PR Date: Tuesday, 1 December 2020 - 1:45pm
North Hertfordshire Museum is delighted to announce the successful purchase of an oil painting by famous artist William Ratcliffe (1870 – 1955). This was made possible thanks to exceptionally generous grant-aid from the Hertfordshire Heritage Fund, the Arts Council England/V & A Purchase Grant Fund and Art Fund.
The painting, The Red Curtain, shows the corner of a sitting room in a house on Wilbury Road, Letchworth Garden City, around 1916. The attractive Arts & Crafts interior features oriental rugs on the wooden floor, a high-backed chair and an oak table which appears in other Ratcliffe paintings. It is on display in the museum’s Terrace Gallery.
North Herts Museum has the major collection of Ratcliffe paintings in the country and staff were thrilled to be able to buy this picture at auction in London, as Ratcliffe oils are rare.
William Ratcliffe lived in Letchworth on and off throughout his life, and often stayed in this house, which belonged to his friend Stanley Parker, brother of Barry Parker, one of the town’s original architects. A later version of the painting belongs to Tate Britain. It is called The Artist’s Room, and dates from the early 1930s.
Cllr Keith Hoskins, NHDC’s Executive Member for Enterprise and Cooperative Development said: “The museum received extremely generous grant-aid to enable it to purchase this painting, so that North Hertfordshire District Council only needed to contribute under £300. I would like to congratulate the Museum team for successfully applying for these grants, as without them it would have been impossible for the museum to have bought the painting at auction. North Hertfordshire District Council is extremely grateful to the funders.”
Watch the unwrapping of the painting here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzTwrGrpCvM&feature=youtu.be
Notes to Editors:
The Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund is a government fund that helps regional museums, record offices and specialist libraries in England and Wales to acquire objects relating to the arts, literature and history.
• It was established at the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in 1881 and continues to be part of its nationwide work.
• The annual grants budget, currently £724,000, is provided by Arts Council England National Lottery Funding
• Each year, the Purchase Grant Fund considers some 150 applications and awards grants to around 100 organisations, enabling acquisitions of over £3 million to go ahead.
• Visit the website: www.vam.ac.uk/purchasegrantfund
Art Fund
Art Fund is the national fundraising charity for art. It provides millions of pounds every year to help museums to acquire and share works of art across the UK, further the professional development of their curators, and inspire more people to visit and enjoy their public programmes. In response to Covid-19 Art Fund has made £2 million in adapted funding available to support museums through reopening and beyond, including Respond and Reimagine grants to help meet immediate need and reimagine future ways of working. Art Fund is independently funded, supported by the 159,000 members who buy the National Art Pass, who enjoy free entry to over 240 museums, galleries and historic places, 50% off major exhibitions, and receive Art Quarterly magazine. Art Fund also supports museums through its annual prize, Art Fund Museum of the Year. In a unique edition of the prize for 2020, Art Fund responded to the unprecedented challenges that all museums are facing by selecting five winners and increasing the prize money to £200,000. The winners are Aberdeen Art Gallery; Gairloch Museum; Science Museum; South London Gallery; and Towner Eastbourne www.artfund.org
The Hertfordshire Heritage Fund was founded in 1988. It is a membership charity which exists to promote the collection of works of art and heritage items for public display and preservation for the benefit of residents of Hertfordshire.
• It has purchased over 70 works, or groups of items for museums and archives in Hertfordshire. Some of these will be displayed in an exhibition at North Hertfordshire Museum in 2021.
• North Hertfordshire Museum has benefited from 8 grants from the Hertfordshire Heritage Fund over the years.
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