The Wilson, Cheltenham’s Art Gallery & Museum, is proud to announce a major new exhibition celebrating the Wilson’s rich painting collection. Opening Spring 2026, The Art of Looking: from Dutch Masters to Modern Britain presents the museum’s historic Dutch masters and 20th century painting collection in a bold new display.
The Art of Looking invites visitors to explore how art, identity, and creative ambition transformed across centuries of dramatic social change. The re display of the Wilson Collection highlights invites our audiences to rediscover the de Ferrières Collection not as a static historical legacy, but as a living foundation for understanding the evolution of artistic development, technique, and cultural identity-through this important collection of paintings.
The de Ferrières collection at the Wilson Art Gallery and Museum consists of 43 paintings gifted to Cheltenham in 1898 by Baron Charles de Ferrières, a philanthropist who settled in the town. His gift was transformative: it became one of the earliest and most substantial foundations of Cheltenham’s public art holdings, helping to establish the town’s cultural identity at the turn of the 20th century. It represents a rare and focussed collection of continental art from this period, featuring masters like Gerrit Dou, Gabriel Metsu and Jan Steen, alongside significant 19th century Belgian works.
By contrast, our second-floor gallery will present a curated selection of 20th century artworks revealing a world transformed by war, industrialisation, global exchange, and new ideas about the self. Work by leading British and international artists such as Stanley Spencer, Graham Sutherland, Vanessa Bell, Duncan Grant, Lynn Chadwick and many others will be on view, showcasing the extraordinary breadth of modern British art in the collection, alongside international voices.
Through carefully designed seating, interpretive prompts, and a rich, atmospheric display, The Art of Looking encourages viewers to take a slow looking approach in the galleries. In a world of constant speed and distraction, the exhibition creates space for sustained attention, through an environment designed for lingering and discovery, the display encourages a deeper engagement with the works, revealing layers of meaning that unfold through time.
Image caption: The Fat Kitchen c. 1650-1655 by Jan Steen (attributed to). Wilson Art Gallery and Museum Collection.
