University of Liverpool Art Gallery

In 1878 it was decided by Liverpool town councillors that a university was needed for the city to compete with rival cities such as Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Nottingham. It took four years of fundraising and building before the university was finally opened in 1882 with 45 students. The space available was soon oversubscribed and in 1887 a further fundraising appeal was launched and Liverpool-born architect Alfred Waterhouse was retained to submit plans for what was then to be a state-of-the-art university. It was completed in 1892 at a cost of £53,000.

The collection is housed in a late Regency building a few hundred metres from the main university buildings. It has grown through gifts and bequests from numerous benefactors, supplemented by regular purchases. The result is a varied collection which is bound up with and reflects, the history and identity of the University since its foundation. The collections span the 16th to 21st centuries and the art collection comprises paintings, watercolours, prints and sculptures. There are works by Joseph Wright of Derby, JMW Turner, Lucian Freud and the American wildlife artist, John James Audubon (1785-1851). It is the largest collection of original oil paintings by Audubon outside America. Sculptors represented in the collection include Jacob Epstein, Elisabeth Frink, Barry Flanagan, and Liverpool artists Arthur Dooley and Michael Kenny are also present. The collection also has a group of outdoor works situated across the campus including examples by Hubert Dalwood, Barbara Hepworth, Phillip King and Mitzi Solomon Cunliffe.

Following an £8.6 million refurbishment in 2008 the art collection was re-housed in the adjoining Victoria Gallery & Museum.