Hastings Museum and Art Gallery

Hastings Museum and Art Gallery was founded in 1892 and the section devoted to paintings and drawings was run by Martin Sullivan, the then Head of the Hastings College of Art and the father of the illustrator, Edmund Sullivan. By 1905 ownership of the Museum had passed to Hastings Corporation and the collection by now favoured not surprisingly local artists and pictures with a maritime theme. Located at the time in the Brassey Institute (now the Hastings Public Library) it was in cramped conditions rubbing shoulders with the local School of Art and the town library. Thankfully local bequest made a move possible to a nearby building in 1928 and by gaining extra space the collection began to expand.

Victorian-era artists are represented by the likes of Alfred Strutt, cattle painter Thomas Sidney Cooper, William Shayer, Charles Martin Powell, Henry William Banks and Richard Hume Lancaster. The Vicat Cole family are heavily represented with works by George Vicat Cole, Violet Vicat Cole, Philip Vicat Cole and Reginald Vicat Cole. Other 20th artists include George Graham, Hesketh Hubbard, Sylvia Gosse, Thérèse Lessore, Walter Sickert, Dorothea Sharp, Edward le Bas, Keith Baynes, Charles Cundall, Beatrice Bland and local art school principal Vincent Lines. The latter half of the 20th century is also well represented with works by John Bratby, Laetitia Yhap, Clifford Hall, Alice Headley Neave and Edward Callam.

The combined total of oil paintings, watercolours and drawings is more than 2,500 items.