Beverley Art Gallery, East Riding
Creative Tourist
Beverley Art Gallery is home to the ‘Champney Collection’, featuring works by leading British artists practising in the Pre-Raphaelite mode; it also boasts the largest collection of paintings by Frederick Elwell, RA (1870–1958).
Founded by textile industrialist Edward Champney in 1910, Beverley Art Gallery in the East Riding of Yorkshire is a lovingly restored Edwardian art gallery that’s home to a permanent collection built around Victorian, Edwardian and modern art. The selection of works is bolstered by Champney’s personal collection: born to noble parents in the market town, Champney took over his uncle Edward Ackroyd’s profitable textiles mill, and later channeled his interest in fine art through the acquisition of pieces by leading British painters. These include Victorian watercolourist Helen Allingham, Maidstone-born artist Albert Goodwin, whose output demonstrates the influence of Turner and the Pre-Raphaelites, as well as close friend and collaborator with the Brotherhood Arthur Hughes, who saw his first work exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery aged just 17. Champney also gifted money to Beverley public library, above which the gallery sits; the entrance can be found through Treasure House museum.
