Ashmolean

I am going to visit the Pre-Raphaelite Collection at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford next week. In the evening I have a meeting with Timothy Wilson, the Keeper of Western Art from the Museum. He came along to see the Oxford Showcase of Possessed and we have been meaning to meet up and talk about it all ever since. I thought it would be helpful to see him before I go off to visit Margaretta Frederick at the Delaware Art Museum in November.

The Ashmolean, was the first public museum in Britain. It began with a collection of natural history items from the Tradescants which were bequeathed to Elias Ashmole. The grand classical museum building, and the Taylorian Institute nearby, were designed by the architect C. R. Cockerell. It is going through an enormous redevelopment at the moment and there will be a whole gallery devoted to the Pre-Raphaelites, when it is finished. Many of the Pre-Raphaelite works which the museum holds are from the collection of Thomas Coombe, one of the early patrons of the Brotherhood. The Ashmolean is directly opposite Oxford Playhouse

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