:Dulwich Picture Gallery

File:Dulwich Picture Gallery 04.JPG

Edward Alleyn (1566–1626) was an actor who became an entrepreneur in Elizabethan theatre. His commercial interests in the Rose and Fortune Theatres (a major competitor to the Globe Theatre), gave him sufficient wealth to acquire the Manor of Dulwich in 1605.Cerasano, S. P. Edward Alleyn: 1556–1626, pp. 11–31. He founded a college at Dulwich, the College of God's Gift, and endowed it with his estate. It was a school for boys and next to it were almshouses for the local poor. The college became three separate beneficiary schools—Dulwich College, Alleyn's School, and James Allen's Girls' School, named after an early 18th-century headmaster.Beresford, R. Dulwich Picture Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, p.16. {{ISBN|090629018X}} The college, the attached almshouses and chapel survive next to the gallery on Gallery Road, although its exterior has undergone extensive renovation.

Alleyn bequeathed the college of a collection of works including portraits of the kings and queens of England. The college retained connections with the theatre and in 1686, the actor William Cartwright (1606–1686) bequeathed a collection of 239 pictures, of which 80 are now identifiable at Dulwich. In the 18th century, the collection was displayed on the first floor of the wing of the Old College. It attracted few additions during this period, and recorded descriptions of the gallery suggest disappointment and apathy from its visitors. The art historian and Whig politician Horace Walpole wrote that he saw "a hundred mouldy portraits among apostles sibyls and kings of England".

File:Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois by Sir William Beechey.jpg by William Beechey, 1810]]

File:Sandby, Paul - Noel Desenfans and Sir Francis Bourgeois - Google Art Project.jpg and Noël Desenfans]]

The Dulwich collection was improved in size and quality by Sir Francis Bourgeois (1753–1811), originally from Switzerland, and his business partner, Frenchman Noël Desenfans (1744–1807). Their involvement saw the Gallery make significant steps towards its present state, and they are credited as founders of Dulwich Picture Gallery. They ran an art dealership in London and in 1790 were commissioned by the king of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, Stanisław August Poniatowski, to assemble a national collection for Poland to encourage fine arts in his country. Desenfans had lobbied the British Government to create a similar British national collection and offered to contribute to it, but was unenthusiastically received. Touring around Europe buying fine art, Bourgeois and Desenfans took five years to assemble the collection, but by 1795 the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth had been partitioned and no longer existed.

Bourgeois and Desenfans attempted to sell the collection but were unsuccessful. Instead, they sold small pieces to fund the purchase of other important works and kept the collection in Desenfans' house in Charlotte Street. After the death of Desenfans in 1807, Bourgeois inherited the collection. He commissioned Sir John Soane to design and construct a mausoleum at Desenfans' house, but was unable to secure the freehold. Bourgeois bequeathed his collection to the College of God's Gift on the advice of the actor John Philip Kemble, a friend of both dealers. Bourgeois left instructions in his will for the construction of a gallery in Dulwich, designed by Soane, in which to display the collection. It was next to the original college buildings by the chapel. He also left £2,000 for construction costs and £4,000 was contributed by Desenfan's widow.

The gallery was opened to students of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1815, two years before the official opening to the public, the delay due to a problem with the gallery's heating system. It became a popular venue for copyists from London schools of art. Its collection was frequented by many cultural figures over the next hundred years, many of whom first visited as students, including John Constable, William Etty, Joseph Mallord William Turner, and later Vincent van Gogh. Charles Dickens mentions Dulwich Picture Gallery in his novel The Pickwick Papers, as Samuel Pickwick, the novel's protagonist, is a visitor to the gallery in his retirement.

File:Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn - Jacob III de Gheyn - Google Art Project.jpg, Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III]]

In the early hours of 31 December 1966, eight paintings were stolen, three by Rembrandt, A Girl at the Window, a version of Portrait of Titus and his Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III, a fellow artist, three by Rubens, Three Women with a Cornucopia, St. Barbara and The Three Graces; and one, A Lady Playing on the Clavicord by Gerrit Dou and Susannah and the Elders by Adam Elsheimer. They were worth at least £3 million but a reward of just £1,000 was offered for their return. Within a few days all the paintings were recovered after an investigation led by Detective Superintendent Charles Hewett, who had previously investigated suspected serial killer Dr John Bodkin Adams. Michael Hall, an unemployed ambulance driver, was the only one of the thieves caught and was sentenced to five years in prison.Hugh McLeave, Rogues in the Gallery: The Modern Plague of Art Thefts, C&M Online Media, Inc. {{ISBN|0-917990-82-X}}

Rembrandt's small early Portrait of Jacob de Gheyn III (1632) has been stolen and recovered four times and is listed in Guinness World Records as the most frequently stolen artwork in the world.{{cite news|last=Baynes|first=Chris|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/rembrandt-paintings-theft-dulwich-picture-gallery-met-police-london-a9203616.html|title=Intruder breaks into gallery to steal priceless Rembrandt paintings|work=The Independent|date=14 November 2019|access-date=15 November 2019}} Last stolen in 1983, it was recovered from a left-luggage office in the Federal Republic of Germany in 1986; returned anonymously; found on the back of a bicycle; and discovered under a bench in a graveyard in Streatham, south London.{{cite news|last1=Karim|first1=Fariha|last2=Simpson|first2=John|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/art/article/rembrandts-left-in-gallery-grounds-as-art-heist-thwarted-mksvdc66d?ni-statuscode=acsaz-307|title=Rembrandts left in gallery grounds as art heist thwarted|work=The Times|date=15 November 2019|access-date=15 November 2019}} {{subscription required}} Since 2010, the painting has been guarded by an upgraded security system. In November 2019, During the Rembrandt's Light exhibition featuring loans works from the Louvre in Paris and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, thieves attempted to steal two of the paintings. The attempt was unsuccessful.

In 1995 a major reorganisation of the historic Alleyn's College charity resulted in the reconstitution of Dulwich Picture Gallery as an independent registered charity.{{EW charity|1040942}}

The gallery marked its bicentenary in 2017. As part of the celebrations the Gallery partnered with the London Festival of Architecture to hold a competition for emerging architects to create a 'Dulwich Pavilion', a temporary events structure to be built in the Gallery's historic grounds during the summer of 2017.{{cite web |url=http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/about/news/2016/october/dulwich-to-partner-with-lfa/ |title=Open Call for a temporary outdoor events pavilion at Dulwich Picture Gallery |date=19 October 2016 |website=Dulwich Picture Gallery |access-date=29 January 2017 |archive-date=5 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230405221252/https://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/about/news/2016/october/dulwich-to-partner-with-lfa/ |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/competitions/contest-for-dulwich-picture-gallery-pavilion-announced/10012945.article |title=Contest for Dulwich Picture Gallery pavilion announced |last=Fulcher |first=Merlin |date=20 October 2016 |website=Architects' Journal |access-date=29 January 2017}} The competition was won by London-based architecture practice IF_DO.{{cite web |url=http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/about/press-media/press-releases/if_do-win-first-dulwich-pavilion-design-competition/ |title=IF_DO win first Dulwich Pavilion design competition |date=26 January 2017 |website=Dulwich Picture Gallery |access-date=29 January 2017}}{{cite web |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/design/the-dulwich-picture-gallerys-summer-pavilion-is-a-cool-rival-for-the-serpentine-a3450916.html |title=The Dulwich Picture Gallery's summer pavilion is a cool rival for the Serpentine |last=Bevan |first=Robert |date=26 January 2017 |website=Evening Standard |access-date=29 January 2017}}

In June–September 2019, the Dulwich hosted the first major exhibition of the works of the Grosvenor School in a public art gallery outside Australia,{{cite book |last1=Gordon |first1=Samuel | last2=Leaper |first2=Hana |last3=Lock |first3=Tracey |last4=Vann |first4=Philip |last5=Scott |first5=Jennifer |editor1-last=Gordon |editor1-first=Samuel |page=Inside front flap |title=Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking (Exhibition Catalogue) |date=13 August 2019 |publisher=Philip Wilson Publishers |isbn=978-1-78130-078-7 |edition=1st}} which was critically well received.

The Gallery reopened in May 2021 after 14 months of pandemic closure with a complete rehang of the collection and the exhibition Unearthed: Photography’s Roots.

In spring 2023, the Gallery hosted the first major UK exhibition of the Impressionist Berthe Morisot since 1950. {{cite web | url=https://www.ft.com/content/d18f89ef-81e0-4d76-8e27-6347c8c3b88b | title=Berthe Morisot, Dulwich Picture Gallery review — secrets and revelations from a female Impressionist }}

File:British - The Judde Memorial - Google Art Project.jpg

The gallery attracted donors from its earliest days. In 1835 William Linley (1771–1835)—last of a musical and theatrical family (many of whom had connections to Dulwich College) and brother-in-law to playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan—bequeathed his collection of family portraits to the gallery. Among these paintings were works by Thomas Gainsborough, Archer James Oliver, James Lonsdale and Thomas Lawrence.

The portraitist and Royal Academician William Beechey (1753–1839) donated a picture of the gallery's founder Bourgeois he had painted on the back of a picture by Joshua Reynolds in 1836 adding two images to the collection, although only one can be shown at a time. In 2012, the side of the canvas on display is by Reynolds.

British portrait art became better represented due to the benefaction of Charles Fairfax Murray, a Pre-Raphaelite painter, collector and dealer. A group of 40 pictures were donated by Murray in 1911 and others followed in 1915 and 1917–18.

File:Dr C Vogtherr on Dulwich Picture Gallery.ogg]]

Dulwich Picture Gallery's design and architecture comprising a series of interlinked rooms lit by natural light through overhead skylights has been the primary influence on art gallery design ever since. Soane designed the sky lights to illuminate the paintings indirectly. Soane's design was unrelated to traditional architectural practice or schools of architecture. Instead of constructing a facade with the stucco porticos favoured by many contemporary architects, he opted to use uninterrupted raw brick, a feature subsequently adopted by many 20th-century art galleries. The architect Philip Johnson said "Soane has taught us how to display paintings".{{cn|date=July 2021}}

File:Interior of Dulwich Picture Gallery.jpg

Before Soane settled on his final design, he proposed a number of other ideas around a quadrangle belonging to the Alleyn's charitable foundation to the south of the college buildings. The schemes proved too ambitious and only the gallery was built, conceived as one wing of the quadrangle. The mausoleum was Soane's idea, as Bourgeois had merely indicated a desire to be buried in the college chapel. Soane recalled Bourgeois' desire to construct a mausoleum in Desenfan's home and his design was axiomatic to that of the Charlotte Street house. Bourgeois and Desenfans, along with Desenfans' wife, who died in 1815, are buried in the gallery's mausoleum. Alms houses constructed by Soane along the west side of the gallery were converted into exhibition space by Charles Barry Jr. in 1880 and an eastward extension was built to designs by E. S. Hall between 1908 and 1938.

On 12 July 1944, during World War II, the mausoleum and west wing galleries were badly damaged by a German V1 flying bomb and bones were scattered across the lawn in front of the gallery. The three sarcophagi in the mausoleum now contain approximately a skeleton each. The buildings were refurbished by Austin Vernon and Partners and re-opened by the Queen Mother on 27 April 1953.{{cite news |title=Russell Vernon |date=7 September 2009 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/art-obituaries/6151989/Russell-Vernon.html}}

A modernist cafe, education rooms, disabled access and lecture theatre by Rick Mather were added in 1999. At the same time parts of Soane's original design were restored and the latest refurbishment was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 25 May 2000.{{cite news |title=Overhauled but understated |last=Worsley|first=Giles|date=23 May 2000 |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4720779/Overhauled-but-understated.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121114031049/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4720779/Overhauled-but-understated.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=14 November 2012}}

In 2023, the gallery announced plans for a £4.9 million redevelopment designed by the architects Carmody Groarke, encompassing a new sculpture garden in the southern portion of the site and a new building for school and family activities.Gareth Harris (20 July 2023), [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/07/20/south-londons-dulwich-picture-gallery-sculpture-park South London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery to get new sculpture park in £4.6m overhaul] The Art Newspaper.

Image:Dulwich picture gallery at sunset.jpg|Exterior view

Image:Dulwich Picture Gallery TQ3373 142.jpg|Dulwich Picture Gallery exterior looking north

Image:Dulwich Picture Gallery exterior.jpg|Exterior – east frontage

Image:Dulwich Picture Gallery.jpg|Mausoleum

Image:Dulwich-picture-gallery-interior.JPG|The main gallery

Image:Dulwich Picture Gallery mausoleum.jpg|Inside the mausoleum

File:Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1922 (rooms 1-5).jpg|The main gallery in 1922

File:Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1922 (room 9).jpg|Room 9 in 1922

Image:Dulwich Picture Gallery in 1922.jpg|Exterior view in 1922

File:Pynacker, Adam - Bridge in an Italian Landscape - Google Art Project.jpg, Bridge in an Italian Landscape]]

File:Horsley, Walter Charles - Old-time Tuition at Dulwich College - Google Art Project.jpg: Old-time Tuition at Dulwich College]]

File:Dou, Gerrit - A Woman playing a Clavichord - Google Art Project.jpg

File:Poussin, Nicolas - The Nurture of Jupiter - Google Art Project.jpg, The Nurture of Jupiter.]]

;Dutch School

:*Aelbert Cuyp – 11 paintings;

:*Gerrit Dou – 1 painting;

:*Meyndert Hobbema – 1 painting;

:*Charles Cornelisz de Hooch – 2 paintings;

:*Aernout van der Neer – 1 painting;

:*Adriaen van Ostade – 5 paintings;

:*Rembrandt – 3 paintings;

:*Jacob Isaakszoon van Ruisdael – 4 paintings;

:*Adriaen van de Velde – 2 paintings;

:*Willem van de Velde the Younger – 3 paintings;

:*Jan Weenix – 1 painting;

:*Philip Wouwerman – 12 paintings;

;English School

:*William Dobson – 1 painting;

:*Thomas Gainsborough – 7 paintings;

:*William Hogarth – 2 paintings;

:*Sir Edwin Henry Landseer – 1 painting;

:*Thomas Lawrence – 3 paintings;

:*Joshua Reynolds – 9 paintings;

:*John Constable – 1 painting;

;Flemish School

:*Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger – 1 painting;

:*Peter Paul Rubens – 10 paintings;

:*David Teniers the Younger – 19 paintings;

:*Anthony van Dyck – 5 paintings;

;French School

:*Gaspard Dughet – 4 paintings;

:*Jean-Honoré Fragonard – 1 painting;

:*Claude Lorrain – 4 paintings;

:*Nicolas Poussin – 6 paintings;

:*Claude-Joseph Vernet – 6 paintings;

:*Jean-Antoine Watteau – 2 paintings;

;Italian School

:*Canaletto, (Giovanni Antonio Canal) – 2 paintings;

:*Annibale Carracci – 4 paintings;

:*Piero di Cosimo – 1 painting;

:*Guercino, (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) – 2 paintings;

:*Raphael, (Raffaello Sanzio) – 2 paintings;

:*Guido Reni – 2 paintings;

:*Sebastiano Ricci – 2 paintings;

:*Giovanni Battista Tiepolo – 3 paintings;

:*Giorgio Vasari – 1 painting;

:*Paolo Veronese – 1 painting;

:*Francesco Zuccarelli – 3 paintings;

;Spanish School

:*Bartolomé Esteban Murillo – 4 paintings;

{{-}}

{{gallery

|height=150

|mode=packed

|File:Cuyp, Aelbert - Cattle near the Maas, with Dordrecht in the distance - Google Art Project.jpg|Aelbert Cuyp: Cattle near the Maas, with Dordrecht in the distance

|File:Guercino - The Woman taken in Adultery - Google Art Project.jpg|Guercino: The Woman taken in Adultery

}}

{{gallery

|height=180

|mode=packed

|File:Hudson, Thomas - Portrait of a Man - Google Art Project.jpg|Thomas Hudson: Portrait of a Man

|File:Gainsborough, Thomas - Thomas Linley the elder - Google Art Project.jpg|Gainsborough, Thomas: Thomas Linley the elder

|File:Beechey, Sir William - John Philip Kemble - Google Art Project.jpg|William Beechey: Portrait of John Philip Kemble

|File:Gainsborough, Thomas - Philippe Jacques de Loutherbourg - Google Art Project.jpg|Thomas Gainsborough: Portrait of Philip James de Loutherbourg

|File:After Allori, Cristofano - Judith - Google Art Project.jpg|Cristofano Allori: Judith

|File:Albani, Francesco - Holy Family - Google Art Project.jpg|Francesco Albani, Holy Family

|File:Dahl, Michael - Portrait of a Lady - Google Art Project.jpg|Michael Dahl: Portrait of a Lady

|File:Dahl, Michael - Portrait of a Man - Google Art Project.jpg|Michael Dahl: Portrait of a Man

|File:Cope, Sir Arthur Stockdale - The Reverend William Rogers - Google Art Project.jpg|Sir Arthur Stockdale Cope: The Reverend William Rogers

|File:Hogarth, William - Portrait of a Man - Google Art Project.jpg|William Hogarth: Portrait of a Man

|File:Murillo, Bartolomé Estéban - The Madonna of the Rosary - Google Art Project.jpg|Bartolomé Estéban Murillo: The Madonna of the Rosary

|File:De Gelder, Arent - Jacob's Dream - Google Art Project.jpg|Arent de Gelder: Jacob's Dream

|File:Lely, Sir Peter - Portrait of a Lady in Blue holding a Flower - Google Art Project.jpg|Sir Peter Lely: Portrait of a Lady in Blue holding a Flower

|File:Lely, Sir Peter - A Boy as a Shepherd - Google Art Project.jpg|Sir Peter Lely: A Boy as a Shepherd

}}

Jennifer Scott became Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery in April 2017, following Ian A.C. Dejardin who had been director since 2005. From 1996 to 2005, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, later Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, was the Director. Giles Waterfield{{cite web| url = http://www.gileswaterfield.com| title = Giles Waterfield - Home}} was Director of the Dulwich Picture Gallery from 1979-1996.

• Dulwich OnView, a blog-based magazine associated with the gallery
• Dulwich Outdoor Gallery, an associated distributed gallery of street art
• Helen Hillyard, curator

{{Reflist}}

{{commons category}}

• [http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/ Dulwich Picture Gallery official website]
• {{EW charity|1040942}}
• [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/art-obituaries/6151989/Russell-Vernon.html Russell Vernon obituary], The Daily Telegraph
• [https://www.gdcinteriors.com/dulwich-picture-gallery A day in the life of Ian A C Dejardin, Director of Dulwich Picture Gallery]

[https://artsandculture.google.com/partner/dulwich-picture-gallery?hl=en Virtual tour of the Dulwich Picture Gallery] provided by Google Arts & Culture

{{London museums}}

{{London Borough of Southwark}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:1817 establishments in England

Category:Buildings and structures completed in 1817

Category:Art museums and galleries established in 1817

Category:Art museums and galleries in London

Category:John Soane buildings

Category:Charities based in London

Category:Museums in the London Borough of Southwark

Picture Gallery

Category:Georgian architecture in London

Category:Grade II* listed buildings in the London Borough of Southwark

Category:Grade II* listed museum buildings

Category:College of God's Gift