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ARTS, CULTURE & TOURISM
0161 235 8888
Mosley Street
Manchester
M2 3JL
Manchester Art Gallery and the adjoining Gallery
of Costume are home to the city’s world-class art
collection. Its collections include over 25,000 objects
of fine art, decorative art and costume, developed over
200 years and still growing. An extensive collection
contains nearly 13,000 items including painting,
sculpture, drawings, watercolours, prints, posters
and photographs. Best known for its world-famous
Pre-Raphaelite paintings, the art gallery also includes
British and European art from the 17th century right up
to the present day. Spectacular ceramics, glass and
furniture to metalwork, wallpaper and dolls houses
can all be admired as you tour the capacious gallery.
Highlights include early English slipware, 17th century
silver and a growing collection of contemporary
furniture and lighting design. The main gallery
premises were built for a learned society in 1823
and today its collection occupies three connected
buildings, two of which were designed by Sir Charles
Barry. The building that links them was designed by
Hopkins Architects following an architectural design
competition managed by RIBA Competitions. It
opened in 2002 following a major renovation and
expansion project undertaken by the art gallery.
ManchesterArt Gallery is free to enter and open seven
days a week. More than half a million people visit the
museum each year. As well as paintings, the museum
holds fine collections of glass, silverware and furniture,
including four pieces by the Victorian architect and
designer William Burges. The gallery houses several
works by the French impressionist, Pierre Adolphe
Valette, who painted and taught in Manchester in the
early years of the 20th century; some of his scenes of
foggy Manchester streets and canals are displayed.
A Cézanne hangs in the same room, showing the
similarity in treatment and subject between his misty
French river bridge and Valette’s bridge in a pre-Clean
Air Act Mancunian fog.
MANCHESTER ART GALLERY
