Fitzwilliam Museum

The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art and antiquities museum of the University of Cambridge. It is located on Trumpington Street opposite Fitzwilliam Street in central Cambridge. It was founded in 1816 under the will of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam (1745–1816), and comprises one of the best collections of antiquities and modern art in western Europe. With over half a million objects and artworks in its collections, the displays in the museum explore world history and art from antiquity to the present.

The treasures of the museum include artworks by Monet, Picasso, Rubens, Vincent van Gogh, Renoir, Rembrandt, Cézanne, Van Dyck, and Canaletto, as well as a winged bas-relief from Nimrud. Admission to the public is always free. The museum is a partner in the University of Cambridge Museums consortium, one of 16 Major Partner Museum services funded by Arts Council England to lead the development of the museums sector.

Foundation and buildings

The Fitzwilliam Museum began in 1816 thanks to the collection of Richard FitzWilliam, 7th Viscount FitzWilliam. It started in the Perse School building in Free School Lane before moving to the Old Schools in central Cambridge.

The main building, called the "Founder's Building," was constructed between 1837 and 1843. It was designed by George Basevi and finished by C. R. Cockerell. The museum officially opened its doors in 1848. Later, in 1931, the museum grew even more with a new two-storey extension.

Collection

The Fitzwilliam Museum has five main areas: Antiquities, Applied Arts, Coins and Medals, Rare Manuscripts and Printed Books, and Paintings, Drawings and Prints. These areas include items from ancient Egypt, Nubia, Greece, and Rome, as well as Western Asiatic displays and Cypriot art. There are also applied arts such as pottery, glass, furniture, clocks, fans, armour, and art from China, Japan, and Korea. The museum has coins and medals, special manuscripts and rare books, and many paintings by famous artists like Simone Martini, Domenico Veneziano, Titian, Van Dyck, Frans Hals, Canaletto, Hogarth, Gainsborough, Constable, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, and Picasso. It also has miniatures, drawings, watercolours, and prints.

There is a large collection of 16th-century Elizabethan virginal manuscript music by composers such as William Byrd, Doctor John Bull, Orlando Gibbons, and Thomas Tallis.

The Egyptian Galleries at the Fitzwilliam Museum were updated in 2006 after two years of work. This allowed more ancient items to be shown to the public. These galleries are very popular and help visitors learn about ancient Egyptian life through interactive displays. Today, they contain some of the best Egyptian collections outside the British Museum.

The museum has many paintings and sketches by artists like Monet, Picasso, Rubens, Vincent van Gogh, Cézanne, Degas, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Canaletto, Constable, and Renoir. It also has a large group of works by J. M. W. Turner, started with watercolour drawings given to the university by John Ruskin in 1861. The museum’s Pre-Raphaelite paintings include a version of Ford Madox Brown’s The Last of England, voted one of the greatest paintings in Britain in 2005.

Many paintings at the museum are lent by colleges of the University of Cambridge, such as impressionist paintings owned by King’s College. Donations to the museum include a personal collection given by economist Maynard Keynes, which has works like Cézanne’s Still Life With Apples.

In 2015, the museum showed two bronze statues thought to be by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo. If true, they would be the only known bronze sculptures by him. The statues show naked, apparently drunk men riding panthers.

Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum

The Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum was started in 1909 and is the oldest group in Britain that helps museums grow and stay strong. This group has helped the museum buy important artworks and improve its buildings. Today, they focus on getting new modern pieces of art and building a special fund to make sure the museum stays special for the future.

Princess Alexandra of Kent is the president of the Fitzwilliam Museum Development Trust.

Directors

Many people have led the Fitzwilliam Museum as directors over the years. Some of these leaders include Sidney Colvin from 1876 to 1884, Sir Charles Walston from 1883 to 1889, and John Henry Middleton from 1889 to 1892. Others who have served as directors are Montague Rhodes James, Sir Sydney Cockerell, and Louis Clarke, among many more. The museum continues to be led by new directors to this day.

Curators and keepers

The Fitzwilliam Museum had special helpers called honorary keepers who took care of its collections. One of them was Winifred Lamb, who was the honorary keeper of Greek and Roman antiques from 1920 to 1958.