen thousand pounds, comprises no less than two hundred and seventy-six paintings, and includes many fine works by English artists of the last and present centuries.