Find something on display: Walls

Alfred Palmer (1877-1951)

Palmer studied at the Royal Academy, London, then Academie Julian, Paris. He travelled extensively before returning to live in Fordwich, near Canterbury. His sculptures are displayed in the People and Places room.

Purchased with grant-aid from the Friends of Canterbury Museums, 1977

Artist unknown

After a painting by Raphael (Raphaello Sanzio) (1483-1520)

A copy of a painting by Raphael that was in the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, Poland, until looted by the Germans during World War II. It has remained untraced since, although rumours circulated recently that it was found in a bank vault. The original is thought to be a self-portrait of the artist. Our copy has been dated to pre-18th century through paint analysis by the National Gallery, London.

Presented by G F de Zoete, 1905

William Salter Herrick (active as an artist 1852-88)

The elaborate frame for the portrait of Annie Clara Dudley (1831-58) was made in Venice and is of gilded bamboo. It was intended to contain a large mirror rather than a portrait.

Neil Sloman (2006)

Chris How, Simon Westlake and Mick Hill are members of The Original Artists of Kent, making hand-painted signs and other works to commission.

Lent by Neil Sloman, 2012

Nathaniel Hone RA (1718-84)

Kitty (Catherine) Fisher was the daughter of a German stay (corset) maker, who lived in Soho, London. She was a milliner but her beauty, wit, charm and daring horsemanship soon attracted a great many admirers. She had affairs with a large number of wealthy men and her portrait painted numerous times by Hone and Sir Joshua Reynolds. In 1766 she married John Norris of Hempstead Manor, Benenden, Kent, and died the following year in Bath. The animal by her shoulder may be a cat, alluding to her name, though it looks more like a wolf - perhaps a reference to her predatory nature.

Presented by G F de Zoete, 1905

Neil Sloman (2006)

Lalo Borja is a photographer and tutor at Canterbury College.

Lent by Neil Sloman, 2012

Albert Goodwin (1845-1932)

The Kent artist Albert Goodwin is best known for small, precise watercolours. This painting is of unusually large size for Goodwin.

Bequeathed by Fred Goldfinch, 1956

Neil Sloman (2006)

Ric Horner has a studio in Whitstable and his paintings explore light, and its relationship to landscape and seascape.

Lent by Neil Sloman, 2012

William Townsend (1909-73)

William Townsend studied at the Slade School of Art, London, and became a distinguished artist, teacher and writer. His parents lived at Bridge, near Canterbury, and he stayed with them regularly and drew Canterbury Cathedral.

James Doxford (1899-1978)

The artist has a draftsman's pen in his pocket, a reference to his qualification in Technical Drawing.

Purchased with grant-aid from the Friends of Canterbury Museums, 1989

James Godsell Middleton (active as an artist 1826-72)

Sir Henry Oxenden (1756-1838) owned the land on which Herne Bay is built. The style of his portrait was favoured in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, with relaxed pose of sitter at ease with the world, his land stretching into the distance.

Purchased with grant-aid from the National Purchase Fund, 1985

Joseph Ogden (1862-1925)

Ogden was the first Head, or Principal, of the Sidney Cooper School of Art. This still life could be a demonstration for students, showing how to paint different surfaces and textures.

Bequeathed by Mrs J Ogden, 1943

19th century Edward John Gregory, RA (1850-1909)

Gregory is best known for another languid painting, Boulter's Lock, showing summer afternoon boating (collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery, National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside).

Bequeathed by Fred Goldfinch, 1956

Unknown artist

After Pietro Perugino (about 1469-1523)

De Zoete owned both this and a second copy of the Perugino Baptism of Christ that originally formed the predella (lower tier) of an altarpiece in the Benedictine Abbey of San Pietro in Perugia, Italy, and is now in the collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France. Both copies (the second in the collection of the National Gallery, London) used to be dismissed as 19th century forgeries but have been revealed to be earlier in date by recent paint analysis. Canterbury's appears to be the earlier of the two.

Presented by Gerard Frederick de Zoete, 1905

Herbert K Bourne (1825-1907)

After a painting by Gustave Doré (1832-83)

Doré, a Frenchman, was a regular visitor to England and is best known today for his images of Victorian poverty in London: A Pilgrimage (1872). During his lifetime, however, he was most famous for his biblical scenes. Doré's huge religious paintings were exhibited in a purpose-built London gallery, which became a major tourist attraction, and they toured the United States to great acclaim. Engravings of the paintings were available for sale. Mark Twain, visiting the Doré Gallery in 1872, mocked the hard-sell gallery attendants but bought an engraving

One of a set of engravings after Dore purchased in 1893

John Ward, CBE (1917-2007)

Among John Ward's greatest friends were the artists Gordon Davies (1926-2007), Gerald Norden (1912-2000) and Jehan Daly (1918-2001), who sit left to right at the table in this group portrait. Ward's wife, Alison, dubbed it 'the East Kent School'. On the far right is Alfred Charles Slawson (1920-87), a fellow student with Ward at Hereford School of Art in 1935. Behind, on the right, are Ward himself with Colin George (born 1907), a collector and patron of East Kent artists. The friends often drew or painted one another and both Davies and Norden were travel companions on sketching trips abroad.

Purchased with grant-aid from the National Art Collections, Funds, TVS, Trust, and friends of the artist, 1986

Henry Gibbs (1630/31-1713)

After an engraving of a painting by Sir Peter Paul

Rubens (1577-1640) Gibbs is recorded as a limbner (the early name for a painter) in 1664, and painter in 1677. He became a Freeman of the City of Canterbury in 1673 and served as an Alderman during the 1680s. In 1688/89 he was paid £10 for a painting carried out at the Guildhall, including a
'Chimney piece' that has traditionally been identified with this Judgement of Solomon. In 1695 he was paid £5 'for painting the canopy, over the mayor's seat' and in 1706 was once more Mayor of Canterbury. Surviving British narrative paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries are rare, and only one other work by Henry Gibbs is known - a painting of Aeneas and his Family Fleeing the Burning Troy in the collection of Tate Britain. The Judgement of Solomon is an appropriate subject for a court hall. The biblical Solomon was asked to intervene when two women both claimed to be the mother of a child. He proposed cutting the child in two, whereupon the real mother said she would give up her claim so that the child wasn't killed.

Transferred from Canterbury Corporation

Attributed to Bernaert van Orley (about 1492-1541)

This minutely detailed painting shows a rest on the journey of Mary and Joseph to Egypt with baby Jesus.

Presented by Gerard Frederick de Zoete, 1905

Thomas Gainsborough, RA (1727-88)

Gainsborough was one of the greatest portrait artists of the 18th century. This painting dates from when he worked in Bath, before settling in London.

Presented by Gerard Frederick de Zoete, 1905; portrait and frame restored with grant-aid from the Heritage Development Fund of Kent County Council, 1994