library, museum and art gallery, and in 1871 the
council organised the first
Liverpool Autumn Exhibition, held at the new library and museum.
The success of the exhibition enabled the Library, Museum and Arts
Committee to purchase works for the council’s permanent collection, buying
around 150 works between 1871 and 1910. Works acquired included WF
Yeames’ 'And when did you last see your father?’ and Rossetti’s ‘Dante’s
Dream’.
Designed by local architects Cornelius Sherlock and H. H. Vale, the
Walker Art Gallery was opened on 6 September 1877 by Edward Henry
Stanley, 15th Earl of Derby. It is named after its founding benefactor, Sir
Andrew Barclay Walker (1824–1893), a former mayor of Liverpool and
wealthy brewer born in Ayrshire who expanded
the family business to
England and moved to live in Gate acre.
In 1893, the Liverpool Royal Institution placed its collection on long-term
loan to the gallery and in 1948 presented William Roscoe's collection and
other works. This occurred during post-war reconstruction when the gallery
was closed, re-opening in 1951. During the Second World War the gallery
was taken over by the Ministry of Food and the collection was dispersed for
safety.
Extensions to the gallery were opened in 1884 and 1933 (following a
two-year closure) when the gallery re-opened with an exhibition
including Picasso and Gauguin. In 2002 the gallery re-opened following a
major refurbishment.
In 1986, the gallery
achieved national status, as part of the National
Museums and Galleries on Merseyside.
The Walker Art Gallery houses a
collection including Italian and Netherlandish paintings from 1300–1550,
European
art
from
1550–1900,
including
works
by Giambattista
Pittoni, Rembrandt, Poussin and Degas, 18th and 19th-century British art,
including a major collection of Victorian
painting and many Pre-
171
Raphaelite works, a wide collection of prints, drawings and watercolours,
20th-century
works
by
artists
such
as Lucian
Freud, David
Hockney and Gilbert and George and a major sculpture collection.
The first John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize exhibition was
held in 1957. Sponsored by Sir John Moores, founder of Littlewoods, the
competition has been held every two years ever since and is the biggest
painting prize in the UK.
There is a regular programme of temporary exhibitions which in 2009-
10 has included Aubrey Williams, Bridget Riley, Sickert and Freud.
In 2004,
the gallery staged
The Stuckists Punk Victorian
, the first national
museum exhibition of the Stuckist art movement.
[8]
The Gallery also takes
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