Watching the Model Boat Builder

Watching the Model Boat Builder by Joseph Southall is one of eight works in the Grogan bequest which all complement and strengthen Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s existing collection of 19th and 20th-century British art.

Among the works in the bequest are two pictures by Joseph Edward Southall, a leading member of the Birmingham Group of artists and craftsmen. There are also paintings by Diana Armfield and Anne Redpath, which expand the museum’s collection of work by women. Walter Richard Sickert’s study of Venice, William Gillies’ watercolour The Green Field (1951) and Philip Wilson Steer’s pencil and watercolour The Yacht Cradle (1921) stand out as works by other prominent artists.

The works come from the collection of Arthur and Helen Grogan, both architects and authorities on the Arts and Crafts movement. This bequest follows the gift of 167 items to public institutions through Art Fund during Arthur Grogan’s lifetime.