JOSÉPHINE AND JOHN BOWES

Founded by Joséphine and John Bowes, The Bowes Museum reflects the couple’s passion for art and their vision to share it with the local community. From Paris to Barnard Castle Joséphine Coffin Chevallier was the daughter of a clockmaker and lived and worked in Paris. John Bowes was a businessman and the son of the 10th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, a distant ancestor to the late Queen Mother, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon.

John Bowes moved to Paris in 1847 and bought the Théâtre Des Variétés in the Boulevard Montmartre, where he met Joséphine who was working as an actress under the stage name Mademoiselle Delorme. The couple had a shared interest in the arts and collection and later married in 1852. John bought Chateau du Barry at Louveciennes as a wedding gift for Joséphine, which became their home in France. Joséphine became one of the great salon holders in Paris and a patron of the arts, known for commissioning plays and collecting art works before they became popular.

She was also a gifted artist, studying under Austrian painter Karl Josef Kuwasseg. Her work was exhibited on four occasions in the late 1860s at the Académie des Beaux-Arts Salon in Paris and once at the Royal Academy in London – a defining achievement for a woman of the time. There are over 55 works by Joséphine in the museum’s collection.

A Legacy

With Joséphine’s health rapidly declining, the couple decided to create a public museum in their legacy, to improve the lives of workers in County Durham. Joséphine was the leading force behind the project, in 1862 she sold Chateau du Barry, and the proceeds were put towards the museum.

Land was secured in Barnard Castle, a few miles from the Bowes’ ancestral home Streatlam Castle near Staindrop and the couple commissioned architect Jules Pellechet to design the museum and grounds. Building work began in 1869 by JE Watson of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and English architect John Edward Watson oversaw this process, working with Pellechet’s designs.

The Bowes’ collected over 15,000 objects for the museum, including the Silver Swan and sadly, neither Joséphine nor John lived to see their museum open to the public in 1892.

Today, The Bowes Museum is a charity managing a Grade 1 listed, accredited museum and 22 acres of Grade 2 listed parkland. As a forward-thinking museum of artists, designers and makers, and with a spirit of generosity and collaboration, its mission is centred around supporting and uplifting the North of England.

The museum continues to reflect the vision and spirit of Joséphine and John Bowes, with changing exhibitions and displays of the vast, internationally renowned collection of works.