Fascinating look at Horsham Museum watercolours

Rick Domas, Director of Kate Gallery in Horsham, gave a presentation entitled ‘Watercolours in the Horsham Museum Collection‘ on Wednesday, July 30, to the Friends of the Horsham Museum and others.

Interesting, thoughtful questions followed.

The Horsham Museum and Art Gallery has a very fine collection of watercolours for a regional museum of its size and funding.

(You can view the watercolours featured in the presentation below).

Among its collection are watercolours by Thomas Rowlandson, renowned British caricaturist; Claude Muncaster, from whom Queen Elizabeth commissioned a series of watercolours of the royal residences and whose work is in the Tate Britain collection; and Dr Geoffrey Sparrow, Horsham resident and veteran of WWI and WWII, who loved painting Horsham town scenes, horses, and hunting scenes.

Other artists featured included Clarkson Frederick Stanfield (1793 – 1867), whose ‘A market boat on the Scheldt’, 1826, is a study for the final oil painting now in the V&A Museum collection.

There were two original botanical watercolours, c1791–1800, produced for ‘Curtis’s Botanical Magazine’ by either Sydenham Edwards or James Sowerby; plus two delightful sketchbooks by Emma Barnett, of whom little is known; and contemporary botanical watercolours by South-East England residents Jill Coombs and Suzanne Merrikin.

Work is ongoing at the museum to bring these treasures online and accessible.

For now, the originals can be viewed via appointment. Contact George Graham, Assistant Curator, at George.Graham@horsham.gov.uk or via phone at 01403 282591.

Photo credits: Horsham Museum and Art Gallery.