The Finest Small Museum in Europe
published in canvas magazine
"The Neoclassical portico of the Fitzwilliam Museum dominates one of the wide streets leading into the centre of Cambridge, and its proximity to Peterhouse, the first of the town’s colleges to be founded back in the 13th century, is emblematic of the long connection between museum and university. The Fitzwilliam was founded by Richard, the 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion (1745–1816), a Grand Tourist who, on his death, bequeathed to the university a magnificent library of 10,000 rare books and a collection of paintings, Old Master drawings, prints and musical autographs to “further the Increase of Learning and other great Objects of that Noble Foundation”.
After the museum opened in 1848, its collections grew by gift and bequest. The great 20th-century Director, Sir Sydney Cockerell, a friend of Ruskin, William Morris and Thomas Hardy, attracted donors and endowments and, in his own words, “turned it into a palace”. Under Cockerell’s aegis many more treasures were acquired and innovatively exhibited in ‘country house style’ combining fine with deco- rative arts, including furniture and Oriental rugs. A major work by Titian, ancient Greek vases, 14th– 15th-century illuminated manuscripts, English silver, works by William Blake, the complete Kelmscott Press editions of William Morris, Japanese prints and a collection of Impressionist drawings and paint- ings were displayed in the ever-expanding buildings..."