Royal Collection Paintings on Loan to the Holburne Museum, Bath

After retiring early from business, and with a long interest in the arts, I was invited to join the board of trustees of the Holburne Museum in 1999.

The museum, with its fine collection, was desperately short of finance and was on the point of closing. Shortly after my appointment, the chairman resigned and I was appointed to that position, raised finance to stabilise the museum in the short term, appointed a new director, and with a Lottery Grant made plans for the long term future secured by major private finance, which culminated in the re-opening of the new Holburne in 2011.

After 13 years I stood down from the Board in 2012. We had created one of the finest regional museums in Britain, with new and outstanding displays bringing a knowledge and appreciation of art to all members of society and importantly, free to enter.

Now, as a local resident in the Wincanton area, I would like to tell you about the many attractions the museum holds for a family visit.

Rembrandt and his Contemporaries: Paintings from the Royal Collection
Wednesday 22 May to Sunday 29 September 2013

This ravishing exhibition, featuring paintings generously lent by Her Majesty The Queen from the Royal Collection, includes many masterpieces such as Rembrandt's famous image of an old woman, almost certainly his mother, Dutch landscapes by Ruisdael, van der Heyden and Hobbema, a beautifully restrained still life by Willem C. Heda and characteristic genre scenes by Jan Steen and De Hooch among others, including Dou's jewel-like scene of a young girl chopping onions.

Dutch and Flemish artists of the seventeenth century revolutionised painting, looking at the world in new ways and developing new subjects and genres. The exhibition will explore these developments, for example contrasting Rembrandt's deliberately mundane and matter of fact image of Christ appearing to Mary Magdalen with Rubens's magnificent Assumption of the Virgin.

The exhibition finds its perfect home at the Holburne Museum. Its founding collection, assembled in the middle years of the nineteenth century, was so influenced by George IV, who was responsible for acquiring most of the paintings in the exhibition. His taste for seventeenth century Dutch and Flemish works was of such importance in establishing the national taste for these paintings, which we celebrate in the 60th year since Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II's, coronation.

The Royal Collection, one of the world's greatest art collections, is held in trust by The Queen for her successors and the nation. The collection is administered by The Royal Collection Trust, a registered charity. To learn more about the Royal Collection go to: www.royalcollection.org.uk.

The Holburne Museum houses an important art collection formed by Sir William Holburne in the nineteenth-century, which includes paintings, silver, sculpture, furniture and porcelain of national and international significance. Artists in the collection include Gainsborough, Guardi, Stubbs, Ramsay and Zoffany.

The Museum reopened in May 2011 after ambitious renovations and a new extension by Eric Parry Architects. The Holburne has fast gained a reputation as one of a number of outstanding regional museums in the UK.

• Winner of the Museums & Heritage Award for the re-display of the permanent collection.
• Winner of RIBA Building of the Year, south west.
• Winner of the Civic Trust's Michael Middleton Special Award for a restoration/extension project within a conservation area.

The Holburne Museum, Great Pulteney Street, Bath BA2 4DB

Open daily, free admission 10.00am to 5.00pm (11.00am to 5.00pm Sundays and Bank Holidays)
Exhibition Admission £6.95 / Concessions

Tel: 01225 388569 email: website: www.holburne.org.

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