I regularly mention the fantastic objects that you can find in Wiltshire’s museums but did you know that they also hold impressive art collections?

Museums of all sizes have paintings and prints depicting local scenes or created by artists who lived in the area. Not all of these will be household names, but they are still a valuable part of the story of life in Wiltshire which museums tell.

Malmesbury Abbey by Turner

Through a partnership project with the Public Catalogue Foundation and the BBC all the oil paintings in public collections in the county have recently been photographed and made available online. These can be seen at

http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/galleries/#/england-wiltshire

This year two of the biggest historical names in English art have also been featured in Wiltshire Museums:

Athelstan Museum in Malmesbury is currently showing an exhibition on Turner, including reproductions of sketches made by J.M.W. Turner when he visited Malmesbury on two occasions in 1791 and 1798. The originals of these are held by the Tate Gallery and are not usually on display so this is a rare chance to see them. The exhibition has been very popular with visitors over the last couple of months and runs until the 20^th of December so you still have a couple of weeks to visit. The museum is open from 10.30 to 4.30 Mon to Sat and 11.30 to 3.30 on Sundays. Entry is free.

Timbrell’s Yard, attributed to Samuel Spode, Bradford on Avon Museum

At the other end of the county, Salisbury and South Wiltshire Museum have recently staged the major exhibition Constable & Salisbury, celebrating the bicentenary of Constable’s first visit to Salisbury in 1811. For the first time since Constable painted them 38 paintings and sketches of the Salisbury area were displayed together. The exhibition was the most successful in the museum’s history with over 38,000 visitors and more than 1,200 copies of the catalogue sold. Thanks to the extensive media coverage in the Times, Financial Times, Independent, Telegraph, Burlington Magazine, Apollo Magazine and The Spectator (to name but a few…) the profile of the museum has been raised to an unprecedented level.

Stonehenge by John Constable (1836) © V & A Images/ Victoria and Albert Museum, London

So, next time you visit a museum in Wiltshire, have a look and see how works of art bring the history of Wiltshire to life.

Tim Burge – Museums Officer

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