Exhibitions
Enriching Collections: Recent acquisitions of prints and drawings 2009-2019
This exhibition is the first of two successive selections of works on paper to celebrate the outstanding generosity of benefactors and donors who have helped to enrich the collections. It will also highlight a number of exceptional works bought with funds raised or donated by individuals, charities, and other supporters.
22/01/2019 to 05/05/2019
Free
The Gentle Art: Friends and strangers in Whistler’s prints
To complement the major show on James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), the Print Room is holding an exhibition of the artist’s etchings, drypoints and lithographs from the Fitzwilliam’s collection, focussing on people.
29/01/2019 to 12/05/2019
Free
Whistler & Nature
Whistler & Nature casts a new light on the work of the great late-Victorian master, James McNeill Whistler. Born in America, but living in the UK for most of his life, he was known as an artist with a bold personality and a revolutionary attitude towards the natural world.
08/01/2019 to 17/03/2019
Free
Fans Unfolded: Conserving the Lennox-Boyd collection
Showcasing rare and exquisitely decorated fans from the collection of the Hon. Christopher Lennox Boyd, allocated to the Museum by H.M. Government in lieu of inheritance tax in 2015, this display reveals the techniques behind the making, investigation and conservation of fans.
05/03/2019 to 12/01/2020
Free
Displays
The Frua-Valsecchi collection
Over the past fifty years, Francesca and Massimo Valsecchi have built up a remarkable collection of paintings, furniture, sculpture, glass and ceramics. This includes the renowned nude portrait of Patricia Preece by Stanley Spencer (Gallery 1), a Spanish 17th century polychrome wood sculpture of the Christ Child (Gallery 6), Art Nouveau Tiffany glass (Gallery 22) and an extremely rare Meissen porcelain vulture (Gallery 27)...
01/08/2016 to 30/12/2019
Free
The 1920s: Crisis and innovation
The 1920s was a time of unprecedented change, after the trauma of the First World War. In America and Western Europe there was great prosperity and artistic innovation, with the new Art Deco style. At the same time there was economic and political crisis in Germany and Central Europe. In Russia the new dawn of Revolution led to Stalin’s terror. All of this can be seen in coins, medals and banknotes of the 1920s.
29/01/2019 to 02/06/2019
Free
Salisbury Family Collection of Studio Ceramics
The Salisbury family, based locally in Cambridge, have kindly lent part of their studio ceramics collection to the Museum. This collection, formed over many years, includes pieces by some of the finest artists to work in clay from the mid-20th century onwards. These include Austrian and German emigrés Lucie Rie, Hans Coper and Ruth Duckworth, and contemporary artist Jennifer Lee, winner of the Loewe Craft Prize 2018.
25/09/2018 to 30/10/2019
Free
Eddington's prehistoric and Roman past
A single display case containing a small selection of items found by the Cambridge Archaeological Unit (CAU) at the North West Cambridge site, now renamed Eddington. The display includes the single most important find to date, a tightly rolled 12-13th century pewter or lead seal, which when unravelled revealed a king with a fleur de lis-topped sceptre.
28/01/2019 to 08/07/2019
Secrets of a Silent Miniaturist
A selection of the Museum’s Isaac Oliver miniatures (c.1565-1617) have been chosen to showcase some of the recent discoveries made about his work. The miniatures can be seen in a special display in the Rothschild Gallery of Medieval & Renaissance Art (Gallery 32), where they are shown alongside other 16th- and 17th-century miniatures, including examples by Nicholas Hilliard.
05/02/2019 to 18/08/2019
Free
