Southampton City Art Gallery

Southampton City Art Gallery has a Designated Collection of national importance.

Southampton City Council's Designated fine art collections have particular strengths in 20th century British art before 1914 and since 1970. The policy of collecting art within 2 years of its creation has resulted in the acquisition of fine examples of work by many Turner Prizewinners.

The collection's greatest strength is 20th century British Art. The Gallery is now internationally renowned for its impressive collection of contemporary works by British artists. A fine selection of works by the Camden Town Group, and paintings by such highly reputed artists as Sir Stanley Spencer, Matthew Smith and Philip Wilson Steer are brought together. In recent decades collecting activities at Southampton City Art Gallery have more than consolidated the Galleries position amongst the very best regional institutions. In this most recent phase, diversity and well as quality is apparent with sculpture, and photography being more fully recognised as critical areas for consideration. This has been broadened still further as the Gallery has added installation and video works to its holdings.

The Gallery’s collection numbers over 3,500 works and spans six centuries of European art history. The works on display, of both historic and contemporary art, show the breadth and quality of the City’s greatest art treasures. The collection's earliest work is an Italian Renaissance altarpiece by Allegretto Nuzi from the 14th century; also featured is Burne-Jones' Perseus Series (shown in an exquisite wood-paneled room), seventeenth century Dutch landscapes and French Impressionist paintings, overall the quality and variety of works is remarkably high.

British Studio Ceramics: Southampton City Art Gallery has an outstanding collection of the work of studio potters from between the wars, the result of a very generous bequest by the Very Reverend Milner-White, a former Dean of York Minster who was a Southampton native and, during his lifetime, a great collector of stoneware pots. These were created by potters like Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada, who worked at St Ives in Cornwall. The stoneware potters were creatively inspired by the newly discovered Chinese stoneware of the Han, T'ang and Sung dynasties. Work from the collection is shown in two specially commissioned cases designed and built by furniture maker Robert Kilvington.

Collection details

Fine Art, Decorative and Applied Art

Key artists and exhibits

• Camden Town Group
• Sir Stanley Spencer
• Matthew Smith
• Philip Wilson Steer
• Allegretto Nuzi
• Burne-Jones' Perseus Series
• British Studio Ceramics
• Bernard Leach and Shoji Hamada
• Han, T'ang and Sung
• Robert Kilvington
• Designated Collection

Collections services

• General guide to collections available
• Object identification and/or written enquiry service
• Specialist publications on collections available
• Object study facilities available (enquire in advance)