COLLECTION: Art

Art to take your breath away!

The walls of the picture galleries of The Bowes Museum are covered with paintings.

Its collection of world class European paintings, many priceless masterpieces,  is worthy of close attention – from the smallest and oldest, Sassetta’s Miracle of the Eucharist (c1423) to the eye-popping sized Canaletto-double.

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HIGHLIGHTS

Van Dyke

Lookalike Smiles

There are many artworks that bring smiles to the faces of visitors to The Bowes Museum because they’re portraits with modern day lookalikes. The first is the famously rediscovered Van Dyck painting (1637) of Olivia Porter who looks like British funny lady Miranda Hart. And, the second is a caricature plaster sculpture from 1834 by

Pretty In Pink

What’s your favourite colour? Perhaps for Joséphine Bowes it was pink.
Return of the Bucintoro on Ascension Day by (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Canaletto

Brief Encounter

Look! There’s a crocodile in the Canaletto!

Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni (1667 – 1740)

Who was the person in this painting?

From the blog

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#DidYouKnow: Master of St. Gudule

  John and Joséphine purchased the Passion Altarpiece from a sale of their furniture supplier, Monbro, in Paris in 1859; In our archive, we have the original Monbro Fils sales catalogue, featuring the Flemish altarpiece, along with the viewing card and bill; There are only seventeen works by the Master of the View of Saint
6 Jun 2018
Image of Mary Milner, John Bowes's mother

The Three Graces

John Bowes may have been the businessman who purchased the land and financed the creation of The Bowes Museum but it is the women in his life who made him the man we know and celebrate.  So, who were they?    ‘The most intelligent female botanist of the age’Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne, was
8 Mar 2021
Detail of The Lady without Merci painting

Pre-Raphaelite Knights in Shining Armour

What should a medieval or mythical knight look like? In the days when suits of armour were already relics of a different era of warfare, why would you need to capture them in art any longer? Where is the continuing relevance? Why the enduring attraction?  Real and Imagined Knights  The legends of the brave and
5 Nov 2020
Image of a painting of a horse jockey and John Bowes

The Horse Whisperer

  Today, the 19th of June, is John Bowes’ birthday, He was born 210 years ago in London, where his father, John Bowes, the 10th Earl of Strathmore, had taken his mother Mary Milner, presumably for privacy because they were not yet married. However, they soon returned home to Streatlam Castle, where John was brought up and
18 Jun 2021

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