Walker Art Gallery

Spread over two floors within a purpose-built Neoclassical building, the collections include fine art from the 13th century to the present day, sculpture, and decorative arts such as furniture, metalwork, glass and fashion from the 18th century onwards. The Walker Art Gallery is also home to the biennial John Moores painting prize, the UK's biggest painting competition.

 

Permanent collections

When it was founded in 1873, the Walker was intended to house the art of the day, and the museum's collection of Victorian art is justly celebrated. Landscapes by Turner feature alongside works by Millais, Rossetti and Leighton.

A new interactive gallery traces the transition from Victorian to contemporary British art. Featuring ceramics and furniture as well as paintings, the gallery explores the influence of nature in designs by Morris and paintings by Laura Knight and Stanhope Forbes. Sections on modernism and experimentation take in the designs of Clarice Cliff and works by Roger Fry, Augustus John, Lowry and Lucian Freud. There is also a section dedicated to the art of the two World Wars.

The Medieval and Renaissance galleries bring together early devotional works and later Flemish and Italian pieces. Particularly celebrated is Lucas Cranach the Elder's Nymph by a Fountain, a reclining nude of delicate sensuality.

While the 17th-century gallery reflects the popularity of Dutch portraiture and landscapes during this period, the 18th-century collection is particularly strong in British art. It features portraits by Stubbs, Reynolds, Gainsborough and Joseph Wright of Derby, as well as an evocative Shakespearean scene from Hogarth.

 

Art Funded works

The Weld Collection of Old Master Drawings was funded in 1995. With more than 300 works from the 15th to the 18th centuries, artists represented include Mantegna, Tintoretto and Rubens.

Nicolas Poussin's Landscape with the Ashes of Phocion is one of the artist's finest works. Poussin depicts the widow of the murdered Phocion nervously gathering his ashes for burial, while clusters of people enjoy the sunshine outside the city walls of Athens in the background.

 

Visitor information

Housed in the central marble atrium of the museum, its tables framed by the curving staircase, the café is a perfect place for tea and contemplation. Serving hot and cold snacks all day, it also conveniently faces onto the shop.