Fine Arts

A significant number of our watercolours are by George Gordon Byron Cooper (1850-1933).  Cooper was born and bred in Manchester and became known as the father of the Manchester School of Painters.  He was an accomplished artist in both oil and watercolour.  He exhibited seven works at the Royal Academy between 1906-1929 and represented British Art at several international exhibitions.

Cooper travelled extensively throughout Britain and Europe in order to obtain his scenes and his work reflects his love of landscape, colour and light.  He was a great admirer of Alfred Lord Tennyson, who lived in Haslemere in a mansion named Aldworth.  He endeavoured to relate through pictures the emotions aroused by Tennyson’s poetical works.  He eventually produced an exhibition of over 100 Tennysonian works that toured the country.  Its popularity was enormous, with over 22,000 people visiting it when it showed in Rochdale.

Amongst the oils are five Swedish wall paintings on linen dated c.1801-1828.  They tell the biblical stories of ‘The Five Wise and the Five Foolish Virgins’ and ‘The Journey of the Three Wise Men.’  These paintings are regarded as symbols of Swedish vernacular culture and are characterised by the flat, frieze-like depiction of their subjects.  Such paintings were commissioned from itinerant painters and were displayed in village homes. The Haslemere paintings are believed to have come from the southern Halland region of Sweden, noted for its isolation even in the late nineteenth century.

We also hold a splendid example of Sir Frank Dicksee’s work – a portrait of Miss Edith Fitton.  Dicksee (1853-1928) was a member of a noted artistic family and was first trained by his father, Thomas Francis Dicksee, before entering the Royal Academy Schools in 1870, where he excelled in his studies.  Much of his early career was spent in book and magazine illustration, as well as some stained glass window design. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1876, becoming ARA in 1881, RA in 1891 and finally President of the Royal Academy in 1924.  During his lifetime he also held many other appointments and awards; he was knighted in 1925, became KCVO in 1927, and was a Trustee of the British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

Another highlight is our 1920s Charles Bannerman Phillips sketchbooks, depicting superbly observed scenes from in and around Guildford.  We also hold pen and ink sketches by the local peasant art protagonist Godfrey Blount.  His designs are strongly influenced by natural forms and religious themes.  Another artist who recorded many local scenes is Constance Harrison.  More contemporary drawings are also included in our collection, as seen in our Georgina Ling pen and ink sketches of Haslemere over the 1980s.

We hold around 5,600 prints in our art collection.  A large proportion of these are brass rubbings of ancient monuments in British churches, taken by A.Ridley Bax at the end of the 19th century.  We also hold many zoological prints, architectural prints, religious prints and portraits.  A fine example of such a portrait is that of James Edward Oglethorpe, MP for Haslemere from 1722 to 1754.  Oglethorpe is most famous for founding the colony of Georgia in America in 1733, which he governed for ten years.

Aquatint "Hind Head Hill on the Portsmouth Road" 1811 Published by Day and Son (Lithographers to the Queen, Gate Street, Lincolns Inn Fields) and Paul and Dominic Colnaghi (Publishers to Her Majesty, Co13 & 14 Pall Mall East). From a drawing and etching by J.M.W.Turner.