The Bowes Museum is an

art gallery An art gallery is a room or a building in which visual art is displayed. In Western cultures from the mid-15th century, a gallery was any long, narrow covered passage along a wall, first used in the sense of a place for art in the 1590s. The long ...

in the town of

Barnard Castle Barnard Castle (, ) is a market town on the north bank of the River Tees, in County Durham, England. The town is named after and built around a medieval castle ruin. The town's Bowes Museum has an 18th-century Silver Swan automaton exhibit ...

, in

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

in northern England. It was built to designs by Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson to house the art collection of

John Bowes John Bowes may refer to: *John George Bowes (c. 1812–1864), Canadian politician *John Bowes (art collector) (1811–1885), English art collector and thoroughbred racehorse owner **John Bowes (steamship), ''John Bowes'' (steamship), 1852 steam coll ...

and his wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier, and opened in 1892. It contains paintings by

El Greco Doménikos Theotokópoulos (, ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco (; "The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance, regarded as one of the greatest artists of all time. ...

Francisco Goya Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (; ; 30 March 1746 – 16 April 1828) was a Spanish Romanticism, romantic painter and Printmaking, printmaker. He is considered the most important Spanish artist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Hi ...

Canaletto Giovanni Antonio Canal (18 October 1697 – 19 April 1768), commonly known as Canaletto (), was an Italian painter from the Republic of Venice, considered an important member of the 18th-century Venetian school. Painter of cityscapes or ...

Jean-Honoré Fragonard Jean-Honoré Fragonard (; 5 April 1732 (birth/baptism certificate) – 22 August 1806) was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. One of the most prolific art ...

and

François Boucher François Boucher ( , ; ; 29 September 1703 – 30 May 1770) was a French painter, draughtsman and etcher, who worked in the Rococo style. Boucher is known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories ...

, together with several collections of decorative art, especially

porcelain Porcelain (), also called china, is a ceramic material made by heating Industrial mineral, raw materials, generally including kaolinite, in a kiln to temperatures between . The greater strength and translucence of porcelain, relative to oth ...

textile Textile is an Hyponymy and hypernymy, umbrella term that includes various Fiber, fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, Staple (textiles)#Filament fiber, filaments, Thread (yarn), threads, and different types of #Fabric, fabric. ...

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art which was traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical pieces are intended to han ...

, clocks and costumes, and objects of local historical interest. Some early works of

Émile Gallé Émile Gallé (; 4 May 1846 in Nancy, France, Nancy – 23 September 1904 in Nancy) was a French artist and designer who worked in glass, and is considered to be one of the major innovators in the French Art Nouveau movement. He was noted fo ...

were commissioned by Coffin-Chevallier. A popular showpiece is a life-size eighteenth-century Silver Swan

automaton An automaton (; : automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers i ...

, which periodically preens itself, looks round and appears to catch and swallow a fish.

History

The Bowes Museum was purpose-built as a public art gallery for

and his wife Joséphine Benoîte Coffin-Chevallier, Countess of

Montalbo Montalbo is a municipality in the province of Cuenca, part of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha, in the country of Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territo ...

, who both died before it opened in 1892. Bowes was the son of

, the 10th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, although he did not inherit the title as he was deemed illegitimate under Scottish law. His grandmother was

Mary Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne Mary Eleanor Bowes, Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne (24 February 1749 – 28 April 1800) was a notable member of the British aristocracy during the Georgian period in the 18th century. Referred to by some as "The Unhappy Countess", she w ...

. It was designed with the collaboration of two architects, the French architect Jules Pellechet and John Edward Watson of

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

. The building is richly modelled, with large windows, engaged columns, projecting bays, and mansard roofs typical of the

French Second Empire The Second French Empire, officially the French Empire, was the government of France from 1852 to 1870. It was established on 2 December 1852 by Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, president of France under the French Second Republic, who proclaimed hi ...

, set within landscaped gardens. An account in 1901 described it as "... some 500 feet in length by 50 feet high, and is designed in the French style of the First Empire. Its contents are priceless, consisting of unique Napoleon relics, splendid picture galleries, a collection of old china, not to be matched anywhere else in the world, jewels of incredible beauty and value; and, indeed, a wonderful and rare collection of art objects of every kind." A less favourable opinion was expressed by

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

, who considered it to be "... big, bold and incongruous, looking exactly like the town hall of a major provincial town in France. In scale it is just as gloriously inappropriate for the town to which it belongs (and to which it gives some international fame) as in style". Construction on the building began in 1869; Bowes and his wife left an endowment and 800 paintings. Their collection of European fine and decorative arts amounted to 15,000 pieces. Olivia Boteler Porter before and after restoration

Olivia Boteler Porter before and after restoration

A major redevelopment of the Bowes Museum began in 2005, including new galleries (Fashion & Textiles, Silver and English Interiors) and study/learning facilities. The three art galleries on the second floor were updated at the same time. The museum holds temporary exhibitions, and has shown works by

Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...

Sisley Alfred Sisley (; ; 30 October 1839 – 29 January 1899) was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedica ...

, Gallé,

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...

, and

Toulouse-Lautrec ''Comte'' Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901), known as Toulouse-Lautrec (), was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist, and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful an ...

. The BBC announced in 2013 that a ''

Portrait of Olivia Porter The ''Portrait of Olivia Porter'' is an oil painting on canvas by Anthony van Dyck, showing Olivia, Lady Porter, the wife of Sir Endymion Porter, daughter of John Boteler, 1st Baron Boteler of Bramfield, and niece of the Duke of Buckingham, a ze ...

'' was a previously unknown

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (; ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of ...

painting. It had been found in the Bowes Museum storeroom by art historian Dr.

Bendor Grosvenor Bendor Gerard Robert Grosvenor (born 27 November 1977) is a British art historian, writer and former art dealer. He is known for discovering a number of important lost artworks by Old Master artists, including Sir Peter Paul Rubens, Claude Lorr ...

who had observed it on-line at the

Your Paintings Art UK is a cultural, education charity in the United Kingdom, previously known as the Public Catalogue Foundation. Since 2003, it has digitised more than 300,000 paintings, sculptures and other artworks by more than 53,700 artists. It was found ...

web site. The painting itself was covered in layers of varnish and dirt, and had not been renovated. It was originally thought to be a copy, and valued at between £3,000 to £5,000. Christopher Brown, director of the

Ashmolean Museum The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on Beaumont Street in Oxford, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that Elias Ashmole gave to the University ...

, confirmed it was a van Dyck after it had been restored. File:Gheeraerts Portrait of a Lady.jpg, Attributed to

Marcus Gheeraerts the Younger Marcus Gheeraerts (also written as Gerards or Geerards; 1561/62 – 19 January 1636) was a Flemish artist working at the Tudor court, described as "the most important artist of quality to work in England in large-scale between Eworth and van ...

, ''Portrait of a Lady (unknown date) File:Anselm van Hulle - Family Portrait Group.jpg,

Anselm van Hulle Anselm van Hulle or Anselmus van Hulle (Ghent, Gent, 1601 - 1674/1694) was a Southern Netherlands, Flemish painter mainly of portraits whose works were highly prized at the Northern European Courts. He was court painter to the Prince of Orange a ...

, ''Family Portrait Group'' (1640–1650) File:Coello - Mariana of Austria as a Widow.jpg,

Claudio Coello Claudio Coello (2 March 1642 – 20 April 1693) was a Spanish-Portuguese Baroque painter. Coello is considered the last great Spanish painter of the 17th century. The son of Faustino Coello, a famous Portuguese sculptor, he was a court painter ...

, ''La reina madre doña Mariana de Austria'', circa 1687 File:Corrado Giaquinto - Venus Presenting Arms to Aeneas - WGA08968.jpg,

Corrado Giaquinto Corrado Giaquinto (8 February 1703 – 18 April 1766) was an Italian Rococo painter. Early training and move to Rome He was born in Molfetta. As a boy he apprenticed with a modest local painter Saverio Porta, (c. 1667–1725), escaping the r ...

, ''Venus Presenting Arms to Aeneas'', 1750 File:Pietro Ottoboni by Francesco Trevisani.jpg,

Francesco Trevisani 200px, ''Portrait of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni ''by Francesco Trevisani. The Barnard_Castle.html" ;"title="Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle">Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham, England. Francesco Trevisani (April 9, 1656 – July 30, 1746 ...

, ''Portrait of Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni'', 1700

Financial activities

The museum is a registered charity. During the financial year of 2023–2024, it raised approx. £4.3 million and had expenditure of approx. £3.3 million. The museum is also active in retail sales and restaurant facilities. In April 2025, the 75-year old Friends of Bowes Museum announced that it would cease operations, citing falling museum attendance, reduced income, and a lack of volunteers.https://www.museumsassociation.org/museums-journal/news/2025/04/friends-of-the-bowes-museum-group-to-close-after-75-years/

References

External links

*
Bowes Museum paintings
at VADS
The Bowes Museum at Google Cultural Institute
{{Authority control Art museums and galleries in County Durham Museums in County Durham Decorative arts museums in England Second Empire architecture Grade I listed buildings in County Durham Former private collections in the United Kingdom Fashion museums in the United Kingdom Art museums and galleries established in 1892 1892 establishments in England Barnard Castle

History

Financial activities

Further reading

References

External links