History Of The Collections
Founded by Sir Merton and Lady Russell-Cotes at the turn of the twentieth century, the historic 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 most notable collection of modern works of Art in the extreme south of England.” (1895, Art Journal, London: J.S Virtue & Co. Ltd., 83)
Annie and Merton Russell-Cotes married in 1860 when they were both 24. A devoted couple throughout their marriage they went on to have five children Ella, Charlotte, Clara, Anita and Herbert. However Charlotte died aged 7 and Anita died aged 4.
At the time of his marriage Merton was a travelling salesman and continued to work as such for the next ten years. A man of ambition Merton wanted more than the arduous demands that that the world of commercial travelling provided. In 1868 Merton purchased the lease of the Hanover Hotel, Glasgow, which he would later go onto personally manage.
Merton struggled with poor health and, as a result, the couple moved to Bournemouth in 1876 with their three surviving children. They bought the Bath Hotel on Christmas Day 1876 and later extended and extensively refurbished it, re-opening it as the Royal Bath Hotel in 1880.
From 1884, the couple travelled extensively visiting Australasia, America, India, the Near East, Egypt, the Pacific Islands and Japan, collecting artwork and souvenirs. The resulting collections were displayed throughout the hotel’s public and private rooms, which gained a reputation for being an art gallery and museum. Many famous guests stayed at the hotel including, Oscar Wilde, actor Sir Henry Irving, artist, Sir Hubert Von Herkomer and Sir Benjamin Disraeli.
Eventually the collections outgrew the hotel and in 1897, the couple commissioned the unique and eccentric East Cliff Hall. It was intended as a home, but also as a showcase for their sizeable collections of Victorian art and artefacts amassed on their world travels. Merton wrote: “I made up my mind to construct it architecturally to combine the Renaissance with Italian and old Scottish baronial styles”.
The Founding Collections
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 founding and subsequent acquisitions amount to something of a grand tour through art history. Indeed, commentators often surmise that his purchase of this impressive selection of paintings was driven by a self-conscious attempt to demonstrate his artistic connoisseurship and liberal patronage of the arts, as opposed to an interest in excellent individual works of art. But whilst, undoubtedly, vanity was a factor in Merton’s ambitions, the quality of the key works are undeniable.
Merton’s collecting activities mirrored those of the nouveaux riches merchants and industrialists of Britain’s cities, such as Liverpool, Bristol and Manchester. Generated by the products of Empire and burgeoning industry, the new wealth of these self-made men fuelled a huge boom in art. Eager to display their taste and affluence, these men endowed art galleries and museums on an unprecedented scale.
Since most were associated with the great cities of the industrial North, Merton was relatively unusual among museum founders in being established in a town in the south of England. It is perhaps no coincidence that he too came from the industrial North, where there were many role models. His generosity to the public is comparable to that of Sir Henry Tate and Lord Leverhulme. Yet his was not a ‘museum’ approach, but rather he treated his collecting as a dynamic entity.
As his interests changed, he regularly bought and sold paintings from artists and dealers, and ‘traded up’ as paintings came onto the market. Generally a shrewd customer, he sought out copies of famous works from artists whose reputations were on the wane and were therefore cheaper, such as Edwin Long and William Powell Frith.
Whilst idiosyncratic and personal, Merton’s choice of subjects was typical of the taste of the middle-class Victorian art collector. Like many of his contemporaries, he admired high art and favoured work that affirmed his own belief sets. He saw history painting (including Biblical, mythological and literary subjects) as the pinnacle of the recognised hierarchy of themes. He was fond of landscapes, small genre scenes and animal subjects and admired works with a ‘plein air’ approach. However, his tastes were generally conservative and did not extend to impressionism, the avant-gard or the abstract.
Later Acquisitions
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 public in 1922, following the deaths of its founders. The couple’s son, Herbert, added various works to the collections, including Aurora Triumphans by Evelyn De Morgan. Since then, the collections have continuously grown, thanks to the efforts of succeeding generations of curators and the generosity of donors, art collectors, funders and artists and their families.
Acquisitions during the 1930s and 1940s continued with contemporary paintings including animals, children and portraits. This period coincided with the rise of Bournemouth Art School and Bournemouth Arts Club, and work from this local talent pool made its way into the gallery’s collections. Some of it was locally-inspired like Leslie Ward’s stylised A Dorset Landscape, which owes much to the Bloomsbury Group.
After World War II, the War Artists’ Advisory Commission distributed the works of art in its care and a number of works came to the house. The most notable acquisition was Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Venus Verticordia, which was purchased with the assistance of the National Art Collections Fund and Percival Allam in 1946.
The collection continued to expand in the twentieth century through some key bequests and gifts from numerous individuals and organisations including Walter Child Clark (1929), Emmeline Young (1940), Mrs Ploos van Amstel (1943), the Contemporary Art Society, the Downton Trust, Phyllis Lee-Duncan (1998), the granddaughter of the Russell-Cotes, and Mrs Heading (1995). The house’s active exhibition programme has meant that artists see the Russell-Cotes as a lively venue for contemporary art and frequently give works to add to the collection. Thanks to the vision and generosity of these donors, artists and funders, the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum today holds a truly remarkable collection.
Addressing Empire
Like many museums in the UK, the Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum cares for art and objects in its collections that originate from other countries and communities across the world.
The museum was purpose-built as a home for Annie and Merton Russell-Cotes’ growing collection of art and objects that they acquired from their travels at the tail end of the 19th and early 20th century. Since then, the museum has continued to collect art and objects.
We recognise that the initial formation of these collections and the establishment of the museum took place during the height of the British Empire, and many of the objects on display today are associated with Britain’s colonial past.
The Russell-Cotes are working to address issues of empire in the museum’s collection. We aspire to be an inspirational and inclusive cultural destination for everybody – unlocking fresh perspectives through our collections and inspiring generations to come.
We will be working with a diverse range of stakeholders to support us on this journey, including our EDI Focus Group, as well as continuing to ensure we use our collections in a way that is equitable and ethical.
If you’d like to share your views or get in touch, email us russellcotes@bcpcouncil.gov.uk