Portrait painter and art lecturer, Harry Fletcher, shares his experience of the 150th Anniversary Exhibition:
In June, I gave a lecture to the Art Society Southport, after which The Atkinson’s Heritage & Participation Officer, Joanne Chamberlain invited me to view the 150th Anniversary Exhibition, which was a pleasure. It was presented in the popular 19th Century “Salon Hang”, and the experts had just finished their work.
If you visit the Atkinson website, there is a fascinating time-lapse video of the process through which art works are arranged from floor to ceiling, with no space wasted between them. This exhibition features highlights from nearly 3,000 collection pieces dating from the 17th to 21st centuries. It is a treasure trove – spectacular indeed, as Andrew Brown described it in June. There is so much to enjoy, so I will select the paintings which particularly drew my attention. Facing you as you walk in is an impressive full-length portrait of William Atkinson, who offered Southport Corporation £6,000 to build an art gallery and library for the town.
What quickly caught my attention was one of visitor’s favourites, which is “Lilith”. It is an 1887 painting by John Collier, who worked in the style of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which included Dante Rosetti, Holman Hunt and William Morris. It is a painting of the Jewish mythic figure Lilith, and she is portrayed as a golden haired, pale porcelain skinned nude women. She fondles on her shoulder the head of a serpent, which is coiled round her body in a passionate embrace. The painting invites you to delve into its deeper mythological and symbolic meanings.
Both the figure and the snake are magnificently painted and as a result it was exhibited at the London Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1887 and then in 2004 it was part of the exhibition “Wild, Fashion Untamed” at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
Also, very popular with visitors is “A Street Scene”, a quintessential L S Lowry composition from 1935, featuring rows of terraced houses, chimneys, a looming industrial presence and townsfolk going about their day.
I am a huge fan of Dame Laura Knight and one of her charming works is in the exhibition, which is “Dressing room at Drury Lane”, in which one of the performers turns to greet us. Also, there is a sensitive 1926 portrait by Laura of Ethel Bartlett. Ethel and her husband Rae popularized two-piano classical music in Europe and the United States. Laura joined the Newlyn School of Artists and she was influenced by Sir Alfred Munnings, who has been referred to as the genius of romantic British equestrian art, here represented by his “Trooper in full marching order”, a painting of a soldier on horseback during the First World War – during which over 500,000 British horses died. Also, at Newlyn there were Lamorna Birch, Henry Scott Tuke and Harold Harvey and they are represented in the exhibition.
I enjoyed my visit, and I am looking forward to returning November 6th, when I will give a lecture on Dame Laura Knight.
Join Harry Fletcher for his Evening Talk: The Life and Major Works of Dame Laura Knight.
6 November 2026 at 7PM.
Free for members / £5 for public. Pay on the door.