|  | Government Indemnity Scheme Showcase This showcase contains some examples of items that are indemnified under the scheme. Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
The Banks of the Seine at Argenteuil
1874
Oil on canvas
62.3 x 103cm
Private Collection on long-term loan to the Courtauld Institute Gallery, Somerset House, London.
(Photograph © Courtauld Institute of Art.) |  | | Manet was a friend of Claude Monet and during the summer of 1874, he stayed at Monet's home at Argenteuil where he painted outside with bright Impressionist colours. It was Berthe Morisot, who became his sister-in-law when she married Manet's brother Eugène, also in 1874, who persuaded him to adopt the Impressionist technique of painting outside. Encouraged also by Degas, Manet's work become freer and lighter under their influence throughout the 1870s. Here the emphasis is on deep cobalt with short staccato brush strokes. The woman and child are probably Camille (Monet's wife) and Jean their son. This wonderful painting complements existing Impressionist displays at the Courtauld Institute Gallery . |  | | | David Roentgen
Oval table, decorated with marquetry of sycamore and harewood
c.1780 Private Collection on long-term loan to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.
(Photograph © Fitzwilliam Museum.) |  | | David Roentgen, the son of the cabinetmaker Abraham Roentgen, was born in Germany. He specialised in furniture with ingenious secret compartments, complicated locks and unusual marquetry. He enjoyed success in France and opened a branch of his business in Paris. Roentgen was awarded the title of 'ébéniste - mécanicien du Roi et de la Reine' (court cabinetmaker). From 1780, Roentgen abandoned the lavish Rococo style and adopted the Classical style, of which this table is an example. In 1789, the French Revolution brought an end to his international business. He eventually returned to his birthplace a ruined man. This loan enables the Fitzwilliam Museum to display a particularly fine example of a type of furniture not represented in its own collection. | | | | Ceri Richards (1903-71)
Saudade
1949
Oil on canvas
112 x 142cm Hussey Bequest, 1985, from Chichester District Council on long-term loan to Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. © Estate of Ceri Richards 2003. All Rights Reserved, DACS.
(Photograph © Pallant House Gallery.) |  | | Ceri Richards was born in 1903 in a small mining village near Swansea in Wales. He is considered one of the most significant British artists of the 20th century. His paintings display tremendous energy and an original and authentic dialogue with several major figures of European modernism, in particular, Kandinsky, Piccasso and Matisse. This painting, based on the theme of the 'Rape of the Sabine Women', with its lovely fluid lines and strong use of colour, clearly shows Matisse's influence. It forms part of the Hussey Bequest, which includes works by other contemporary artists such as Sutherland, Piper, Wood and Nash and is on display at Pallant House Gallery . | | | | Brass plaque
Southern Nigeria
16th/17th century Part of the Dumas-Egerton Collection on long-term loan to the Pitt Rivers Museum (PRM 1991.13.8).
(Photograph courtesy of the Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford.) |  | | This brass plaque comes from the palace of the Oba of Benin. The central figure carries a box, ekpokin , of brass or leather, used for ceremonial presentations. He is flanked by two bearded warriors wearing protective collars of leopard teeth, each carrying a sword under their left arm. The warrior on the right wears a mask on his left hip. At the top of the plaque, two small figures play side-blown ivory trumpets. It is generally thought that such plaques were nailed to the wooden pillars that held up the roofs to the courtyards at the royal palace. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, however, they had been removed to storage where apparently they were used as an archive of information concerning courtly dress and protocol. The Pitt Rivers Museum displays archaeological and ethnographic objects from all parts of the World. | | | | Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
Louisa, Lady Clarges (nee Skrine)
1778
Oil on canvas
127 x 101.6cm From the collection of the Victoria Art Gallery, Bath & North East Somerset Council, on long-term loan to the Holburne Museum of Art, Bath.
(Photograph by kind permission of the Holburne Museum of Art.) |  | | This beautiful portrait of Louisa, Lady Clarges, has been on loan to the Holburne Museum of Art for many years and was indemnified between 1987 and 2002. It is currently back at the Victoria Art Gallery, to make way for temporary exhibitions at the Holburne, but is due to be returned in 2004. Gainsborough worked in Bath between 1759 and 1774. He was a talented musician who played several instruments, including the harp. In this portrait, the young Louisa sits playing her harp, looking rather pensive. The painting was probably not completely finished, and in a preliminary study, Gainsborough included a small dog behind the harp strings. The portrait complements others by Gainsborough at the Holburne and is of special interest since Lady Clarges was born at nearby Claverton. | | | | Joseph Wright (1734-1797)
Sir Richard Arkwright
1789-90
Oil on canvas
241.3 x 152.4cm Private Collection on long-term loan to Derby Museum and Art Gallery.
(Photograph © Derby Museums and Art Gallery.) |  | | This portrait by Joseph Wright, generally known as 'Wright of Derby', is of Sir Richard Arkwright, often considered the father of the modern industrial factory system. He was the youngest of a family of 13 children born in 1732 to a labourer and his wife. By 1786, he had been awarded a knighthood by George III and by the time he died in August 1792, had established factories in Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire and Scotland, and an empire worth over half a million pounds. This painting makes an outstanding addition to Derby Museum and Art Gallery's own significant collection of works by Wright. | | | | Stone Rood-screen Fragment
14th century On long-term loan to the Yorkshire Museum, York, from the Parish Church of St Olaves, York.
(Photograph © York Museums Trust.) |  | | These wonderful panels from a medieval stone rood-screen carved with angels used to stand in St Mary's Abbey, York, probably the most important and influential monastery in the North of England. The Abbey was completed in 1294 but fell into ruin after the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539 instigated by King Henry VIII. The ruins now stand serenely amongst the well maintained lawns of the Museum Gardens. These panels are on show with the permanent display about the Abbey at the Yorkshire Museum . | | | | Sir Stanley Spencer RA (1891-1959)
The Scarecrow, Cookham
1934
Oil on canvas
69 x 74cm Private collection on long-term loan to the Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham. © Estate of Stanley Spencer 2003. All Rights Reserved, DACS.
(Photograph © Stanley Spencer Gallery.) |  | | Stanley Spencer was one of the most original figures in 20th century British art. He was born in Cookham, Berkshire, and spent most of his life in the village which played a large part in the imagery of his paintings, particularly his religious work. The Scarecrow was painted in 1934 and the subject itself stood in a plot next to a house with a view through the village. Spencer recalled "Left and deserted as it was it seemed daily to become part of its surroundings. It was like watching a person slowly changing into a part of nature. And I liked the feeling of it always being there… In the evening he faded into the gloaming like a Cheshire cat". Later in 1934, Spencer painted The Crucifixion , in which the figure of Christ on the Cross was adapted from the scarecrow. Spencer was knighted shortly before he died in 1959. The painting complements the existing collection of paintings by Spencer at the Stanley Spencer Gallery . | | | | Sir John Everett Millais (1829-96)
Shelling Peas
1889
Oil on canvas
128 x 102cm Private collection on long-term loan to Leighton House Museum, London.
(Photograph © Leighton House Museum.) |  | | John Millais, the English painter and book illustrator became the youngest ever student at the Royal Academy Schools at the age of 11. Apart from some temporary setbacks when he was in his twenties, his career was one of the great Victorian success stories and together with Rossetti and Holman Hunt, he founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. This lovely gentle study of a woman shelling peas was done in his later style, when he had moved away from the brilliantly coloured, minutely detailed Pre-Raphaelite style to a broader and more fluid manner. Leighton House was a monument to one man's taste, namely Frederic, Lord Leighton, who was one of the dominant figures of late Victorian art. If you look closely at the top right hand corner of the image, you will see the inscription "To Frederick (incorrectly with a 'k') Leighton from John Everett Millais 7 March 89". It is fitting, therefore, that this painting should hang in its original location at Leighton House where it complements the permanent collection of high Victorian art. | | | | Two armchairs with dolphin supports, the back carved in open work with crescent and lotus
158.7cm h, 55cm d
c. early-1800s?
Maker unknown The Trustees of Greenwich Hospital on long-term loan to the Royal Pavilion, Brighton. (Photograph © Royal Pavilion, Libraries and Museums, Brighton & Hove.) |  | | These two highly ornate 'dolphin' armchairs form part of a suite of furniture comprising 23 pieces, which is some of the most opulent of the Regency period. It was commissioned, rather aptly by John and Ann Fish of Kempton Park at an unknown date from an unknown maker. The only identified item is a centrepiece lamp or Nelson Vase, made by the lamp maker William Collins c.1810 and it is dedicated to Nelson by Ann Fish, the then widow of John Fish. An archive of correspondence, still in the hands of Fish descendants, attests to Mrs Fish's attempts to present the suite to a suitably august institution. In 1814 she was turned down by the Chelsea Hospital but in 1815 it was graciously accepted by the Directors of Greenwich Hospital. In 1870 it was transferred to the Admiralty where it remained until around 1960 when it went to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton . These two armchairs are from a set of ten and fit in perfectly with the lavish decoration of the Pavilion. | | | | William Burges (1827-81)
The Great Bookcase
1859-62
318cm h, 172cm w The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, on long-term loan to the National Trust (Photograph © Ashmolean Museum.) |  | | William Burges, English architect and designer, worked in a rich Gothic Revival manner. He designed furniture mainly for his own use or as part of the vast schemes of interior rebuilding and decoration carried out for the Marquess of Bute at Cardiff Castle and Castle Coch. This extraordinary and magnificent bookcase is on display in the Great Hall at Knightshayes Court and is contemporary with the house which was also designed by Burges. It has painted panels completed by fourteen other contemporary artists including Burne-Jones, Rossetti, and Poynter, many of whom were friends of Burges. The bookcase has been on loan to the National Trust since 1998. | | | | Seated Buddha
Kashmir, India
9th century
bronze with silver
26cm h Private collection on long-term loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
(Photograph © Ashmolean Museum.) |  | | This beautiful Buddha forms part of the Nyingjei Lam Collection of Indian and early Tibetan bronze sculptures, one of the most important collections of its kind. 'Nyingjei Lam' is apparently Tibetan for 'compassionate path', the name given to the collection by this private lender because it is born from the Buddhist ideal of 'this path of compassion that leads to true happiness and enlightenment'. The loan greatly enhances the Ashmolean Museum's permanent display of Indian and Tibetan works, which is the most extensive in the country outside London. | | | | Ransomes, Head & Jefferies
Steam Traction Engine
1881
2.06m x 3.6m Private Collection on long-term loan to the Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket. (Photograph © Museum of East Anglian Life). |  | | This fine looking steam engine is a good example of Ransomes engineering. The company is known worldwide and was of major national importance in the development of agricultural machinery, including steam engines. The loan enables the Museum of East Anglian Life to show a period of development in the history of the traction engine which is not covered in its collection and is also particularly fitting as it was manufactured only a few miles away in Ipswich. | | | | Peter A Blunsden
Cornflake
Steel
1995
188cm h, 90cm w, 86cm d Private collection on long-term loan to the Ironbridge Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture.
(Photograph by kind permission of Pam Brown, Director, Ironbridge Open Air Museum.) |  | | The Ironbridge Open Air Museum of Steel Sculpture holds a large collection of sculptures which are sited throughout its magnificent 10 acre setting. This quirky example by Peter Blunsden, is linked to other sculptures by discreet pathways intended to deepen the sensibilities needed for contemplative study. The loan of this work makes a handsome addition to the existing collection, which reflects the industrial heritage associated with Ironbridge. | | | | Hound Sejant Maker
Staunton Harold Plate
Flagon
English, 1654
25.5cm h, 15.7cm w, at foot The National Trust on long-term loan to New Walk Museum, Leicester.
(Photograph © Leicester City Museums.) |  | | The Staunton Harold church plate comprises some of the most important church plate in the county of Leicester. The plate, which includes this magnificent flagon inscribed with "Holiness to the Lord" and "The Blood of Christ", also includes a chalice and cover and a paten and cover. It was made in 1654 by the Hound Sejant Maker for Sir Robert Shirley, a devoted royalist and Anglican who rebuilt the private Chapel at Staunton Harold during Cromwell's time in defiance of the government. An inscription above the west door reads "In the yeare: 1653. when all things sacred were throughout ye nation either demollisht or profaned Sr Robert Shirley Barronet Founded this Church whose singular praise it is to have done the best things in ye worst times And hoped them in the most calamitous The Righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance." Cromwell was enraged that Sir Robert built this church in defiance of his order and was suspicious that he had participated in several ploys for the restoration of the Monarchy. He directed an order for Sir Robert to outfit a ship saying, "He that could afford to build a church, could no doubt afford to equip a ship". Sir Robert refused and was taken to the Tower of London in 1656, where he died at the age of 27, victim of a suspected poisoning. The plate's historical and local interest makes it particularly relevant for display at Leicester as well as complementing other items of local church plate at the New Walk Museum . | | | Sir Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641)
The Betrayal of Christ
Oil on canvas
Undated
265.6 x 221.6cm Accepted in lieu of tax by HM Government and allocated to Bristol's City Museum and Art Gallery and displayed in situ at Corsham Court , Wiltshire. (Photograph © City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery.) |  | | Van Dyck, was one of the greatest Flemish painters of the 17th century. He became a master of the Painters Guild in 1618 and after graduating, went on to enter Rubens' workshop. Rubens' influence upon his painting is unmistakeable, although Van Dyck's style was considered less energetic and more highly strung. This enormous painting, which is over ten foot tall, hangs in the Picture Gallery at Corsham and depicts Judas' betrayal of Christ. It is one of a version of three, the other two being at Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Prado, Madrid. Here, in this concentrated composition tightly framed with trees, we see Judas and Christ at the centre, a young blond man holding a torch behind the swarthy bearded soldier and the older grey bearded man, and a leering helmeted man on the right. Christ's extended left foot makes him seem almost weightless. Van Dyck's fame derives chiefly from his portraits and his influence on English portraiture has been profound and lasting. Gainsborough in particular revered him but he was an inspiration to many others well into the early 20th century. | | | Shoes and sock
Leather and wool
10th century City of York Council on long-term loan to the York Archaeological Trust for display at the JORVIK Centre.
(Photograph © York Archaeological Trust.) |  | | In 1976, the York Archaeological Trust started digging on the site of an old sweet factory in Coppergate. Within weeks of the start of the excavation, unique remains of timber-built workshops and rare 1,000- year-old artefacts had been revealed. The excavations were to continue for another five years, during which time the archaeologists uncovered the incredibly well-preserved remains of the Viking-age city of JORVIK. These leather shoes and woollen sock are rare finds because organic materials such as leather, wood and textile usually decay in the ground. At Coppergate waterlogged soils have not only preserved items like these but have also yielded thousands of other household, personal and manufacturing items, pottery, plants and seeds, animal and fish bones. This woollen sock is the only Viking-Age sock ever found in the British Isles and was made using a Scandinavian technique called Nålebinding. Using a single needle and starting at the toe, yarn is worked up the foot in interlocking circular rows of loops. The result is a heavy fabric of great elasticity, ideal for a sock or stocking. Painstaking conservation and research by the York Archaeological Trust on the important finds from Coppergate has allowed their display as part of a permanent exhibition at JORVIK which presents a complete reconstruction of the Viking-age city, incorporating a city-wide view of 10th century businesses, backyards and even bedrooms. | | | Torah crown
Gold, precious and semi-precious stones
Vienna
c.1825
On long-term loan to the Gilbert Collection , Somerset House.
(Photograph © The Gilbert Collection.)
|  | | A torah is a scroll containing the Five Books of Moses (Old Testament) central to Jewish law and learning. The reading of the scroll is central to worship in the synagogue. As a mark of respect and veneration, scrolls are often decorated and a crown is part of this adornment. This particular crown is extremely elaborate and was probably made for the private use of an eminent rabbi. Decorated with sprays of flowers set with rubies, emeralds, rose diamonds and turquoises, the crown has six panels between which are eagles with diamond studded heads and wings, floral tails set with diamonds, rubies and amethysts and with bells suspended from the beaks, the clappers set with rubies. The top is formed as a diamond-set basket filled with gold flowers with turquoise, ruby and diamond centres and mounted with three larger flowers en tremblant, one set with a mine diamond weighing approximately 1.8 carats and two set with rose diamonds each of approximately 1 carat. This important piece of Judaica is one of very few gold and jewelled articles of Jewish ritual art. It is said to have originally come from the Court of Rabbi Israel Ruzhin, the Ruzhiner Rebbe who was a Hassidic leader and great-grandson of the famed Maggid of Mezhirech, Dov Baer. Rabbi Israel's luxurious 'court;' in Ruzhin (modern-day Ukraine) was known for its opulence and he saw no conflict between wealth and spirituality. The exceptionally high quality of workmanship distinguishes this piece from almost any other known example of Jewish ritual art. | | | Disc Brooches
Lead alloy and copper alloy
10th century City of York Council on long-term loan to the York Archaeological Trust for display at the JORVIK Centre.
(Photograph © York Archaeological Trust.) |  | | Viking-age craftsmen made personal jewellery and dress accessories of a very high artistic standard. These were often copied in copper alloy, lead alloy or a mixture of metals for the mass market. These disc brooches from 10th century JORVIK show fashionable motifs of the time and would have been used to fasten garments. Excavations at Coppergate by the York Archaeological Trust produced evidence for every process of metal working from ores, crucibles and moulds to the finished articles pointing to the presence of a workshop on the site. Copper and lead were brought into the urban centre of JORVIK from the Pennine range and tin was imported form Cornwall. Gold and silver was shipped from Europe and Ireland. | | | Aztecs
Installation shot An exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, from 12 November 2002 to 11 April 2003.
(Photograph © Royal Academy of Arts. |  | | This major exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts is devoted to the cultural riches of Mexico's Aztec past. It highlights the splendours, range, depth and sophistication of the Aztec civilization and for the first time has provided an opportunity for the British public to see an exhibition specifically dedicated to the Aztecs of Central Mexico. Among the many objects on display are monumental sculptures in stone and wood, polychrome ceramics, jewellery, turquoise and featherwork objects and several codices. In the forefront of this installation shot is 'Head of Coyolxauhqui' which is on loan from the Museo Nacional de Antroplogia, in Mexico City. It is made of Diorite stone and weighs over 1300 kilos. According to Aztec mythology, Coyolxauhqui, which means "Golden Bells", was the Moon goddess and was the daughter of the Earth goddess, Coatlicue and the sister of the Sun god, Huitzilopochtli. Coatlicue became pregnant with Huitzilopochtli after a ball of feathers fell into the temple where she was sweeping and touched her. This mysterious pregnancy greatly offended her existing four hundred children who, instigated by Coyolxauhqui, resolved to kill their dishonoured mother. However, Huitzilopochtli emerged from the womb of his mother as a fully clothed and armed adult and saved her. He killed all of his siblings and after cutting of Coyolxauhqui's head and dismembering her body, threw her head into the sky, to form the Moon. | | |
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