Category: Collections

Collections Enquiries

April 15, 2015

Information about collections, conservation and restoration, image licensing, loans and valuations. Collections Our collections are available to view by appointment. If you have any questions our collections, the historic house or our Founders please contact us. You can view some of our art collections online on the Art UK website. You can view our musical instrument collection on […]

The Founding Collections

April 15, 2015

The Art Collections The distinctive tastes and personalities of Merton and Annie are still very much preserved today in the style of the building and the range of artwork on display. In his voluminous autobiography, Home and Abroad (1921), Merton stated that “Art in all its various phases has always been my strong weakness”. The […]

Later Acquisitions

April 15, 2015

As the century moved on the Russell-Cotes collections continued to grow, including the addition of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s seminal Venus Verticordia. East Cliff Hall and its contents were given to the people of Bournemouth in 1908. The first curator, Richard Quick, was appointed in 1921 and the art gallery and house became fully open to the […]

History Of The Collections

April 15, 2015

Founded by Sir Merton and Lady Russell-Cotes at the turn of the twentieth century, the house is a rare survivor as the residence of a Victorian private collector. It was purpose-built and continues as a permanent art museum. The Art Journal acknowledged that “Mr Russell-Cotes has devoted considerable time to the bringing together of probably the […]