Cheltenham Museum and Art Gallery

In 1898 the third Baron de Ferrieres, a former Mayor and MP for Cheltenham gave 43 important paintings, mostly from Belgium and the Netherlands, to the town. In addition he donated £1000 towards the building of a gallery in which to house them. This was opened to the public in 1899. The first real increase in space came in 1989 when HRH The Princess Royal opened an extension to the Art Gallery & Museum. One of the acknowledged strengths of the museum is it remarkable collection from the Arts and Crafts period most manufacturing of these objects being centred in the Cotswolds.

In the Victorian era many local artists, such as Briton Riviere, were obliged to pursue their careers in London. At the turn of this century, however, the trend was reversed when painters returned to the countryside in order to escape city life. At nearby Painswick, Charles Gere and his half-sister Margaret Gere formed an offshoot of the Birmingham School of artist-craftsmen, many of whom are portrayed in his picture The Tennis Party which hangs in the gallery. The gallery also houses works by Vanessa Bell, David Bomberg, Leslie Cole, PJ Crook, RSG Dent, Terry Frost, John Piper, William Rothenstein, Stanley Spencer, Graham Sutherland, Gerald Wilde and sculpture by Lynn Chadwick.