Treasures of the Mercer
The Mercer Art Gallery brings its treasures out on show. Highlights from Harrogate Borough Council's own Fine Art Collection include recently acquired paintings by William Powell Frith.
Harrogate's most famous local artist, the Victorian painter William
Powell Frith, is represented not only by his well-known masterpiece,
Many Happy Returns of the Day, but also by more recent acquisitions of outstanding works:
The Portrait of Annie Gambart and
The Private View at the Royal Academy, 1881.
Harrogate possesses one of the most important pictures by
J. F. Herring, the great British horse painter, which for years hung in obscurity in the Royal Hall.
Barnet Fair, painted in 1858, measures 6 ft by 3 ft 6 inches and contains no fewer than 40 horses and over 30 figures.
Silver Moonlight
by
John Atkinson Grimshaw is one of the Mercer's best loved paintings, seen here for the last time before it features in the major Atkinson Grimshaw show planned for the Mercer for 2011, and touring to the Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London.
To mark the upcoming
20
thanniversary of the Mercer Art Gallery, there is also a display of paintings by
Sidney Mercer, the Harrogate artist after whom the gallery is named, and other members of his artistic family. Works by modern masters, such as
Patrick Heron, John Piper and
Mary Potter, provide a celebration of colour, texture and style.