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136-737: The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum is the principal art gallery and museum in Bedford , Bedfordshire, England, run by Bedford Borough Council and the trustees of the Cecil Higgins Collection. The Higgins Art Gallery & Museum is in the Castle Quarter which occupies the site of Bedford Castle to the east of the High Street on the north side of the River Great Ouse embankment. The quarter also has

272-453: A complex history, with piecemeal additions by different architects. Founded in May 1852, it was not until 1857 that the museum moved to its present site. This area of London, previously known as Brompton , had been renamed 'South Kensington'. The land was occupied by Brompton Park House , which was extended, most notably by the "Brompton Boilers", which were starkly utilitarian iron galleries with

408-534: A dormer window dated 1523–1535 from the chateau of Montal. There are several examples from Italian Renaissance buildings including, portals, fireplaces, balconies and a stone buffet that used to have a built-in fountain. The main architecture gallery has a series of pillars from various buildings and different periods, for example, a column from the Alhambra . Examples covering Asia are in those galleries concerned with those countries, as well as models and photographs in

544-515: A few paintings, scrolls and screens, textiles and dress including kimono are some of the objects on display. One of the finest objects displayed is Suzuki Chokichi's bronze incense burner ( koro ) dated 1875, standing at over 2.25 metres high and 1.25 metres in diameter it is also one of the largest examples made. The museum also holds some cloisonné pieces from the Japanese art production company, Ando Cloisonné . The smaller galleries cover Korea,

680-400: A great deal to their dedication and skill, for they were to develop one of the finest post-war collections outside London. That the collection is strong in the greatest painters of every generation is one thing, but that it is also representative of artists who were once popular and influential in their own day and less so at the time of acquisition, is due to their expert scholarship. In 1971,

816-563: A house on the site; Castle Close, the house Charles built for himself and his family, was built in 1846 and occupied by members of the family until the early 1920s. By the end of the 1920s the property was in the possession of the Bedford Corporation (later Bedford Borough Council ) and used for administrative purposes until the Will of Cecil Higgins proposed the housing of his collection there in 1941. The conditions were accepted and

952-682: A husband and wife painted in watercolour on silk date from the 18th century. There is a unique Chinese lacquerware table , made in the imperial workshops during the reign of the Xuande Emperor in the Ming dynasty . Examples of clothing are also displayed. One of the largest objects is a bed from the mid-17th century. The work of contemporary Chinese designers is also displayed. The Toshiba gallery of Japanese art opened in December 1986. The majority of exhibits date from 1550 to 1900, but one of

1088-467: A museum is the preservation of artifacts with cultural, historical, and aesthetic value by maintaining a collection of valued objects. Art museums also function as galleries that display works from the museum's own collection or on loan from the collections of other museums. Museums might be in public or private ownership and may be accessible to all or have restrictions on access. Although primarily concerned with visual art , art museums are often used as

1224-538: A new medieval gallery on the ground floor (now the shop, opened in 2006). Then the lower ground-floor galleries in the south-west part of the museum were redesigned, opening in 1978 to form the new galleries covering Continental art 1600–1800 (late Renaissance, Baroque through Rococo and neo-Classical). In 1974 the museum had acquired what is now the Henry Cole wing from the Royal College of Science . To adapt

1360-649: A number of locations. Galleries selling the work of recognized artists may occupy space in established commercial areas of a city. New styles in art have historically been attracted to the low rent of marginal neighborhoods. An artist colony existed in Greenwich Village as early as 1850, and the tenements built around Washington Square Park to house immigrants after the Civil War also attracted young artists and avant-garde art galleries. The resulting gentrification prompted artists and galleries to move to

1496-618: A permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen Victoria and Prince Albert . The V&A is in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , in an area known as " Albertopolis " because of its association with Prince Albert, the Albert Memorial , and the major cultural institutions with which he was associated. These include the Natural History Museum ,

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1632-414: A proper façade. In 1890 the government launched a competition to design new buildings for the museum, with architect Alfred Waterhouse as one of the judges; this would give the museum a new imposing front entrance. The main façade, built from red brick and Portland stone , stretches 720 feet (220 m) along Cromwell Gardens and was designed by Aston Webb after winning a competition in 1891 to extend

1768-490: A rock concert. The V&A presented a combined concert/lecture by the British progressive folk-rock band Gryphon , who explored the lineage of medieval music and instrumentation and related how those contributed to contemporary music 500 years later. This innovative approach to bringing young people to museums was a hallmark of the directorship of Sir Roy Strong and was subsequently emulated by some other British museums. In

1904-608: A school for children evacuated from Gibraltar . The South Court became a canteen, first for the Royal Air Force and later for Bomb Damage Repair Squads. Before the return of the collections after the war, the Britain Can Make It exhibition was held between September and November 1946, attracting nearly a million-and-a-half visitors. This was organised by the Council of Industrial Design , established by

2040-588: A temporary look and were later dismantled and used to build the V&;A Museum of Childhood. The first building to be erected that still forms part of the museum was the Sheepshanks Gallery in 1857 on the eastern side of the garden. Its architect was civil engineer Captain Francis Fowke , Royal Engineers , who was appointed by Cole. The next major expansions were designed by the same architect,

2176-605: A time when few scholars and collectors took the period seriously, sometimes tracing the descendants of the architects and designers and buying directly from them. After initially making modest additions to his collection, a number of inheritances in 1964-65 meant that he could accelerate his buying. The 1972 Royal Academy exhibition Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Art, The Handley-Read Collection displayed Charles and Lavinia's entire collection, and acted as their memorial following their suicides in October and December 1971. From 1988,

2312-531: A venue for other cultural exchanges and artistic activities where the art object is replaced by practices such as performance art , dance, music concerts, or poetry readings. Similar to a gallery, a kunsthalle is a facility that hosts temporary art exhibitions however does not possess a permanent collection . The art world comprises everyone involved in the production and distribution of fine art. The market for fine art depends upon maintaining its distinction as high culture , although during recent decades

2448-451: A £20 million refurbishment. The V&A's collection of Art from Asia numbers more than 160,000 objects, one of the largest in existence. It has one of the world's most comprehensive and important collections of Chinese art whilst the collection of South Asian Art is the most important in the West. The museum's coverage includes pieces from South and South East Asia, Himalayan kingdoms, China,

2584-657: Is a unique commodity, the artist has a monopoly on production, which ceases when the artist either dies or stops working. Some businesses operate as vanity galleries , charging artists a fee to exhibit their work. Lacking a selection process to assure the quality of the artworks, and having little incentive to promote sales, vanity galleries are avoided as unprofessional. Some non-profit organizations or local governments host art galleries for cultural enrichment and to support local artists. Non-profit organizations may start as exhibit spaces for artist collectives , and expand into full-fledged arts programs. Other non-profits include

2720-405: Is also on display. The Far Eastern collections include more than 70,000 works of art from the countries of East Asia: China, Japan and Korea. The T. T. Tsui Gallery of Chinese art opened in 1991, displaying a representative collection of the V&As approximately 16,000 objects from China, dating from the 4th millennium BC to the present day. Though the majority of artworks on display date from

2856-485: Is amongst the finest in the world, many were part of the Salting Bequest of 1909. Examples of tile work from various buildings including a fireplace dated 1731 from Istanbul made of intricately decorated blue and white tiles and turquoise tiles from the exterior of buildings from Samarkand are also displayed. The museum's collections of South and South-East Asian art are the most comprehensive and important in

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2992-533: Is described on the wiki entry for the Castle. The history of the present buildings begins in 1804 with the building of a Hexagonal Militia Depot on a former Castle earthwork. The depot was later used for many other purposes including St. Agnes Elementary School and as kitchens for Castle Close, the Higgins family home. Since 1949 it has been used as a gallery space, an office, and an educational activities space. Since

3128-541: Is displayed, as are carpets from Agra and Lahore . Examples of clothing are also displayed. In 1879–80, the collections of the defunct East India Company 's India Museum were transferred to the V&A and the British Museum. Items in the collection include Tipu's Tiger , an 18th-century automaton created for Tipu Sultan , the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore . The personal wine cup of Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan

3264-552: Is the largest expansion at the museum in over 100 years. It opened on 29 June 2017. In March 2018, it was announced that the Duchess of Cambridge would become the first royal patron of the museum. On 15 September 2018, the first V&A museum outside London, V&A Dundee , opened. The museum, built at a cost of £80.11m, is located on Dundee's waterfront, and is focused on Scottish design, furniture, textiles, fashion, architecture, engineering and digital design. Although it uses

3400-678: The Heritage Lottery Fund , Bedford Charity and several other sources. The new facility includes space for touring and temporary exhibitions, spaces for learning and activities, a café and shop as well as displays throughout. Among the displays, nationally significant collections of work by the Victorian architect-designer William Burges and the 20th-century designer-printmaker Edward Bawden are housed in dedicated galleries. The Higgins Fine & Decorative arts collections were previously an entirely separate institution known as

3536-540: The Heritage Lottery Fund . The Exhibition Road Quarter opened in 2017, with a new entrance providing access for visitors from Exhibition Road . A new courtyard, the Sackler Courtyard, has been created behind the Aston Webb Screen, a colonnade built in 1909 to hide the museum's boilers. The colonnade was kept but the wall in the lower part was removed in the construction to allow public access to

3672-683: The Himalayan kingdoms and South East Asia. Korean displays include green-glazed ceramics, silk embroideries from officials' robes and gleaming boxes inlaid with mother-of-pearl made between 500 AD and 2000. Himalayan works include important early Nepalese bronze sculptures, repoussé work and embroidery. Tibetan art from the 14th to the 19th century is represented by 14th- and 15th-century religious images in wood and bronze, scroll paintings and ritual objects. Art from Thailand, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka in gold, silver, bronze, stone, terracotta and ivory represents these rich and complex cultures,

3808-573: The Medieval times . The museum also has an extensive numismatics collection. The geology collections feature ammonite coiled shells and giant marine reptiles of the Jurassic period. Local birds, mammals, insects and plants are found in the museum's natural history collections. The site and its buildings have a long history with many different uses, not least of all the Siege of Bedford Castle , which

3944-580: The Ming and Qing dynasties, there are objects dating from the Tang dynasty and earlier periods, among them a metre-high bronze head of the Buddha dated to about 750 AD, and one of the oldest works, a 2000-year-old jade horse head from a burial. Other sculptures include life-size tomb guardians. Classic examples of Chinese decorative arts on displayt include Chinese lacquer , silk, Chinese porcelain , jade and cloisonné enamel. Two large ancestor portraits of

4080-554: The Mughal Empire and the Maratha Empire , including fine portraits of the emperors and other paintings and drawings, jade wine cups and gold spoons inset with emeralds, diamonds and rubies, also from this period are parts of buildings such as a jaali and pillars. India was a large producer of textiles, from dyed cotton chintz , muslin to rich embroidery work using gold and silver thread, coloured sequins and beads

4216-669: The National Gallery and scholarship at the British Museum . George Wallis (1811–1891), the first Keeper of Fine Art Collection, passionately promoted the idea of wide art education through the museum collections. This led to the transfer to the museum of the School of Design that had been founded in 1837 at Somerset House; after the transfer, it was referred to as the Art School or Art Training School, later to become

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4352-402: The Royal College of Art which finally achieved full independence in 1949. From the 1860s to the 1880s the scientific collections had been moved from the main museum site to various improvised galleries to the west of Exhibition Road . In 1893 the "Science Museum" had effectively come into existence when a separate director was appointed. Queen Victoria returned to lay the foundation stone of

4488-593: The Science Museum , the Royal Albert Hall and Imperial College London . The museum is a non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport . As with other national British museums, entrance is free. The V&A covers 12.5 acres (5.1 ha) and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient history to the present day, from

4624-611: The Slade School of Art . The collection includes two major oils, 'Mrs Box' and 'Spanish Boy', as well as drawings of her brothers— Noel Carrington and Teddy Carrington—and Bedford Market. In 2005, the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery merged with Bedford Museum, but retained its separate buildings and identity until it closed for refurbishment in 2007. While work on the Art Gallery did not commence straight away

4760-463: The early modern period , approximately 1500 to 1800 CE. In the Middle Ages that preceded, painters and sculptors were members of guilds, seeking commissions to produce artworks for aristocratic patrons or churches. The establishment of academies of art in the 16th century represented efforts by painters and sculptors to raise their status from mere artisans who worked with their hands to that of

4896-668: The 1880s; listings show that it was then used by the Plymouth Brethren, a non-denominational Christian movement. In the early part of the 20th century it became a billiard hall. For some time during World War Two, the British Broadcasting Corporation music department is believed to have used Bedford Gallery as a rehearsal and recording studio. In August 1941 the BBC had evacuated several departments from London to Bedford; other local buildings used included

5032-488: The 1980s Strong renamed the museum as "The Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Museum of Art and Design". Strong's successor Elizabeth Esteve-Coll oversaw a turbulent period for the institution in which the museum's curatorial departments were re-structured, leading to public criticism from some staff. Esteve-Coll's attempts to make the V&A more accessible included a criticised marketing campaign emphasising

5168-518: The 2008 Phase 1 redevelopment of the site it has been refurbished as a gallery space and will house the William Burges collection on the Art Gallery & Museum's reopening. In 1837, Charles Higgins (1789–1862) bought the lease for Castle Lane from the Duke of Bedford. He started by building the brewery which was completed in 1838. Between 1840 and 1841 the building we now call Bedford Gallery

5304-496: The Art Gallery & Museum was a phased process. Phase 1 was completed in April 2009 when Bedford Gallery was reopened. The gallery, a Grade II listed building and part of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery & Bedford Museum complex, had fallen into disuse in 1973. The reopening of Bedford Gallery as a venue for touring exhibitions, lectures and events gave an insight into what Phase 2 of the re-development process would offer. Phase 2 of

5440-565: The Aston Webb building (to the left of the main entrance) on 17 May 1899. It was during this ceremony that the change of name from 'South Kensington Museum' to 'Victoria and Albert Museum' was made public. Queen Victoria's address during the ceremony, as recorded in The London Gazette , ended: "I trust that it will remain for ages a Monument of discerning Liberality and a Source of Refinement and Progress." The exhibition which

5576-707: The Aston Webb building by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra took place on 26 June 1909. In 1914 the construction commenced of the Science Museum , signaling the final split of the science and art collections. In 1939 on the outbreak of the Second World War, most of the collection was sent to a quarry in Wiltshire , to Montacute House in Somerset, or to a tunnel near Aldwych tube station , with larger objects remaining in situ , sand-bagged and bricked in. Between 1941 and 1944 some galleries were used as

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5712-531: The British government in 1944 "to promote by all practicable means the improvement of design in the products of British industry". The success of this exhibition led to the planning of the Festival of Britain to be held in 1951. By 1948 most of the collections had been returned to the museum. In July 1973 as part of its outreach programme to young people, the V&A became the first museum in Britain to present

5848-722: The Castle Bailey gardens, the Castle Quay development of flats, restaurants and shops, the Castle Mound, and the John Bunyan Museum . The Art Gallery & Museum reopened after an extensive refurbishment in June 2013. A £5.8m project allowed the buildings to be joined and redeveloped throughout, uniting on one site three previous cultural venues: Cecil Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford Museum and Bedford Gallery. It

5984-418: The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and within the new Gallery & Museum those collections are still owned by the trustees of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery. The gallery was known for its collections of watercolours , prints, ceramics and furniture as well as two of the largest groupings of works outside London by the art-architect William Burges and the painter Edward Bawden . The Cecil Higgins Museum , as it

6120-674: The Corn Exchange, St. Paul's Church, the Co-Partners hall in the Queens Park area of the town, and the Great Hall of Bedford School. After the war, the building returned to use as a billiard hall and table tennis saloon. In 1960, it was given over to the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and renamed Bedford Gallery; from then until 1973 it was a venue for exhibitions and events. After being closed for over 30 years, Bedford Gallery

6256-565: The Department of Engraving, Illustration and Design, to approve all watercolours and drawings for acquisition. Graham Reynolds remained an advisor until 1955 when he was succeeded by two authorities in their respective fields who were to shape and expand the collection significantly; Edward Croft-Murray (1907–1980) of the British Museum and Ronald Alley (1926–1999) of the Tate Gallery , from 1957. The period between 1952 and 1964 were

6392-602: The Far East and the Islamic world. The V&A holds over 19,000 objects from the Islamic world, ranging from the early Islamic period (the 7th century) to the early 20th century. The Jameel Gallery of Islamic Art, opened in 2006, houses a representative display of 400 objects with the highlight being the Ardabil Carpet , the centrepiece of the gallery. The displays in this gallery cover objects from Spain, North Africa,

6528-530: The Great Exhibition of 1851. Henry Cole was the museum's first director, he was also involved in the planning. Initially the V&A was known as the Museum of Manufactures . The first opening to the general public was in May 1852 at Marlborough House . By September the collection had been transferred to Somerset House . At this stage, the collections covered both applied art and science. Several of

6664-631: The Middle East, Central Asia and Afghanistan. A masterpiece of Islamic art is a 10th-century Rock crystal ewer . Many examples of Qur'āns with exquisite calligraphy dating from various periods are on display. A 15th-century minbar from a Cairo mosque with ivory forming complex geometrical patterns inlaid in wood is one of the larger objects on display. Extensive examples of ceramics especially Iznik pottery, glasswork including 14th-century lamps from mosques and metalwork are on display. The collection of Middle Eastern and Persian rugs and carpets

6800-557: The Royal College of Art. These are set in the columned screen wall designed by Aston Webb that forms the façade. A few galleries were redesigned in the 1990s including the Indian, Japanese, Chinese, ironwork, the main glass galleries, and the main silverware gallery, which was further enhanced in 2002 when some of the Victorian decoration was recreated. This included two of the ten columns having their ceramic decoration replaced and

6936-538: The Turner and Vernon galleries built in 1858–1859 to house the eponymous collections (later transferred to the Tate Gallery ) and now used as the picture galleries and tapestry gallery respectively. The North and South Courts were then built, both of which opened by June 1862. They now form the galleries for temporary exhibitions and are directly behind the Sheepshanks Gallery. On the very northern edge of

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7072-590: The V&A has the main national collection. The Victoria & Albert Museum is split into four curatorial departments: Decorative Art and Sculpture; Performance, Furniture, Textiles and Fashion; Art, Architecture, Photography and Design; and Asia. The museum curators care for the objects in the collection and provide access to objects that are not currently on display to the public and scholars. The collection departments are further divided into sixteen display areas, whose combined collection numbers over 6.5  million objects, not all objects are displayed or stored at

7208-663: The V&A name, its operation and funding is independent of the V&A. The museum also runs the Young V&;A at Bethnal Green , which reopened on 1 July 2023; it used to run Apsley House , and also the Theatre Museum in Covent Garden . The Theatre Museum is now closed; the V&A Theatre Collections are now displayed within the South Kensington building. Victorian parts of the building have

7344-509: The V&A. There is a repository at Blythe House , West Kensington, as well as annex institutions managed by the V&A, also the museum lends exhibits to other institutions. The following lists each of the collections on display and the number of objects within the collection. The museum has 145 galleries, but given the vast extent of the collections, only a small percentage is ever on display. Many acquisitions have been made possible only with

7480-408: The West comprising nearly 60,000 objects, including about 10,000 textiles and 6,000 paintings, the range of the collection is immense. The Jawaharlal Nehru gallery of Indian art , opened in 1991, contains art from about 500 BC to the 19th century. There is an extensive collection of sculptures, mainly of a religious nature, Hindu , Buddhist and Jain . The gallery is richly endowed with the art of

7616-413: The adjacent neighborhood "south of Houston" ( SoHo ) which became gentrified in turn. Attempting to recreate this natural process, arts districts have been created intentionally by local governments in partnership with private developers as a strategy for revitalizing neighborhoods. Such developments often include spaces for artists to live and work as well as galleries. A contemporary practice has been

7752-640: The adjoining Bedford Gallery underwent major refurbishment as Phase 1 of a much larger project, bringing the Grade II listed building back into use as a public space for the first time since the early 1970s. From April 2009 until April 2011 exhibitions of the Cecil Higgins Collections, alongside Bedford Museum collections and loaned exhibits, were held in Bedford Gallery. Following Phase 2 of the redevelopment project, Bedford Gallery

7888-409: The arts as part of other missions, such as providing services to low-income neighborhoods. Historically, art world activities have benefited from clustering together either in cities or in remote areas offering natural beauty. The proximity of art galleries facilitated an informal tradition of art show openings on the same night, which have become officially coordinated as " first Friday events " in

8024-399: The assistance of the National Art Collections Fund . In 2004, the V&A alongside Royal Institute of British Architects opened the first permanent gallery in the UK covering the history of architecture with displays using models, photographs, elements from buildings and original drawings. With the opening of the new gallery, the RIBA Drawings and Archives Collection has been transferred to

8160-420: The boundary between high and popular culture has been eroded by postmodernism . In the case of historical works, or Old Masters this distinction is maintained by the work's provenance ; proof of its origin and history. For more recent work, status is based upon the reputation of the artist. Reputation includes both aesthetic factors; art schools attended, membership in a stylistic or historical movement,

8296-428: The building as galleries, all the Victorian interiors except for the staircase were recast during the remodelling. To link this to the rest of the museum, a new entrance building was constructed on the site of the former boiler house, the intended site of the Spiral , between 1978 and 1982. This building is of concrete and very functional, the only embellishment being the iron gates by Christopher Hay and Douglas Coyne of

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8432-458: The café over the collection. In 2001 the museum embarked on a major £150m renovation programme, called the "FuturePlan". The plan involves redesigning all the galleries and public facilities in the museum that have yet to be remodelled. This is to ensure that the exhibits are better displayed, more information is available, access for visitors is improved, and the museum can meet modern expectations for museum facilities. A planned Spiral building

8568-447: The category of Post-war art; while contemporary may be limited to the 21st century or "emerging artists". An enduring model for contemporary galleries was set by Leo Castelli . Rather than simply being the broker for sales, Castelli became actively involved in the discovery and development of new artists, while expecting to remain an exclusive agent for their work. However he also focused exclusively on new works, not participating in

8704-435: The classical arts such as poetry and music, which are purely intellectual pursuits. However, the public exhibition of art had to overcome the bias against commercial activity, which was deemed beneath the dignity of artists in many European societies. Commercial art galleries were well-established by the Victorian era , made possible by the increasing number of people seeking to own objects of cultural and aesthetic value. At

8840-431: The collecting policy switched to the decorative arts, with the purchase of a large number of pieces from the Handley-Read Collection. The Cecil Higgins Art Gallery now holds over 200 pieces from the collection of Charles Handley-Read and his wife Lavinia. Charles applied, in 1950, for a post at the Tate, after being rejected he reacted by ‘making a small museum of my own’. They began to form a collection of Victorian work at

8976-422: The collection includes parts of buildings, for example, the two top stories of the facade of Sir Paul Pindar 's house dated c. 1600 from Bishopsgate with elaborately carved woodwork and leaded windows, a rare survivor of the Great Fire of London , there is a brick portal from a London house of the English Restoration period and a fireplace from the gallery of Northumberland house. European examples include

9112-471: The collection lacked any notable paintings, save a few 18th-century oils and a small collection of miniatures. The Art Gallery Board made the important decision to collect English watercolours in 1951. By the terms of Cecil Higgins’ will, all acquisitions have to be approved by a ‘recognised artistic authority such as... the Victoria and Albert Museum ’ and in 1951, the then-director of the V&A, Sir Leigh Ashton, nominated Graham Reynolds, then Deputy Keeper of

9248-942: The collection. The RIBA's holdings of over 330 drawings by Andrea Palladio are the largest in the world; other Europeans well represented are Jacques Gentilhatre and Antonio Visentini . British architects whose drawings, and in some cases models of their buildings, in the collection, include: Inigo Jones , Sir Christopher Wren , Sir John Vanbrugh , Nicholas Hawksmoor , William Kent , James Gibbs , Robert Adam , Sir William Chambers , James Wyatt , Henry Holland , John Nash , Sir John Soane , Sir Charles Barry , Charles Robert Cockerell , Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin , Sir George Gilbert Scott , John Loughborough Pearson , George Edmund Street , Richard Norman Shaw , Alfred Waterhouse, Sir Edwin Lutyens , Charles Rennie Mackintosh , Charles Holden , Frank Hoar , Lord Richard Rogers , Lord Norman Foster , Sir Nicholas Grimshaw , Zaha Hadid and Alick Horsnell . As well as period rooms ,

9384-411: The courtyard. The new 1,200-square meter courtyard is the world's first all-porcelain courtyard, which is covered with 11,000 handmade porcelain tiles in fifteen different linear patterns glazed in different tone. A pavilion of Modernist design with glass walls and an angular roof covered with 4,300 tiles is located at the corner and contains a cafe. Skylights on the courtyard provide natural light for

9520-460: The cultures of Europe , North America , Asia and North Africa . However, the art of antiquity in most areas is not collected. The holdings of ceramics , glass, textiles, costumes , silver, ironwork , jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking , drawings and photographs are among the largest and most comprehensive in the world. The museum owns the world's largest collection of post- classical sculpture, with

9656-433: The death of Captain Francis Fowke of the Royal Engineers, the next architect to work at the museum was Colonel (later Major General) Henry Young Darracott Scott , also of the Royal Engineers. He designed to the northwest of the garden the five-storey School for Naval Architects (also known as the science schools), now the Henry Cole Wing, in 1867–72. Scott's assistant J. W. Wild designed the impressive staircase that rises

9792-548: The design for the range of buildings on the north and west sides of the garden. This includes the refreshment rooms, reinstated as the Museum Café in 2006, with the silver gallery above (at the time the ceramics gallery); the top floor has a splendid lecture theatre, although this is seldom open to the general public. The ceramic staircase in the northwest corner of this range of buildings was designed by F. W. Moody and has architectural details of moulded and coloured pottery. All

9928-471: The displays span the 6th to 19th centuries. Refined Hindu and Buddhist sculptures reflect the influence of India; items on the show include betel-nut cutters, ivory combs and bronze palanquin hooks. The museum houses the National Art Library , a public library containing over 750,000 books, photographs, drawings, paintings, and prints. It is one of the world's largest libraries dedicated to

10064-470: The elaborate painted designs restored on the ceiling. As part of the 2006 renovation the mosaic floors in the sculpture gallery were restored—most of the Victorian floors were covered in linoleum after the Second World War. After the success of the British Galleries, opened in 2001, it was decided to embark on a major redesign of all the galleries in the museum; this is known as "FuturePlan", and

10200-436: The end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century there were also the first indications of modern values regarding art; art as an investment versus pure aesthetics, and the increased attention to living artists as an opportunity for such investment. Commercial galleries owned or operated by an art dealer or "gallerist" occupy the middle tier of the art market , accounting for most transactions, although not those with

10336-455: The enhancements to the main entrance and rotunda, the new shop, the tunnel and the sculpture galleries. Gareth Hoskins was responsible for contemporary and architecture, Softroom, Islamic Middle East and the Members' Room, McInnes Usher McKnight Architects (MUMA) were responsible for the new Cafe and designed the new Medieval and Renaissance galleries which opened in 2009. The central garden

10472-417: The ever increasing collections of north Bedfordshire. The first professional Curator, John Turner, was appointed in 1974 and he led the extensive refurbishment and transformation of the brewery buildings into the new town museum, which opened its doors to the public in 1981. The museum was merged with the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery in 2005, but still retained its separate buildings and identity until it closed to

10608-550: The exhibits from the opening Exhibition were purchased by the museum to form the kernel of the V&A collection. By February 1854 discussions were underway to transfer the museum to the current site and the museum was renamed South Kensington Museum . In 1855 the German architect Gottfried Semper , at the request of Cole, produced a design for the museum, but it was rejected by the Board of Trade as too expensive. The current site

10744-468: The expertise of the gallery owner and staff, and the particular market, the artwork shown may be more innovative or more traditional in style and media. Galleries may deal in the primary market of new works by living artists, or the secondary markets for works from prior periods owned by collectors, estates, or museums. The periods represented include Old Masters , Modern (1900–1950), and contemporary (1950–present). Modern and contemporary may be combined in

10880-481: The façade of the museum were caused by fragments from the bombs. In the immediate post-war years, there was little money available for other than essential repairs. The 1950s and early 1960s saw little in the way of building work; the first major work was the creation of new storage space for books in the Art Library in 1966 and 1967. This involved flooring over Aston Webb's main hall to form the book stacks, with

11016-432: The focus returned to collecting prints, this time concentrating on the 20th century. The print collection now numbers over 400 pieces, including work by some of the finest British artists as well as internationally renowned figures such as Picasso, Lichtenstein and Dürer. The collection charts styles as well as print processes, from Whistler's delicate etchings to Edward Bawden's magnificent linocuts. The last major addition to

11152-517: The full height of the building. Made from Cadeby stone, the steps are 7 feet (2.1 m) in length, while the balustrades and columns are Portland stone. It is now used to jointly house the prints and architectural drawings of the V&A (prints, drawings, paintings and photographs) and Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA Drawings and Archives Collections), and the Sackler Centre for arts education, which opened in 2008. Continuing

11288-531: The galleries as originally designed were white with restrained classical detail and mouldings, very much in contrast to the elaborate decoration of the Victorian galleries, although much of this decoration was removed in the early 20th century. The museum survived the Second World War with only minor bomb damage. The worst loss was the Victorian stained glass on the Ceramics Staircase, which was blown in when bombs fell nearby; pockmarks still visible on

11424-594: The gallery via stairs with lacquered tulipwood balustrades. The collecting areas of the museum are not easy to summarize, having evolved partly through attempts to avoid too much overlap with other national museums in London. Generally, the classical world of the West and the Ancient Near East is left to the British Museum, and Western paintings to the National Gallery , though there are all sorts of exceptions—for example, painted portrait miniatures , where

11560-407: The garden, built in 1877–1883. The exterior mosaic panels in the parapet were designed by Reuben Townroe, who also designed the plaster work in the library. Sir John Taylor designed the bookshelves and cases. This was the first part of the museum to have electric lighting. This completed the northern half of the site, creating a quadrangle with the garden at its centre, but left the museum without

11696-404: The highest monetary values. Once limited to major urban art worlds such as New York, Paris and London, art galleries have become global. Another trend in globalization is that while maintaining their urban establishments, galleries also participate in art fairs such as Art Basel and Frieze Art Fair . Art galleries are the primary connection between artists and collectors . At the high end of

11832-573: The holdings of Italian Renaissance sculpture being the largest outside Italy. The departments of Asia include art from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea and the Islamic world . The East Asian collections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics and metalwork , while the Islamic collection is amongst the largest in the Western world. Overall, it is one of the largest museums in

11968-471: The inhabitants of, and visitors to, Bedford . Higgins realised that public museums were vulnerable, and to protect his collection he left a complex will, which stipulated how the museum was to be organised. He also left a trust fund, to be used for museum purposes, but principally for acquiring works of art (which included Decorative and Applied). While the collection of ceramics and glass was of high quality (each had been selected by James Kiddell of Sotheby's ),

12104-544: The latter, the rooms where art is displayed within the museum building are called galleries. Art galleries that do not maintain a collection are either commercial enterprises for the sale of artworks, or similar spaces operated by art cooperatives or non-profit organizations . As part of the art world , art galleries play an important role in maintaining the network of connections between artists, collectors, and art experts that define fine art . The terms 'art museum' and 'art gallery' may be used interchangeably as reflected in

12240-627: The main arch above the twin entrances, and Queen Victoria above the frame around the arches and entrance, sculpted by Alfred Drury . These façades surround four levels of galleries. Other areas designed by Webb include the Entrance Hall and Rotunda, the East and West Halls, the areas occupied by the shop and Asian Galleries, and the Costume Gallery. The interior makes much use of marble in the entrance hall and flanking staircases, although

12376-475: The main architecture gallery. In June 2022, the RIBA announced it would be terminating its 20-year partnership with the V&A in 2027, "by mutual agreement", ending the permanent architecture gallery at the museum. Artefacts will be transferred back to the RIBA's existing collections, with some rehoused at the institute's headquarters at 66 Portland Place building, set to become a new House of Architecture following

12512-478: The main entrance has an open work crown surmounted by a statue of fame, a feature of late Gothic architecture and a feature common in Scotland, but the detail is Classical. The main windows to the galleries are also mullioned and transomed, again a Gothic feature; the top row of windows are interspersed with statues of many of the British artists whose work is displayed in the museum. Prince Albert appears within

12648-408: The market, a handful of elite auction houses and dealers sell the work of celebrity artists; at the low end artists sell their work from their studio, or in informal venues such as restaurants. Point-of-sale galleries connect artists with buyers by hosting exhibitions and openings. The artworks are on consignment, with the artist and the gallery splitting the proceeds from each sale. Depending upon

12784-471: The most productive in terms of collecting watercolours. Over 500 were acquired in twelve years. The Gallery was able to achieve this by the availability of watercolours from private collections in the post-war years and the generosity of Cecil Higgins. Edward Croft-Murray and Ronald Alley each brought their knowledge, vision and taste to the growing collection. Their collecting was divided: Croft-Murray to works made pre-1850 and Alley to post-1850. The Gallery owes

12920-417: The museum opened in 1949. Art gallery Among the modern reasons art may be displayed are aesthetic enjoyment, education , historic preservation , or for marketing purposes. The term is used to refer to establishments with distinct social and economic functions, both public and private. Institutions that preserve a permanent collection may be called either "gallery of art" or "museum of art". If

13056-635: The museum organised to celebrate the centennial of the 1899 renaming, A Grand Design , first toured in North America from 1997 ( Baltimore Museum of Art , Museum of Fine Arts, Boston , Royal Ontario Museum , Toronto, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco ), returning to London in 1999. To accompany and support the exhibition, the museum published a book, Grand Design , which it has made available for reading online on its website. The opening ceremony for

13192-515: The museum's annual contemporary design showcase, the V&;A Village Fete , since 2005. In 2011 the V&A announced that London-based practice AL A had won an international competition to construct a gallery beneath a new entrance courtyard on Exhibition Road. Planning for the scheme was granted in 2012. It replaced the proposed extension designed by Daniel Libeskind with Cecil Balmond but abandoned in 2004 after failing to receive funding from

13328-468: The museum's future was F.W. Kuhlicke, a local historian and heraldry specialist who was appointed Honorary Curator in 1933. He continued to develop the collections but by the 1950s the school needed more space for the expanding numbers and discussions took place with the Borough of Bedford to see whether the Borough could take on the public museum role. The opportunity arose to combine the school museum with

13464-565: The museum, architecture, V&A and RIBA reading rooms and stores, metalware, Members' Room, contemporary glass, and the Gilbert Bayes sculpture gallery; in 2005: portrait miniatures, prints and drawings, displays in Room 117, the garden, sacred silver and stained glass; in 2006: Central Hall Shop, Islamic Middle East, the new café, and sculpture galleries. Several designers and architects have been involved in this work. Eva Jiřičná designed

13600-443: The museum, joining the already extensive collection held by the V&A. With over 600,000 drawings, over 750,000 papers and paraphernalia, and over 700,000 photographs from around the world, together they form the world's most comprehensive architectural resource. Not only are all the major British architects of the last four hundred years represented, but many European (especially Italian) and American architects' drawings are held in

13736-467: The museum. Construction took place between 1899 and 1909. Stylistically it is a strange hybrid: although much of the detail belongs to the Renaissance , there are medieval influences at work. The main entrance, consisting of a series of shallow arches supported by slender columns and niches with twin doors separated by the pier, is Romanesque in form but Classical in detail. Likewise, the tower above

13872-400: The names of institutions around the world, some of which are called galleries (e.g. the National Gallery and Neue Nationalgalerie ), and some of which are called museums (e.g. the Museum of Modern Art and National Museum of Western Art ). However, establishments that display art for other purposes, but serve no museum functions, are only called art galleries. The distinctive function of

14008-491: The oldest pieces displayed is the 13th-century sculpture of Amida Nyorai. Examples of classic Japanese armour from the mid-19th century, steel sword blades ( Katana ), Inrō , lacquerware including the Mazarin Chest dated c1640 is one of the finest surviving pieces from Kyoto , porcelain including Imari , Netsuke , woodblock prints including the work of Andō Hiroshige , graphic works include printed books, as well as

14144-477: The opinions of art historians and critics; and economic factors; inclusion in group and solo exhibitions and past success in the art market. Art dealers, through their galleries, have occupied a central role in the art world by bringing many of these factors together; such as "discovering" new artists, promoting their associations in group shows, and managing market valuation. Exhibitions of art operating similar to current galleries for marketing art first appeared in

14280-399: The planters and the water feature may be illuminated, and the surrounding façades lit to reveal details normally in shadow. Especially noticeable are the mosaics in the loggia of the north façade. In summer a café is set up in the southwest corner. The garden is also used for temporary exhibits of sculpture; for example, a sculpture by Jeff Koons was shown in 2006. It has also played host to

14416-549: The print collection was a generous donation in 2004 from the Scottish artist Alan Davie (1920–2014) of over 70 prints, as well as 5 works in gouache . A significant addition to the collection has been made in recent years by acquiring a number of works by Dora Carrington who attended Bedford High School and lived in Bedford with her family at 1 Rothsay Gardens. Her family were still in Bedford while Carrington attended

14552-530: The public for refurbishment in October 2010. In June 2013 the museum reopened as part of the new combined complex. The museum's collections of around 20,000 items depict the human, social and natural history of the Borough of Bedford . These include domestic, corporate, military and agricultural artefacts, as well as local crafts and industries. Bedford Museum's archaeology collections include Palaeolithic flint tools and hand axes, as well as later artefacts from

14688-491: The range of the museum's collections. Godfrey Sykes also designed the terracotta embellishments and the mosaic in the pediment of the North Façade commemorating the Great Exhibition, the profits from which helped to fund the museum. This is flanked by terracotta statue groups by Percival Ball . This building replaced Brompton Park House, which could then be demolished to make way for the south range. The interiors of

14824-454: The redevelopment unified three previously separate buildings – Bedford Gallery, Cecil Higgins Art Gallery and Bedford Museum – to create one flagship facility and unite Bedford's unique collections beneath one roof. Building work began in August 2011, and was completed (including refit of the new galleries) in June 2013. This phase was made possible through funding from Bedford Borough Council ,

14960-434: The resale of older work by the same artists. All art sales after the first are part of the secondary market, in which the artist and the original dealer are not involved. Many of these sales occur privately between collectors, or works are sold at auctions. However some galleries participate in the secondary market depending upon the market conditions. As with any market, the major conditions are supply and demand. Because art

15096-428: The sculpture gallery. The north, east and west sides have herbaceous borders along the museum walls with paths in front which continues along the south façade. In the two corners by the north façade, there is planted an American Sweetgum tree. The southern, eastern and western edges of the lawns have glass planters which contain orange and lemon trees in summer, which are replaced by bay trees in winter. At night both

15232-647: The site is situated the Secretariat Wing; also built in 1862, this houses the offices and boardroom, etc. and is not open to the public. An ambitious scheme of decoration was developed for these new areas: a series of mosaic figures depicting famous European artists of the Medieval and Renaissance period. These have now been removed to other areas of the museum. Also started were a series of frescoes by Lord Leighton : Industrial Arts as Applied to War 1878–1880 and Industrial Arts Applied to Peace , which

15368-577: The smaller collections held by the Borough of Bedford and in 1962 the newly established town museum opened in a former garage and showroom on the Embankment, with Kuhlicke as the first Honorary Curator. This, however, was only a temporary arrangement while more substantial premises were sought. In the 1970s the former Higgins and Sons Castle Brewery buildings became available. Built in 1838, this red brick industrial building offered greater potential for public service, temporary exhibitions and storage for

15504-494: The stairwell and the exhibition space located below the courtyard created by digging 15m into the ground. The Sainsbury Gallery's column-less space at 1,100 square metres is one of the largest in the country, providing space for temporary exhibitions. The gallery can be assessed through the existing Western Range building where a new entrance to the Blavatnik Hall and the museum has been created, and visitors can descend into

15640-422: The style of the earlier buildings, various designers were responsible for the decoration. The terracotta embellishments were again the work of Godfrey Sykes, although sgraffito was used to decorate the east side of the building designed by F. W. Moody. A final embellishment was the wrought iron gates made as late as 1885 designed by Starkie Gardner. These lead to a passage through the building. Scott also designed

15776-502: The three refreshment rooms were assigned to different designers. The Green Dining Room (1866–68) was the work of Philip Webb and William Morris , and displays Elizabethan influences. The lower part of the walls is paneled in wood with a band of paintings depicting fruit and the occasional figure, with moulded plaster foliage on the main part of the wall and a plaster frieze around the decorated ceiling and stained-glass windows by Edward Burne-Jones . The Centre Refreshment Room (1865–77)

15912-404: The two Cast Courts (1870–73) to the southeast of the garden (the site of the "Brompton Boilers"); these vast spaces have ceilings 70 feet (21 m) in height to accommodate the plaster casts of parts of famous buildings, including Trajan's Column (in two separate pieces). The final part of the museum designed by Scott was the Art Library and what is now the sculpture gallery on the south side of

16048-538: The use of vacant commercial space for art exhibitions that run for periods from a single day to a month. Now called "popup galleries", a precursor was Artomatic which had its first event in 1999 and has occurred periodically to the present, mainly in the Washington metro area . Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A ) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts , decorative arts and design , housing

16184-433: The wider world, from prehistory to the present day. In 1884, a solicitor called Charles Prichard, donated his private collection of fossils and minerals to Bedford Modern School, where he had formerly been a pupil. In addition he provided funds for the creation of a school museum to house the collections with an annual grant of £10 for its upkeep. Although additions were made to the original collections, oddities from all over

16320-572: The work on the north range was designed and built in 1864–69. The style adopted for this part of the museum was Italian Renaissance ; much use was made of terracotta , brick and mosaic. This north façade was intended as the main entrance to the museum, with its bronze doors, designed by James Gamble and Reuben Townroe  [ Wikidata ] , having six panels, depicting Humphry Davy (chemistry); Isaac Newton (astronomy); James Watt (mechanics); Bramante (architecture); Michelangelo (sculpture); and Titian (painting); The panels thus represent

16456-493: The world began to feature as fathers and Old Boys travelled and took up positions in foreign lands. As a result, the museum became somewhat disrespectfully known as the ‘Old Curiosity Shop’. The 1920s saw sweeping changes with the appointment of P.G. Langdon as Honorary Curator. Langdon's aim was to reorganise the collections and establish them as a nucleus of a county museum. He acquired archaeological material including Roman and Saxon pottery and jewellery from Kempston , replaced

16592-607: The world. Since 2001 the museum has embarked on a major £150m renovation programme. The new European galleries for the 17th century and the 18th century were opened on 9 December 2015. These restored the original Aston Webb interiors and host the European collections 1600–1815. The Young V&A in east London is a branch of the museum, and a new branch in London – V&A East – is being planned. The first V&A museum outside London, V&A Dundee opened on 15 September 2018. The Victoria and Albert Museum has its origins in

16728-498: The worst of the natural history with the J. Steele Elliot collection of Bedfordshire birds, mammals, nests and eggs and, in 1929, developed two new refurbished galleries. For the first time the displays were opened to the public on Wednesday and Saturday afternoons, for an admission price of 6d. With this new high-profile status the museum became recognised as one of the best school museums in England. The next major figure to influence

16864-635: Was abandoned; in its place a new Exhibition Road Quarter designed by Amanda Levete 's AL_A was created. It features a new entrance on Exhibition Road , a porcelain-tiled courtyard (inaugurated in 2017 as the Sackler Courtyard and renamed the Exhibition Road Courtyard in 2022) and a new 1,100-square-metre underground gallery space (the Sainsbury Gallery) accessed through the Blavatnik Hall. The Exhibition Road Quarter project provided 6,400 square metres of extra space, which

17000-429: Was absorbed into the larger Gallery and Museum building, and accessed via the main entrance in the courtyard of the former brewery building. Bedford Museum was formed in the 1960s from the collections of Bedford Modern School and Bedford Borough Council. Its social history, archaeology, natural history and ethnography collections tell the stories of the people and places that have shaped Bedford and its relationship with

17136-637: Was constructed, facing north on Castle Lane, opposite the Bunyan Meeting Church. Bedford Gallery was originally designed to be used as a clubhouse known as ‘Castle Rooms’, for supporters and members of the Whig party. Rate books from the time show that it was divided into 3 sections: a house, club rooms and a cellar. From 1848, the building was used by the Bunyan Meeting as a Sunday School, for Church gatherings and for teas. This lasted until

17272-493: Was created in consultation with the exhibition designers and masterplanners Metaphor . The plan is expected to take about ten years and was started in 2002. To date several galleries have been redesigned, notably, in 2002: the main Silver Gallery, Contemporary; in 2003: Photography, the main entrance, The Painting Galleries; in 2004: the tunnel to the subway leading to South Kensington tube station , new signage throughout

17408-424: Was designed by Sir Edward Poynter ; the lower part of its walls consist of blue and white tiles with various figures and foliage enclosed by wood panelling, while above there are large tiled scenes with figures depicting the four seasons and the twelve months, painted by ladies from the Art School then based in the museum. The windows are also stained glass; there is an elaborate cast-iron grill still in place. With

17544-492: Was designed in a Renaissance style by James Gamble. The walls and even the Ionic columns in this room are covered in decorative and moulded ceramic tile, the ceiling consists of elaborate designs on enamelled metal sheets and matching stained-glass windows, and the marble fireplace was designed and sculpted by Alfred Stevens and was removed from Dorchester House prior to that building's demolition in 1929. The Grill Room (1876–81)

17680-537: Was earmarked for a £2.5m refurbishment. The project, funded by Government and Bedford Borough Council, created a state-of-the-art venue that housed a programme of temporary exhibitions (including 'High Art, Low life—Toulouse-Lautrec', a touring show from the British Museum) during the closure of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery from April 2009 until April 2011. In 2013 it reopened as part of the new combined Art Gallery & Museum. The lease required Higgins to build

17816-456: Was felt within the organisation and the council that the new single building needed a new name that encompassed the history of the site and collections, while being more straightforward than the interim merged name. 'The Higgins' was chosen for its connection with the site as the Higgins family home and business, and the prominent role the family played in the town including Charles Higgins (1789–1862) being mayor in 1848. The redevelopment of

17952-406: Was formerly known, opened its doors to the public on 25 July 1949. It was originally occupied the house built in 1846) as the home of Charles Higgins (1789–1862) and his family next to the Higgins & Sons Brewery. The museum had been created by the philanthropic brewer, Cecil Higgins (1856–1941) to house his collection of ceramics, glass and objets d’art for the benefit, interest and education of

18088-442: Was introduced "to ascertain practically what hours are most convenient to the working classes". To raise interest for the museum among the target audience , the museum exhibited its collections on both applied art and science. The museum aimed to provide educational resources and thus boost the productive industry. In these early years the practical use of the collection was very much emphasised as opposed to that of " High Art " at

18224-426: Was occupied by Brompton Park House, which was extended in 1857 to include the first refreshment rooms. The V&A was the first museum in the world to provide researchers and guests a catering service. The official opening by Queen Victoria was on 20 June 1857. In the following year, late-night openings were introduced, made possible by the use of gas lighting . In the words of museum director Cole gas lighting

18360-517: Was redesigned by Kim Wilkie and opened as the John Madejski Garden on 5 July 2005. The design is a subtle blend of the traditional and modern: the layout is formal; there is an elliptical water feature lined in stone with steps around the edge which may be drained to use the area for receptions, gatherings or exhibition purposes. This is in front of the bronze doors leading to the refreshment rooms. A central path flanked by lawns leads to

18496-466: Was started but never finished. To the east of this were additional galleries, the decoration of which was the work of another designer, Owen Jones ; these were the Oriental Courts (covering India, China and Japan), completed in 1863. None of this decoration survives. Part of these galleries became the new galleries covering the 19th century, opened in December 2006. The last work by Fowke was

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