Pallant House Gallery
Encyclopedia
Pallant House Gallery is an art gallery
in Chichester
, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th century British art in the world.
The Gallery's collection is founded on works left to the city of Chichester by Walter Hussey
in 1977, on his retirement from the position as Dean of Chichester Cathedral
which he held from 1955. Hussey's collection included works by Barbara Hepworth
, Henry Moore
, John Piper
, Ceri Richards
and Graham Sutherland
. Hussey stipulated that the collection must be shown in Pallant House, a Grade 1 listed Queen Anne
townhouse
built in 1712 for wine merchant Henry "Lisbon" Peckham and his wife Elizabeth. It is a fine, brick-built building with large windows, with stone ostrich
es from the Peckham family arms guarding the entrance gateway, and a fine oak staircase inside. Its urbane design from a London architect was the subject of a suit in Chancery
, for William Smart, mason of Chichester, provided a design about 1711, but the Peckhams went to London and obtained another design, designated "the London modell" in court papers. The architect was not identified. The building had been used as Council offices since 1919. The building was restored in 1979, and the gallery opened in 1982. It has been managed by an independent trust since 1985.
The Gallery's collection has been augmented by other donations. In 1989, property developer Charles Kearley
donated works by British artists such as John Piper
and Ben Nicholson
and European artists such as Paul Cézanne
, André Derain
, Fernand Léger
, and Gino Severini
. In 2006, architect Sir Colin St John Wilson
donated works by Michael Andrews
, Peter Blake
, David Bomberg
, Patrick Caulfield
, Lucian Freud
, Richard Hamilton
, R. B. Kitaj
, Eduardo Paolozzi
, Walter Sickert
and Victor Willing
. Many of the works were acquired directly from the artists, who were friends of Wilson: indeed, he designed homes for several. Other works are displayed on long-term loan, many on the understanding that they will be donated to the gallery in due course. As well as modern British art, the Gallery has one of the world's outstanding collections of 18th century Bow porcelain, donated by Geoffrey Freeman.
A new wing was opened in June 2006, designed by Sir Colin Wilson
and Long & Kentish. The £8.6 million project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund
, Arts Council England
, the local council, and other donors. The unashamedly modern block, which stands next to and integrates with the original Queen Anne building, won the 2007 Gulbenkian Prize
; in the words of the judges, the juxtaposition creates "a vibrant relationship between old and new ... continued in a series of inspired contemporary installations" which are housed within. The extension was also listed for a 2007 RIBA
award. It is believed to be the first art gallery in the UK which is heated and cooled by a geothermal
system, using water pumped through 69 pipes descending 35 metres under the building, connected to reversible heat pump
s, which roughly halves its carbon emissions. To the rear is a new courtyard garden, designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole, a Chelsea Flower Show
gold medallist.
Art gallery
An art gallery or art museum is a building or space for the exhibition of art, usually visual art.Museums can be public or private, but what distinguishes a museum is the ownership of a collection...
in Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
, West Sussex, England. It houses one of the best collections of 20th century British art in the world.
The Gallery's collection is founded on works left to the city of Chichester by Walter Hussey
Walter Hussey
Walter Hussey was an Anglican clergyman who had a great fondness for the arts, commissioning a number of musical compositions and visual art for the church as well as amassing his own collection....
in 1977, on his retirement from the position as Dean of Chichester Cathedral
Chichester Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, otherwise called Chichester Cathedral, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in Sussex, England...
which he held from 1955. Hussey's collection included works by Barbara Hepworth
Barbara Hepworth
Dame Barbara Hepworth DBE was an English sculptor. Her work exemplifies Modernism, and with such contemporaries as Ivon Hitchens, Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Naum Gabo she helped to develop modern art in Britain.-Life and work:Jocelyn Barbara Hepworth was born on 10 January 1903 in Wakefield,...
, Henry Moore
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
, John Piper
John Piper
John Piper may refer to:* John Piper , 20th century English painter and printmaker* John Piper , 20th century BBC radio host* John Piper , 19th century lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island...
, Ceri Richards
Ceri Richards
-Biography:Richards was born in the village of Dunvant, near Swansea, the son of Thomas Coslett Richards and Sarah Richards . He and his younger brother and sister, Owen and Esther, were brought up in a highly cultured, working-class environment...
and Graham Sutherland
Graham Sutherland
Graham Vivien Sutherland OM was an English artist.-Early life:He was born in Streatham, attending Homefield Preparatory School, Sutton. He was then educated at Epsom College, Surrey before going up to Goldsmiths, University of London...
. Hussey stipulated that the collection must be shown in Pallant House, a Grade 1 listed Queen Anne
Queen Anne Style architecture
The Queen Anne Style in Britain means either the English Baroque architectural style roughly of the reign of Queen Anne , or a revived form that was popular in the last quarter of the 19th century and the early decades of the 20th century...
townhouse
Townhouse
A townhouse is the term historically used in the United Kingdom, Ireland and in many other countries to describe a residence of a peer or member of the aristocracy in the capital or major city. Most such figures owned one or more country houses in which they lived for much of the year...
built in 1712 for wine merchant Henry "Lisbon" Peckham and his wife Elizabeth. It is a fine, brick-built building with large windows, with stone ostrich
Ostrich
The Ostrich is one or two species of large flightless birds native to Africa, the only living member of the genus Struthio. Some analyses indicate that the Somali Ostrich may be better considered a full species apart from the Common Ostrich, but most taxonomists consider it to be a...
es from the Peckham family arms guarding the entrance gateway, and a fine oak staircase inside. Its urbane design from a London architect was the subject of a suit in Chancery
Chancery Court
The Chancery Court of York is an ecclesiastical court for the Province of York of the Church of England.The presiding officer, the Official Principal and Auditor, has been the same person as the Dean of the Arches since the nineteenth century . The Court comprises the Auditor, two clergy and two...
, for William Smart, mason of Chichester, provided a design about 1711, but the Peckhams went to London and obtained another design, designated "the London modell" in court papers. The architect was not identified. The building had been used as Council offices since 1919. The building was restored in 1979, and the gallery opened in 1982. It has been managed by an independent trust since 1985.
The Gallery's collection has been augmented by other donations. In 1989, property developer Charles Kearley
Charles Kearley
Charles Hudson Kearley , was an English property developer and art collector.-Background and education:Kearley was educated at Gresham's School, in Norfolk. His father, C.F. Kearley, was the brother of Hudson Ewbanke Kearley, 1st Viscount Devonport, and head of the firm of Kearley & Tonge, tea...
donated works by British artists such as John Piper
John Piper
John Piper may refer to:* John Piper , 20th century English painter and printmaker* John Piper , 20th century BBC radio host* John Piper , 19th century lieutenant-governor of Norfolk Island...
and Ben Nicholson
Ben Nicholson
Benjamin Lauder "Ben" Nicholson, OM was a British painter of abstract compositions , landscape and still-life.-Background and Training:...
and European artists such as Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne
Paul Cézanne was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century. Cézanne can be said to form the bridge between late 19th...
, André Derain
André Derain
André Derain was a French artist, painter, sculptor and co-founder of Fauvism with Henri Matisse.-Early years:...
, Fernand Léger
Fernand Léger
Joseph Fernand Henri Léger was a French painter, sculptor, and filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of Cubism which he gradually modified into a more figurative, populist style...
, and Gino Severini
Gino Severini
Gino Severini , was an Italian painter and a leading member of the Futurist movement. For much of his life he divided his time between Paris and Rome. He was associated with neo-classicism and the "return to order" in the decade after the First World War. During his career he worked in a variety of...
. In 2006, architect Sir Colin St John Wilson
Colin St John Wilson
Sir Colin Alexander St John Wilson, FRIBA, RA, was a British architect, lecturer and author. He spent over 30 years progressing the project to build a new British Library in London, originally planned to be built in Bloomsbury and now completed near Kings Cross.-Early and private life:Wilson was...
donated works by Michael Andrews
Michael Andrews (artist)
Michael Andrews was a British painter.-Life and work:Michael Andrews was born in Norwich, England, the second child of Thomas Victor Andrews and his wife Gertrude Emma Green. He completed his two years' National service between 1947 and 1949, nineteen months of which was spent in Egypt...
, Peter Blake
Peter Blake (artist)
Sir Peter Thomas Blake, KBE, CBE, RDI, RA is an English pop artist, best known for his design of the sleeve for the Beatles' album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He lives in Chiswick, London, UK.-Career:...
, David Bomberg
David Bomberg
David Garshen Bomberg was an English painter, and one of the Whitechapel Boys.Bomberg was one of the most audacious of the exceptional generation of artists who studied at the Slade School of Art under Henry Tonks, and which included Mark Gertler, Stanley Spencer, C.R.W. Nevinson and Dora Carrington...
, Patrick Caulfield
Patrick Caulfield
Patrick Joseph Caulfield, CBE, RA was an English painter and printmaker known for his bold canvases, which often incorporated elements of Photorealism within a pared down scene.-Life and work:...
, Lucian Freud
Lucian Freud
Lucian Michael Freud, OM, CH was a British painter. Known chiefly for his thickly impasted portrait and figure paintings, he was widely considered the pre-eminent British artist of his time...
, Richard Hamilton
Richard Hamilton (artist)
Richard William Hamilton, CH was a British painter and collage artist. His 1956 collage, Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?, produced for the This Is Tomorrow exhibition of the Independent Group in London, is considered by critics and historians to be one of the...
, R. B. Kitaj
R. B. Kitaj
Ronald Brooks Kitaj was an American artist who spent much of his life in England.-Life:Born in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, near Cleveland, United States, his Hungarian father, Sigmund Benway, left his mother, Jeanne Brooks, shortly after he was born and they were divorced in 1934. His mother was the...
, Eduardo Paolozzi
Eduardo Paolozzi
Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, KBE, RA , was a Scottish sculptor and artist. He was a major figure in the international art sphere, while, working on his own interpretation and vision of the world. Paolozzi investigated how we can fit into the modern world to resemble our fragmented civilization...
, Walter Sickert
Walter Sickert
Walter Richard Sickert , born in Munich, Germany, was a painter who was a member of the Camden Town Group in London. He was an important influence on distinctively British styles of avant-garde art in the 20th century....
and Victor Willing
Victor Willing
Victor Arthur James Willing was a British painter-Life and work:Victor Willing was born in Alexandria, Egypt, the only son of George Willing, professional soldier, and his wife Irene Cynthia Tomkins. The first four years of his life were spent there and, briefly, in Malta...
. Many of the works were acquired directly from the artists, who were friends of Wilson: indeed, he designed homes for several. Other works are displayed on long-term loan, many on the understanding that they will be donated to the gallery in due course. As well as modern British art, the Gallery has one of the world's outstanding collections of 18th century Bow porcelain, donated by Geoffrey Freeman.
A new wing was opened in June 2006, designed by Sir Colin Wilson
Colin St John Wilson
Sir Colin Alexander St John Wilson, FRIBA, RA, was a British architect, lecturer and author. He spent over 30 years progressing the project to build a new British Library in London, originally planned to be built in Bloomsbury and now completed near Kings Cross.-Early and private life:Wilson was...
and Long & Kentish. The £8.6 million project was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
, Arts Council England
Arts Council England
Arts Council England was formed in 1994 when the Arts Council of Great Britain was divided into three separate bodies for England, Scotland and Wales. It is a non-departmental public body of the Department of Culture, Media and Sport...
, the local council, and other donors. The unashamedly modern block, which stands next to and integrates with the original Queen Anne building, won the 2007 Gulbenkian Prize
Gulbenkian Prize
The Art Fund Prize, formerly known as the Gulbenkian Prize, is an annual prize awarded to a museum or gallery in the United Kingdom for a "track record of imagination, innovation and excellence"...
; in the words of the judges, the juxtaposition creates "a vibrant relationship between old and new ... continued in a series of inspired contemporary installations" which are housed within. The extension was also listed for a 2007 RIBA
Riba
Riba means one of the senses of "usury" . Riba is forbidden in Islamic economic jurisprudence fiqh and considered as a major sin...
award. It is believed to be the first art gallery in the UK which is heated and cooled by a geothermal
Geothermal heating
Geothermal heating is the direct use of geothermal energy for heating applications. Humans have taken advantage of geothermal heat this way since the Paleolithic era. Approximately seventy countries made direct use of a total of 270 PJ of geothermal heating in 2004...
system, using water pumped through 69 pipes descending 35 metres under the building, connected to reversible heat pump
Heat pump
A heat pump is a machine or device that effectively "moves" thermal energy from one location called the "source," which is at a lower temperature, to another location called the "sink" or "heat sink", which is at a higher temperature. An air conditioner is a particular type of heat pump, but the...
s, which roughly halves its carbon emissions. To the rear is a new courtyard garden, designed by Christopher Bradley-Hole, a Chelsea Flower Show
Chelsea Flower Show
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London...
gold medallist.