The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology () on

Beaumont Street Beaumont Street is a street in the centre of Oxford, England. The street was laid out from 1828 to 1837 with elegant terraced houses in the Regency style. Before that, it was the location of Beaumont Palace, now noted by a plaque near the j ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, England, is Britain's first public museum. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house the cabinet of curiosities that

Elias Ashmole Elias Ashmole (; 23 May 1617 – 18 May 1692) was an English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II he ...

gave to the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

in 1677. It is also the world's second university museum, after the establishment of the

Kunstmuseum Basel The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art in Switzerland. It is listed as a heritage site of national significance. Its lineage extends back to ...

in 1661 by the

University of Basel The University of Basel (Latin: ''Universitas Basiliensis'', German: ''Universität Basel'') is a university in Basel, Switzerland. Founded on 4 April 1460, it is Switzerland's oldest university and among the world's oldest surviving universit ...

. The present building was built between 1841 and 1845. The museum reopened in 2009 after a major redevelopment, and in November 2011, new galleries focusing on

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

and

Nubia Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...

were unveiled. In May 2016, the museum also opened redisplayed galleries of 19th-century art.

History

Broad Street

The museum opened on 24 May 1683, with naturalist

Robert Plot Robert Plot (13 December 1640 – 30 April 1696) was an English naturalist, first Professor of Chemistry at the University of Oxford, and the first keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. Early life and education Born in Borden, Kent to parents Robe ...

as the first keeper. The building on Broad Street (later known as the

Old Ashmolean The History of Science Museum in Broad Street, Oxford, Broad Street, Oxford, England, holds a leading collection of scientific instruments from Science in the Middle Ages, Middle Ages to the 19th century. The museum building is also known as the ...

) is sometimes attributed to

Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren PRS FRS (; – ) was one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history, as well as an anatomist, astronomer, geometer, and mathematician-physicist. He was accorded responsibility for rebuilding 52 churches ...

or Thomas Wood.

had acquired the collection from the gardeners, travellers, and collectors

John Tradescant the Elder John Tradescant the Elder (; c. 1570s – 15–16 April 1638), father of John Tradescant the Younger, was an English naturalist, gardener, collector and traveller. On 18 June 1607 he married Elizabeth Day of Meopham in Kent, England. She had been ...

and his son,

John Tradescant the Younger John Tradescant the Younger (; 4 August 1608 – 22 April 1662), son of John Tradescant the Elder, was a botanist and gardener. The standard author abbreviation Trad. is applied to species he described. Biography Son of John Tradescant th ...

. It included antique coins, books, engravings, geological specimens, and zoological specimens—one of which was the stuffed body of the last

dodo The dodo (''Raphus cucullatus'') is an extinct flightless bird that was endemic to the island of Mauritius, which is east of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean. The dodo's closest genetic relative was the also-extinct Rodrigues solitaire. The ...

ever seen in Europe; but by 1755 the stuffed dodo was so moth-eaten that it was destroyed, except for its head and one claw.

Beaumont Street

The present building dates from 1841 to 1845. It was designed as the University Galleries by Charles Cockerell in a classical style and stands on Beaumont Street. One wing of the building is occupied by the

Taylor Institution The Taylor Institution (commonly known as the Taylorian) is the Oxford University library dedicated to the study of the languages of Europe. Its building also includes lecture rooms used by the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages, Univ ...

, the modern languages faculty of the university, standing on the corner of Beaumont Street and St Giles' Street. This wing of the building was also designed by Charles Cockerell, using the Ionic order of Greek architecture.

Sir Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Based on ...

, who was appointed keeper in 1884 and retired in 1908, is largely responsible for the current museum. Evans found that the Keeper and the Vice-Chancellor ( Prof Benjamin Jowett) had managed to lose half of the Ashmole collection and had converted the original building into the Examination Rooms.

Charles Drury Edward Fortnum Charles Drury Edward Fortnum (1820–1899), often known as C. Drury E. Fortnum, was an English art collector and historian, known as a benefactor of the University of Oxford. Life Born on 2 March 1820, Fortnum was the surviving son of Charles For ...

had offered to donate his personal collection of antiques on condition that the museum was put on a sound footing. A donation of £10,000 from Fortnum (£ as of ) enabled Evans to build an extension to the University Galleries and move the Ashmolean collection there in 1894. In 1908, the Ashmolean and the University Galleries were combined as the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. The museum became a depository for some of the important archaeological finds from Evans' excavations in Crete. After the various specimens had been moved into new museums, the "Old Ashmolean" building was used as office space for the ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...

''. Since 1924, the building has been established as the

Museum of the History of Science The History of Science Museum in Broad Street, Oxford, England, holds a leading collection of scientific instruments from Middle Ages to the 19th century. The museum building is also known as the Old Ashmolean Building to distinguish it from th ...

, with exhibitions including the scientific instruments given to Oxford University by Lewis Evans, amongst them the world's largest collection of astrolabes. Charles Buller Heberden left £1,000 (£ as of ) to the university in 1921, which was used for the Coin Room at the museum. In 2012, the Ashmolean was awarded a grant of $1.1m by the

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation of New York City in the United States, simply known as Mellon Foundation, is a private foundation with five core areas of interest, and endowed with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pitts ...

to establish the University Engagement Programme or UEP. The programme employs three teaching curators and a programme director to develop the use of the museum's collections in the teaching and research of the university.

Renovations

The interior of the Ashmolean has been extensively modernised in recent years and now includes a restaurant and large gift shop. In 2000, the Chinese Picture Gallery, designed by

van Heyningen and Haward Architects van Heyningen and Haward is an architectural practice, founded in 1983 by Birkin Haward and Joanna van Heyningen, and now owned and managed by James McCosh and Meryl Townley. The London architects work primarily in education, and have also work ...

, opened at the entrance of the Ashmolean and is partly integrated into the structure. It was inserted into a lightwell in the Grade 1 listed building, and was designed to support future construction from its roof. Apart from the original Cockerell spaces, this gallery was the only part of the museum retained in the rebuilding. The gallery houses the Ashmolean's own collection and is also used from time to time for the display of loan exhibitions and works by contemporary Chinese artists. It is the only museum gallery in Britain devoted to Chinese paintings. The

Sackler Library The Sackler Library holds a large portion of the classical, art historical, and archaeological works belonging to the University of Oxford, England. History The Sackler Library building was completed in 2001 and opened on 24 September of tha ...

, incorporating the older library collections of the Ashmolean, opened in 2001 and has allowed an expansion of the book collection, which concentrates on classical civilization, archaeology and art history. Between 2006 and 2009, the museum was expanded to the designs of architect

Rick Mather Rick Mather (May 30, 1937 – April 20, 2013) was an American-born architect working in England. Born in Portland, Oregon and awarded a B.arch. at the University of Oregon in 1961, he came to London in 1963 and worked at the architectural firm L ...

and the exhibition design company

Metaphor A metaphor is a figure of speech that, for rhetorical effect, directly refers to one thing by mentioning another. It may provide (or obscure) clarity or identify hidden similarities between two different ideas. Metaphors are often compared wi ...

, supported by the

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

. The $98.2 million rebuilding resulted in five floors instead of three, with a doubling of the display space, as well as new conservation studios and an education centre. The renovated museum re-opened on 7 November 2009. On 26 November 2011, the Ashmolean opened to the public the new galleries of Ancient Egypt and

. This second phase of major redevelopment now allows the museum to exhibit objects that have been in storage for decades, more than doubling the number of coffins and mummies on display. The project received lead support from Lord Sainsbury's Linbury Trust, along with the Selz Foundation, Mr Christian Levett, as well as other trusts, foundations, and individuals. Rick Mather Architects led the redesign and display of the four previous Egypt galleries and the extension to the restored Ruskin Gallery, previously occupied by the museum shop. In May 2016, the museum opened new galleries dedicated to the display of its collection of Victorian art. This development allowed for the return to the Ashmolean of the

Great Bookcase The Great Bookcase is a large piece of painted furniture designed by the English architect and designer William Burges.Dakers 1999, p. 175. The bookcase is high and wide. It has been described as "the most important example of Victorian painte ...

, designed by

William Burges William Burges (; 2 December 1827 – 20 April 1881) was an English architect and designer. Among the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, he sought in his work to escape from both nineteenth-century industrialisation and the Neoc ...

, and described as "the most important example of Victorian painted furniture ever made.".

Collections

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Rive des Esclavons

The main museum contains huge collections of archaeological specimens and fine art. It has one of the best collections of

Pre-Raphaelite The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Michael Rossetti, James ...

paintings,

majolica In different periods of time and in different countries, the term ''majolica'' has been used for two distinct types of pottery. Firstly, from the mid-15th century onwards, was ''maiolica'', a type of pottery reaching Italy from Spain, Majorca a ...

pottery, and English silver. The archaeology department includes the bequest of

Arthur Evans Sir Arthur John Evans (8 July 1851 – 11 July 1941) was a British archaeologist and pioneer in the study of Aegean civilization in the Bronze Age. He is most famous for unearthing the palace of Knossos on the Greek island of Crete. Based on ...

and so has an excellent collection of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

and

Minoan The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...

pottery. The department also has an extensive collection of antiquities from Ancient Egypt and the Sudan, and the museum hosts the

Griffith Institute The Griffith Institute is an Egyptological institution based in the Griffith Wing of the Sackler Library and is part of the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford, England. It was founded for the advancement of Egyptology and Ancient N ...

for the advancement of

Egyptology Egyptology (from ''Egypt'' and Greek , ''-logia''; ar, علم المصريات) is the study of ancient Egyptian history, language, literature, religion, architecture and art from the 5th millennium BC until the end of its native religious p ...

. Highlights of the Ashmolean's collection include: * Drawings by Michelangelo,

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

and

Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially res ...

* Paintings by

Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

, Giambattista Pittoni,

Paolo Uccello Paolo Uccello ( , ; 1397 – 10 December 1475), born Paolo di Dono, was an Italian (Florentine) painter and mathematician who was notable for his pioneering work on visual perspective in art. In his book ''Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, S ...

, Anthony van Dyck,

Peter Paul Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradi ...

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically d ...

, John Constable,

Titian Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, nea ...

, Claude Lorrain,

Samuel Palmer Samuel Palmer Hon.RE (Hon. Fellow of the Society of Painter-Etchers) (27 January 180524 May 1881) was a British landscape painter, etcher and printmaker. He was also a prolific writer. Palmer was a key figure in Romanticism in Britain and pr ...

, John Singer Sargent,

Piero di Cosimo Piero di Cosimo (2 January 1462 – 12 April 1522), also known as Piero di Lorenzo, was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. He is most famous for the mythological and allegorical subjects he painted in the late Quattrocento; he is said to ...

William Holman Hunt William Holman Hunt (2 April 1827 – 7 September 1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolis ...

, and

Edward Burne-Jones Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 1st Baronet, (; 28 August, 183317 June, 1898) was a British painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Millais, Ford Madox Brown and Holman ...

* The Alfred Jewel * Watercolours and paintings by J. M. W. Turner * The

Messiah Stradivarius The ''Messiah - Salabue Stradivarius'' of 1716 is a violin made by the Italian luthier Antonio Stradivari of Cremona. It is considered to be the only Stradivarius in existence in ''as new'' state. It is in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum i ...

, a violin made by

Antonio Stradivari Antonio Stradivari (, also , ; – 18 December 1737) was an Italian luthier and a craftsman of string instruments such as violins, cellos, guitars, violas and harps. The Latinized form of his surname, '' Stradivarius'', as well as the collo ...

* The Daisy Linda Ward bequest in 1939 of 96 still life paintings, including works by

Clara Peeters Clara Peeters (active 1607–1621) was a Flemish still-life painter from Antwerp who worked in both the Spanish Netherlands and Dutch Republic. Peeters is the best-known female Flemish artist of this era and one of the few women artists work ...

, Adriaen Coorte, and

Rachel Ruysch Rachel Ruysch (3 June 1664 – 12 October 1750) was a Dutch still-life painter from the Northern Netherlands. She specialized in flowers, inventing her own style and achieving international fame in her lifetime. Due to a long and successful caree ...

* The Pissarro Family Archive, donated in the 1950s to the Ashmolean, consisting of paintings, prints, drawings, books, and letters by Camille Pissarro,

Lucien Pissarro Lucien Pissarro (20 February 1863 – 10 July 1944) was a landscape painter, printmaker, wood engraver and designer and printer of fine books. His landscape paintings employ techniques of Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, but he also exhi ...

, Orovida Camille Pissarro, and other members of the Pissarro family * Arab ceremonial dress owned by

Lawrence of Arabia Thomas Edward Lawrence (16 August 1888 – 19 May 1935) was a British archaeologist, army officer, diplomat, and writer who became renowned for his role in the Arab Revolt (1916–1918) and the Sinai and Palestine Campaign (1915–191 ...

* A death mask of

Oliver Cromwell Oliver Cromwell (25 April 15993 September 1658) was an English politician and military officer who is widely regarded as one of the most important statesmen in English history. He came to prominence during the 1639 to 1651 Wars of the Three K ...

* The

Crondall hoard The Crondall Hoard is a hoard of coins and other articles that was found in the village of Crondall in the English county of Hampshire. The hoard was discovered in 1828 and is believed to date to the seventh century. It was the largest hoard of A ...

, a rare set of Anglo-Saxon gold coins discovered in 1828 * A substantial number of

Oxyrhynchus Papyri The Oxyrhynchus Papyri are a group of manuscripts discovered during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by papyrologists Bernard Pyne Grenfell and Arthur Surridge Hunt at an ancient rubbish dump near Oxyrhynchus in Egypt (, mo ...

, including Old and

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

biblical manuscripts A biblical manuscript is any handwritten copy of a portion of the text of the Bible. Biblical manuscripts vary in size from tiny scrolls containing individual verses of the Jewish scriptures (see ''Tefillin'') to huge polyglot codices (multi-ling ...

* Over 30 pieces of Late Roman

gold glass Gold glass or gold sandwich glass is a luxury form of glass where a decorative design in gold leaf is fused between two layers of glass. First found in Hellenistic Greece, it is especially characteristic of the Roman glass of the Late Empire ...

roundels from the

Catacombs of Rome The Catacombs of Rome ( it, Catacombe di Roma) are ancient catacombs, underground burial places in and around Rome, of which there are at least forty, some rediscovered only in recent decades. Though most famous for Christian burials, either ...

, the 3rd largest collection after the Vatican and British Museum. * A collection of

Posie ring Posie rings (sometimes spelled posy, posey or poesy rings) are gold finger rings with a short inscription on their surface. They were popular during the 15th through the 17th centuries in both England and France as lovers' gifts. The language use ...

s. * An extensive collection of antiquities from Prehistoric Egypt and the succeeding

Early Dynastic Period of Egypt The Early Dynastic Period or Archaic Period, also known as the Thinite Period (from Thinis, the supposed hometown of its rulers), is the era of ancient Egypt that immediately follows the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt in . It is generall ...

* The

Parian Marble Parian marble is a fine-grained semi translucent pure-white and entirely flawless marble quarried during the classical era on the Greek island of Paros in the Aegean Sea. It was highly prized by ancient Greeks for making sculptures. Some of the ...

, the earliest extant example of a Greek chronological table * The Metrological Relief, showing

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic p ...

measurements * The ceremonial cloak of

Chief Powhatan Powhatan ( c. 1547 – c. 1618), whose proper name was Wahunsenacawh (alternately spelled Wahunsenacah, Wahunsunacock or Wahunsonacock), was the leader of the Powhatan, an alliance of Algonquian-speaking Native Americans living in Tsenacommaca ...

* The lantern that

Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sough ...

conspirator

Guy Fawkes Guy Fawkes (; 13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605. He was born and educated ...

carried in 1605 * The

collection of

, the biggest outside

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, ...

* The

Narmer Macehead The Narmer macehead is an ancient Egyptian decorative stone mace head. It was found in the “main deposit” in the temple area of the ancient Egyptian city of Nekhen ( Hierakonpolis) by James Quibell in 1898. It is dated to the Early Dynastic ...

and

Scorpion Macehead The Scorpion macehead (also known as the ''Major Scorpion macehead'') is a decorated ancient Egyptian mace (bludgeon), macehead found by United Kingdom, British archeologists James E. Quibell and Frederick W. Green (Egyptologist), Frederick W. Gr ...

* The

Kish tablet The Kish tablet is a limestone tablet found at the site of the ancient Sumerian city of Kish in modern-day Tell al-Uhaymir, Babil Governorate, Iraq. A plaster-cast of the artifact is today in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum. The origi ...

*The Sumerian Kings List * The Abingdon Sword, an Anglo-Saxon sword found at Abingdon south of Oxford * The Dalboki hoard of Thracian artefacts, central Bulgaria * The Scythian antiquities from Nymphaeum, Crimea Recent major bequests and acquisitions include: * In 2017 the museum acquired a group portrait by

William Dobson William Dobson (4 March 1611 (baptised); 28 October 1646 (buried)) was a portraitist and one of the first significant English painters, praised by his contemporary John Aubrey as "''the most excellent painter that England has yet bred''". He ...

painted in Oxford around 1645, during the

English Civil War The English Civil War (1642–1651) was a series of civil wars and political machinations between Parliamentarians (" Roundheads") and Royalists led by Charles I ("Cavaliers"), mainly over the manner of England's governance and issues of re ...

. The group in the painting are Prince Rupert, Colonel William Legge (Governor of Oxford) and Colonel John Russell (commander of the prince's elite Blue Coats). The painting was acquired for the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, administered by Arts Council England. * In 2017 the museum acquired a

Viking Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...

hoard that was discovered near Watlington in South Oxfordshire in 2015. It is the first large Viking hoard discovered in Oxfordshire, which once lay on the border of

Wessex la, Regnum Occidentalium Saxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the West Saxons , common_name = Wessex , image_map = Southern British Isles 9th century.svg , map_caption = S ...

and

Mercia la, Merciorum regnum , conventional_long_name=Kingdom of Mercia , common_name=Mercia , status=Kingdom , status_text=Independent kingdom (527–879) Client state of Wessex () , life_span=527–918 , era= Heptarchy , event_start= , date_start= , ...

. The hoard contains over 200 Anglo-Saxon coins, including many examples of previously rare coins of Alfred the Great, King of Wessex (871–899) and his less well-known contemporary, King Ceolwulf II of Mercia (874–879). * In 2015 the Ashmolean raised the money needed to acquire a major painting by J. M. W. Turner. With lead support from the

, a grant from the Art Fund, and a public appeal, the fundraising target was met to secure Turner's only full-size townscape in oils: ''The High Street, Oxford'' (1810). The painting was accepted by the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme. * In October 2014 the Ashmolean acquired a painting by John Constable titled ''Willy Lott's House from the Stour'' (The Valley Farm). The painting was accepted by the nation through the Acceptance in Lieu scheme. The farm building depicted in the painting is also seen from a different angle in ''

The Hay Wain ''The Hay Wain'' – originally titled ''Landscape: Noon'' – is a painting by John Constable, completed in 1821, which depicts a rural scene on the River Stour between the English counties of Suffolk and Essex. It hangs in the National Galler ...

'', painted 1821 and now at the

National Gallery The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director ...

. * In October 2014 the Ashmolean acquired a collection of historic English embroideries which was given to the museum by collectors Micheál and Elizabeth Feller. The gift comprises 61 pieces which span the whole of the seventeenth century. * In late 2013, art historian and collector Michael Sullivan bequeathed his collection of more than 400 works of art to the museum. The collection, which includes paintings by Chinese masters

Qi Baishi Qi Baishi (1 January 1864 – 16 September 1957) was a Chinese painter, noted for the whimsical, often playful style of his works. Born to a peasant family from Xiangtan, Hunan, Qi taught himself to paint, sparked by the Manual of the Musta ...

Zhang Daqian Chang Dai-chien or Zhang Daqian (; 10 May 1899 – 2 April 1983) was one of the best-known and most prodigious Chinese artists of the twentieth century. Originally known as a '' guohua'' (traditionalist) painter, by the 1960s he was also renowned ...

, and Wu Guanzhong, was considered one of the world's most significant collections of modern Chinese art. The museum has a gallery dedicated to Sullivan and his wife Khoan. * In 2013 the museum was given the sculpture ''Taichi Arch'' by Taiwanese artist

Ju Ming use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = , death_cause = , body_discovered = , resting_place = , resting_place_coordinates ...

, which was installed on the museum's main forecourt. It was given to the museum by the Juming Culture and Education Foundation in memory of art historian and collector Michael Sullivan. * In 2012 the museum was left a 500-piece collection of gold and silver

objets d'art In art history, the French term Objet d’art describes an ornamental work of art, and the term Objets d’art describes a range of works of art, usually small and three-dimensional, made of high-quality materials, and a finely-rendered finish th ...

, including many pieces of Renaissance silverware, assembled by the antique dealer Michael Welby. * In 2012 the museum acquired

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Bo ...

's ''Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus'', painted in 1868, after a public campaign to raise £7.83million while a temporary export bar was placed on it by the RCEWA The campaign received £5.9m from the

, and a grant of £850,000 from

The Art Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for many gifts and bequests, as ...

Collections gallery

File:BrightonPierrotsWalterSickert.jpg, ''The Brighton Pierrots'', 1915, by

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

File:Alfred Jewel Ashmolean 2014.JPG, The Alfred Jewel File:Edward Burne-Jones, ‘Music’, 1877. Oil on canvas.jpg, ''Music'', 1877, by

File:Ceremonial Palette from Hierakonpolis-2.jpg, The "Two Dog Palette" from

Hierakonpolis Nekhen ( egy, nḫn, ); in grc, Ἱεράκων πόλις Hierakonpolis ( either: City of the Hawk, or City of the Falcon, a reference to Horus or ''Hierakōn polis'' "Hawk City" in arz, الكوم الأحمر, el-Kōm el-Aḥmar, lit=the ...

File:Messiah Stradivarius.jpg, The

violin File:Edouard Manet - Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus.jpg, ''Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus'', by

File:Narmer Macehead.png, The

File:Raffaello, studio per la trasfigurazione 02.jpg, ''Studies of the Heads of two Apostles and of their Hands'', by

File:Paolo Uccello - The Hunt in the Forest - WGA23239.jpg, '' The Hunt in the Forest'' by

File:Sobek Oxford.jpg, Statue of

Sobek Sobek (also called Sebek or Sobki, cop, Ⲥⲟⲩⲕ, Souk) was an ancient Egyptian deity with a complex and elastic history and nature. He is associated with the Nile crocodile or the West African crocodile and is represented either in its f ...

, the crocodile god, from the pyramid temple of Amenemhat III File:Leighton, Frederic - Acme and Septimius - c. 1868.jpg, ''Acme and Septimius'', c. 1868, by

Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and classical subjec ...

File:The Sumerian King List, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.jpg, The Sumerian Kings List, dating to approximately 1800 BC File:0 Gemma Tiberiana - Rubens - Ashmolean Museum - WA1989.74.JPG, The ''Apotheosis of Germanicus'', a copy after an antique Cameo painted in 1626 by

File:Oliver Cromwell death mask- Ashmolean Museum.jpg, A death mask of

File:Millais - Die Rückkehr der Taube zur Arche Noah.jpg, ''

The Return of the Dove to the Ark ''The Return of the Dove to the Ark'' is a painting by Sir John Everett Millais, completed in 1851. It is in the Thomas Combe collection at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. The painting portrays a scene from the Bible. Two of Wives aboard Noah's ...

'', 1851, by Sir

John Everett Millais Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, ( , ; 8 June 1829 – 13 August 1896) was an English painter and illustrator who was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He was a child prodigy who, aged eleven, became the youngest ...

File:Tragic mask dating to the 1st century BC or 1st century AD, Ashmolean Museum (8400677139).jpg, A Greek tragic mask dating to the 1st century BC or 1st century AD. File:Jeanne Holding a Fan, c.1874, by Camille Pissarro. Oil on canvas, The Ashmolean Museum,.jpg, ''Jeanne Holding a Fan'', an oil on canvas painting by Camille Pissarro, c.1874 File:Heilige Familie mit dem Johannesknaben (Ashmolean Museum).jpg, ''The Holy Family with St John the Baptist'', brush and brown wash on panel by Michelangelo File:Tombstone, the doctor Claudius Agathemerus and his wife Myrtale, from Rome, about AD 100, Ashmolean Museum (8401778336).jpg, Tombstone, the doctor Claudius Agathemerus and his wife Myrtale, from Rome, about AD 100 File:Millais Ruskin.jpg, ''Portrait of

John Ruskin John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English writer, philosopher, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and pol ...

'' by

File:Powhatan's mantle, lithography 1888.jpg, The Mantle of

, dating to the 17th century File:Abingdon Sword 2014.JPG, The Abingdon Sword, dating from the late 9th or early 10th century File:Paolo uccello, annunciazione, ashmolean.jpg, ''The Annunciation'', attributed to

File:Van Gogh - Das Restaurant de la Sirène in Asnières.jpeg, ''Restaurant de la Sirène, Asnières'', by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. In a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, inc ...

File:Pierre-Auguste Renoir 029.jpg, ''A Garden in Montmartre'' by Pierre-Auguste Renoir File:Young Englishwoman, costume study by Hans Holbein the Younger.jpg, ''Young Englishwoman'', a costume study by Hans Holbein the Younger File:Samuel Palmer - Self-Portrait - WGA16951.jpg, A ''self-portrait'' by

File:Domitianus II obverse ashmolean (edited).JPG, A coin of Domitianus II File:Ashmolean Museum (8401780654).jpg, Egyptian Mummy Portrait File:Pinturicchio Virgen con niño Ashmolean Museum.jpg, ''The Virgin and Child'', by Bernardino Pintoricchio File:Cycladic figurine female, 2800–2300 BC, AshmoleanM, AE 178, 142426.jpg, Early

Bronze Age The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second prin ...

Cycladic art The ancient Cycladic culture flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea from c. 3300 to 1100 BCE. Along with the Minoan civilization and Mycenaean Greece, the Cycladic people are counted among the three major Aegean cultures. Cycladic art there ...

figurine, 2800–2300 BC. File:Tableta con trillo.png, The

File:Guyfawkeslantern.jpg,

' Lantern, London, England c. 1605 Iron and horn

Arundel Marbles

Image:So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614 MH.jpg, So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614 Image:Closeup of So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614 MH.jpg, So-called Cicero excavated by the Earl of Arundel in Rome between 1613 and 1614 Image:Man wearing a toga excavated in Rome 1613-1614 and later given the name "Caius Marius" MH.jpg, Man wearing a toga excavated in Rome 1613-1614 and later given the name "Caius Marius" Image:First century CE togate torso bearing a 17th century CE head dubbed Caius Marius by the Earl of Arundel excavated in 1613-1614 CE MH.jpg, First century CE togate torso bearing a 17th century CE head dubbed Caius Marius by the Earl of Arundel excavated in 1613-1614 CE Image:Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200-100 BCE MH.jpg, Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200-100 BCE Image:Closeup of Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200-100 BCE MH.jpg, Closeup of Statue of a woman with hairstyle dating to the later Roman Republican or Augustan period but body dating to 200-100 BCE Image:The Oxford Bust or "Sappho" with head and torso coming from different statues and probably put together by a sculptor in the 1600s MH.jpg, The Oxford Bust or "Sappho" with head and torso coming from different statues and probably put together by a sculptor in the 1600s Image:The Oxford Bust or "Sappho" with head and torso coming from different statues and probably put together by a sculptor in the 1600s View 2 MH.jpg, The Oxford Bust or "Sappho" with head and torso coming from different statues and probably put together by a sculptor in the 1600s View 2 Image:Portrait of a young man with hairstyle, facial features and long neck pointing to portraits made in the early 100s CE MH.jpg, Portrait of a young man with hairstyle, facial features and long neck pointing to portraits made in the early 100s CE Image:Sphinx commissioned by the Earl of Arundel to partner a Roman Sphinx, 17th century CE MH.jpg, Sphinx commissioned by the Earl of Arundel to partner a Roman Sphinx, 17th century CE Image:Sphinx, Roman, 50-200 CE Arundel Marble MH.jpg, Sphinx, Roman, 50-200 CE. Image:Roman statue of Eros, 100-200 CE Arundel Marble MH.jpg, Roman statue of Eros, 100-200 CE depicting Eros sleeping, his torch turned down, a symbol of death used in many Roman memorials. Image:Closeup of Roman statue of Eros, 100-200 CE Arundel Marble MH.jpg, Closeup of Roman statue of Eros, 100-200 CE depicting Eros sleeping, his torch turned down, a symbol of death used in many Roman memorials. Image:Fragment of a marble sarcophagus depicting two drunken boys from a Bacchic revel, made in Athens 140-150 CE MH.jpg, Fragment of a marble sarcophagus depicting two drunken boys from a Bacchic revel, made in Athens 140-150 CE

Broadway Museum and Art Gallery

In 2013 a museum was opened in the 17th-century "Tudor House" at

Broadway, Worcestershire Broadway is a large village and civil parish in the Cotswolds, England, with a population of 2,540 at the 2011 census. It is in the far southeast of Worcestershire, close to the Gloucestershire border, midway between Evesham and Moreton-in-Mars ...

, in the Cotswolds, in partnership with the Ashmolean Museum. In 2017 the museum became known as the Broadway Museum and Art Gallery. The collection includes paintings and furniture from the founding collections of the Ashmolean Museum, given by Elias Ashmole to the University of Oxford in 1683, and local exhibits expand upon elements of the timeline of the village.

Major exhibitions

Upcoming planned exhibitions include: * ''Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth and Reality'': This exhibition opens at the Ashmolean in February 2023. * ''Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings & Watercolours'': This exhibition, initially shown for a 5 weeks in 2021, was re-mounted in 2022 for a longer run, opening in July. It is drawn from the Ashmolean's own collection of

drawings and watercolours. Major exhibitions in recent years include: * ''Pissarro: Father of Impressionism'': Open from February until June 2022, this exhibition included artworks drawn from the Ashmolean's collections as well as international loans, spanning Camille Pissarro's entire career. * ''Tokyo: Art and Photography'': Open from July 2021 until January 2022, this exhibition included artworks from the Ashmolean's collection as well as loans from Japan and new commissions by contemporary artists. It included woodblock prints by Hokusai and

Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige (, also ; ja, 歌川広重 ), born Andō Tokutarō (; 1797 – 12 October 1858), was a Japanese ''ukiyo-e'' artist, considered the last great master of that tradition. Hiroshige is best known for his horizontal-format l ...

, photography of Moriyama Daido and Ninagawa Mika. *''Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings & Watercolours'': Open in May and June 2021, this exhibition was drawn from the Ashmolean's own collection of

drawings and watercolours. The exhibition was curated by British art historian Christiana Payne. *''Young Rembrandt'': Open from August until November 2020, this exhibition was delayed due to the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, and featured more than 120 of Rembrandt's paintings, drawings and prints from international and private collections. It focused on the first decade of Rembrandt's work, from 1624–34, and included his early paintings Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, Self-portrait in a Gorget,

Rembrandt Laughing ''Rembrandt Laughing'' is a oil on copper painting by the Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn. It is an elaborate study of a laughing face, a tronie, and, since it represents the painter himself, one of over 40 self-portraits by Rembrandt, proba ...

, Judas Repentant, Returning the Pieces of Silver, Portrait of Jacques de Gheyn III, and History Painting. The exhibition was the subject of a

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

History

Broad Street

Beaumont Street

Renovations

Collections

Collections gallery

Arundel Marbles

Broadway Museum and Art Gallery

Major exhibitions

Keepers and Directors

Notable people

Current keepers

Former staff

In popular culture

Comics

Television

Theft

See also

References

External links