There are some familiar names and familiar paintings in Art Then! British Painting, Sculpture and Drawing, 1910-1960 at Southampton City Art Gallery, but it's the unfamiliar that makes it especially worth the trip to a venue you might not normally consider for an exhibition. This show provides an excellent overview of art trends in this country in the first half of the 20th century. And it's free! Southampton has a very good collection, but we often get the feeling that a lot of interesting works are in store behind closed doors. Pleasant surprises await when they finally see the light of the day, in this case in combination with a selection from the extensive Ingram Collection of modern British art. In all, there are more than 100 works by over 100 artists, demonstrating how the British reacted to the latest developments in art on the Continent. So let's start with a couple of hidden gems from the Southampton treasure trove, first of all a Landscape that really stoppe...
If you've never been to Strawberry Hill House, Horace Walpole's Gothic mansion in south-west London, there may never be a better opportunity than now to get a taste of its past splendours. And if you have been, it's time to visit again to see the Lost Treasures of Strawberry Hill , an exhibition that brings back to the house many of the works of art that were part of one of the greatest collections of the 18th century. Walpole, the son of Britain's first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, revived the Gothic style when he built Strawberry Hill between 1748 and 1790. His collection, ranging from paintings and sculptures to historical curiosities, was dispersed in an auction in 1842. More than 150 objects have been reassembled for this show after a three-year hunt by the curators through private and public collections. The show revives memories of the 2013 exhibition that saw Houghton Hall in Norfolk rehung with 60 of Sir Robert Walpole's paintings, which...