Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford

Don’t miss a visit to the Christ Church Picture Gallery which is to be found in the Deanery Gardens.

This gallery was built in 1968 by Philip Powell and Hidalgo Moya, especially so that the magnificent art collection could be viewed by the public. It is one of the most important privately owned collections of Old Masters in the United Kingdom.

The collection was in the main part bequeathed to the University by General John Guise. Later donations were made by the British diplomat William Fox-Strangeways, Christopher Patterson, Walter Landor and Sir Richard Nosworthy.

Among the 300 Old Masters, which are mostly 14th to 18th century Italian art, you will see fine examples by Tintoretto, Giovanni de Prado, Annibale Carracci, Duccio and Van Dyck. There is also an important collection of 14th century religious panels.

The gallery also boasts of over 2000 drawings by da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Peter Paul Rubens. These drawings are displayed in small rotating exhibitions, so not all of them can be seen together at any one time.

The gallery also holds temporary exhibitions of works by modern artists such as Jeff Clarke and Karen Forsyth. Other temporary exhibitions include photographic art and print-making techniques by the Oxford Printmakers’ Cooperative.