ENTER YOUR EMAIL ON THE RIGHT FOR YOUR DAILY DOSE OF DORSET
If your idea of Bournemouth is a bit gor-blimey, you're mostly right; but then, perched on the cliff, high above the pier and the cloying aroma of chip fat and sun oil stands the town's last bastion of culture...The Russell-Cotes Museum.
I shad no inkling of this hidden gem (and it is gem) until just a couple of years ago yet it houses a world class collection of
Victorian painters from Rossetti and the pre Raphaelites to Landseer and on to amazing pieces created by daubers I've never even heard of. In fact it forms a short sharp anthology of the best of Victorian art.
The collection was assembled by manic collectors Merton and Annie Russell-Cotes and is housed in the opulent villa Merton built on the cliff-top as a present for his wife.
The building is an exceptional monument to late Victorian taste and for that reason alone would be worth the visit. As old man Merton said, 'I made up my mind to construct it architecturally to combine the Renaissance with Italian and old Scottish baronial styles' How did he resist chucking in a pyramid for good measure... that's Victorians for you...
The Russell-Cotes were also avid globe-trotters and souvenirs of their jaunts cover Australasia, America, India, the Near East and Africa as well as the Pacific Islands.
Great art bringeth forth great hunger so if you want to sample a further masterpiece in oils. Harry Ramsden's fish and chips is but a short walk down the hill - just follow your nose.
www.russell-cotes.bournemouth.gov.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment