John Bellany’s (b.1942) paintings are among the most confrontational humanistic paintings produced in Britain in recent history. Layered with references to the expressionistic tradition in art (Bosch, Breughel, Beckmann), and his own dramatic life, recent death and incredible survival, they are allegories of mortality that have no rival today. The drama of his own life is given artistic credence by his masterly use of references to artists from the past, as well as to the life of Scottish fishing communities like that of Port Seton, near Edinburgh, and Eyemouth, on the North Sea, where he grew up. Faced with the primal issues of survival in the elements, and acutely aware of the dangers of life at sea, Bellany was attuned to issues of mortality from a young age.

The exhibition at Beaux Arts, London comes at a significant time in John Bellany’s career, following major exhibitions in Glasgow and Brussels, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong last year. On a personal level, the artist has recently suffered two heart attacks: last June and just weeks ago as this exhibition was being prepared. Bellany’s lifelong preoccupation with death, as a consequence of his fundamentalist, seafaring upbringing in Scotland, became acutely personal in the 1980s when acutely ill he underwent and recovered from a liver transplant operation. The present exhibition, which includes a number of seminal works, ranges from the early 1970s to the present.

The use of boats, giant skates, dismembered fish, is intended to conjure images of death and survival. Obsession, (1973), belongs to a remarkable body of work that Bellany produced in the 1960s and 1970s in response to his upbringing. Informed by a Calvinistic worldview: of hellfire and damnation, of anxiety towards activities of the flesh, sceptical and fearful of the consequences of perceived sin, Bellany’s paintings are inextricably bound to a pre-twentieth century worldview. His upbringing and adolescence were dominated by the condemnation of alcohol (the Closed Brethren 1 preached that wine in the time of Christ was not fermented), for according to the Gospel of Paul, “drunkenness is an affront to God”. Sexual activity, other than for procreation within marriage was also condemned making the life of a typical student in the 1960s, fraught with conflict. By contrast, the portraits of the artist’s family such as My Grandmother, (1971) express the warmth and respect that Bellany feels towards the individuals who were pivotal in his life; their values of compassion and forgiveness in turn inform Bellany’s work at all stages of his career. Eyemouth Bonaventure, (2003) is a tribute to the life of brave fishermen in traditional coastal communities in Scotland, the actual boat portrayed belonging to his cousin, also John Bellany. The painting and others such as Eyemouth (2006) represent the Bellany family’s continuing close relationship with the sea and fishing communities in Eastern Scotland. Although the characters in many of Bellany’s monumental paintings may appear to inhabit a time-warp, the boats and sea are timeless images which Bellany presents as representative of dying values in the face of an increasingly impersonal life in cities. The sensual and immediate use of thick paint, vivid colour and frontal-tilting of the picture plane, make these images both immediate and utterly contemporary. Bellany’s subject matter implies a questioning of many modern values where the family unit and communities are threatened by the pressures of globalisation and family breakdown. Roots, Bellany implores, are vital to living a full and intense life.

The drawings and etchings made in the 1980s when Bellany confronted his own death from alcoholism, possess the quality of Rembrandt’s marvellous self-portraits. Addenbrooke’s Hospital (1988), drawn just hours after coming round from his operation, presents this confrontation with mortality in a grim, and candid form, yet it also possesses a humility and gratitude for the brilliant surgeon and medical team who saved him, and for the love of his family. The painting, Confrontation, (1986) was painted shortly before the medical crisis that precipitated the liver transplant. It is a poignant image of the artist, his back towards the viewer, preparing to confront his demons and find the strength to face a future free of alcohol dependence.

Mortality is one of the central issues that dominates Bellany’s oeuvre. From the fear of death in the small, insular fishing village of Port Seton in the 1940s and 1950s, Bellany absorbed an atmosphere of extreme anxiety. Port Seton had a population of between 2,000 and 3,000 and remarkably 13 churches; the Bellany family attended church two or three times on a Sunday. Christopher Rush, Scottish author of Hellfire and Herrings, observed, “Religion and the sea went hand in hand – there was no escaping God. It was not intended to be fear of God but respect for God. Fishing in the pre-echo sound era, was itself an act of faith, leaving terra firma and casting a line into the sea, the unknown” 2. The fatalism that developed in response to the profound uncertainty of so primal a life, required faith and hope in God. Before casting the net, fishermen uttered, “In the name of God”. Numerous hymns contain references to the perils of the sea; disasters at sea were part of life in fishing ports around Scotland. Bellany’s father was a fisherman and a naval sea captain during the war.

The sea provides Bellany with a visual ground; metaphorically it becomes the stage on which players enact personal rituals of life, love and death, yet they rarely interact with each other. Bellany’s paintings, such as, The Rough Bird, (1986) and Confrontation (1986) in this exhibition, suggest narratives but they are fixed, enigmatic, sometimes bizarre creations. Complete with humans, animals, birds, or composite creatures and resembling a Goya or Ensor mask, they look not at each other, but at the viewer. There is at times a resignation that chaos abounds and cannot be altered or improved, at others there is a plaintive demand made of the viewer to intercept. Although there is not a fixed reading or clear intention from the artist, layers of poignant messages are alluded to.

The open-ended nature of Bellany’s message gives it an overwhelming mystery and power. References are made to literature, such as Hemingway’s, Old Man and the Sea. The skate is used by Chardin, (1699-1779) in his famous, Lenten Still Life in the Louvre. Bellany had first hand experience of these strange creatures, known by fishermen as ‘demons of the deep’, and highly dangerous to handle, when he worked in the local fish sheds on Saturdays and during summer holidays. Bellany was drawn to the northern tradition in European art; numerous visual references are made to the grotesque imagery of Breughel and Bosch. The elemental character of paintings such as Seaman, (1988) acknowledges the extremely hard physical life of fishermen.

Bellany’s temperament plays an important part in perceiving the psychological drama and intensity of a given situation and giving it so potent a form. This is in contrast to a Scottish reticence to give expression to tragic or fearful experiences in the normal course of life, yet there is a literary tradition (including Neil Gunn who wrote Morning Tide and Highland River), and George MacKay Brown whose Greenvoe, portrays the seafaring community tortured with religious guilt. From the age of 18, in Edinburgh, Bellany was a close friend of George MacKay Brown, in whom he found a kindred spirit. In the same tradition Christopher Rush’s novels such as Hellfire and Herrings set in the east Fife fishing village of St Monans, address the legacy of the potent mix of religion and modern life. The paintings of this period show the artist’s unique attack on the frightful distortion of Christian values where a loving family is destroyed by sexual guilt and fear.

Premonition, was painted in September, 2005, after the Glasgow exhibition opened in June. On the way to the opening of the show, accompanied by his wife Helen, Bellany collapsed with a heart attack. He was brought back to life in the ambulance after first aid was administered. Premonition depicts two lovers surrounded by the minutiae of life, against the sea of death, haunted by their final goodbye. Framed by the window is the boat, on the sea, that will carry the dying individual (in this case the man, behind whom a shrouded skeleton hovers) to his death. The fishing boat is the vessel that will carry the individual from life to death; on board are the three figures of the Trinity seen as the crucifixion, holding the cross. The sea represents the River Styx, from classical mythology, where Charon – the grim ferry man of the dead, for the price of a coin in the mouth of the corpse - carries the dead bodies, across the river to the underworld. Without this passage across the river, the soul would be lost. Bellany refers to Michelangelo’s depiction of the final rite of passage from Greek myth in the Sistine Chapel. Bellany here does not paint the boat in the water, sailing, but exposes instead its stationary keel. It is depicted therefore, in the same way that model boats in fishing communities such as Port Seton and St Monans, are suspended above the altar in the village kirk or under the bell tower. It is not a working boat that Bellany portrays but a model of a boat (his father made superb models of boats) transformed into a ghost ship. Having drawn boats and models of boats from a young age, Bellany has developed a personal iconography that continues to resonate with meaning and personal conviction. While Premonition is very much the product of a life’s work, in visual and allegorical terms, it is a very much calmer work than Bellany’s early paintings, expressing a sombre acceptance of the cycles of life.

Premonition was painted in response to Bellany’s second brush with death which precipitated a further response to the ordeal and the ensuing relief of having his life saved, against the odds, by a liver transplant operation in 1989. In both cases the artist had a remarkable outpouring of images

(Flowers of Hope, 2002) that confront his mortality and celebrate life itself. Flowers, wonderful and more life-enhancing portraits, images of Italy where he has a home and studio, recently his paintings in China, (Two Women bythe China Sea, 2004) all testify, not to his fear of the earlier life, but a celebration of what transpires to be the wondrous and remarkable nature of life.

Dr Janet McKenzie

Deputy Editor, Studio International

1 A stricter version of the Plymouth Brethren; most of the town were Presbyterian.

2 Conversation with Christopher Rush, December 2005, Fife Ness, Scotland.

Biography 

1942 Born in Port Seton, Scotland
1960-65 Edinburgh College of Art. 
Studied painting under Sir Robin Philipson and Sir William Gillies 
1965 68 Royal College of Art, London. 
Studied under Carel Weight and Peter de Francia 
1967 Official cultural visit to East Germany 
with Alan Bold and Alexander Moffat: 
visited Dresden, Halle, Weimar, East Berlin and 
the Concentration Camp of Buchenwald 
1968 Lecturer in Painting, Brighton College of Art 
1969-73 Lecturer in Painting, Winchester College of Art. 
Visiting Lecturer at Royal College of Art, 
London and Goldsmiths College of Art, London 
1978-84 Lecturer in Painting, Goldsmiths College of Art, London 
Lecturer in Painting, Royal College of Art, London 
1983 Artist in Residence, Victoria College of the Arts, Melbourne 
1988 Elected Fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge 
1994 Awarded CBE by Her Majesty The Queen 
1996 Awarded Honorary Doctorate, University of Edinburgh 
1998 Honorary D Lit, Heriot Watt, University of Edinburgh 
1999 Senior Fellow, Royal College of Art, London 
2002 Awarded the Freedom of San Cristoforo, Barga 
2005 Awarded the Freedom of East Lothian 

 Solo Exhibitions 

1965 Dromidaris Gallery, Holland 
1968 Edinburgh College of Art 
1969 Winchester School of Art 
1970 Drian Gallery, London 
Hendricks Gallery, Dublin 
1971 New 57 Gallery, Edinburgh 
Printmakers Workshop, Edinburgh 
Drian Gallery, London 
1972 Royal College of Art, London 
1973 Triad Arts Centre, Bishop's Stortford 
Edinburgh City Arts Centre 
Drian Gallery, London 
1974 Drian Gallery, London 
1975 Aberdeen City Art Gallery 
1977 Acme Gallery, London 
1978 Glasgow Print Studio Gallery 
Scottish Arts Council Gallery, Edinburgh 
Printmakers Workshop Gallery, Edinburgh 
Crawford Arts Centre Gallery, St. Andrews 
1979 Glasgow Print Studio Gallery 
Third Eye Centre, Glasgow 
Southampton City Art Gallery 
Newcastle Polytechnic Art Gallery 
Glasgow Print Studio Gallery 
1980 Acme Gallery, London 
Moira Kelly Fine Art, London 
1981 Goldsmiths College Gallery, London 
1982 Rosa Esman Gallery, New York 
1983 Paintings 1971-1982, touring exhibition to: 
Ikon Gallery, Birmingham 
Graves Art Gallery, Sheffield 
Third Eye Centre, Glasgow 
Rochdale Art Gallery, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle-upon Tyne 
Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 
Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr 
Rosa Esman Gallery , New York 
Christine Abrahams Gallery, Melbourne 
1984 Dusseldorf Gallery, Perth 
Roslyn Oxley Gallery, Sydney 
Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney 
Mercury Gallery, Edinburgh 
Rosa Esman Gallery , New York 
1986 National Portrait Gallery, London 
Fischer Fine Art, London 
Galerie Krikhaar, Amsterdam 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, 
and Serpentine Gallery, London (retrospective) 
Inaugural Exhibition for opening of Henry Moore Gallery, 
Royal College of Art, London 
1987 Peacock Gallery, Aberdeen 
Nigel Greenwood Gallery, London 
The Old Man and the Sea: Paintings and Prints', 
Compass Gallery, Glasgow 
Greenhill Galleries, Perth 
Roslyn Oxley Gallery, Sydney 
Butler Gallery, Kilkenny Castle, Ireland 
Hendricks Gallery, Dublin 
Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr 
Third Eye Centre, Glasgow 
Recent Acquisitions , National Portrait Gallery, London 
1988 Ruth Siegel Gallery, New York 
Bellany as Printmaker 1965-85 , Third Eye Centre, Glasgow 
Printmakers Workshop Gallery, Edinburgh 
Aberdeen Art Gallery 
Beaux Arts, Bath 
1988-89 Hamburger Kunsthalle and Museum am Ostwall, 
Dortmund (retrospective) 
1989 The Renaissance of John Bellany, Watercolours painted in 
Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh 
Fischer Fine Art, London 
1989 John Bellany ‘A Renaissance’ 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh 
Aberdeen Art Gallery 
Beaux Arts, Bath 
1990 Raab Gallery, Berlin 
Ruth Siegel Gallery , New York 
Compass Gallery, Glasgow 
1991 Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 
Fischer Fine Art, London, John Bellany 
"A Long Night's Journey into Day Paintings" 
 Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow 
1992 Flowers East Gallery, London 
1993 Flowers East Gallery, London 
Berkeley Square Gallery, London 
1994 Beaux Arts, Bath 
1995 Terry Dintenfass Gallery, New York 
Edinburgh Festival Exhibition 
Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh 
Strathclyde University Gallery, Glasgow 
1996 Peacock Gallery, Aberdeen 
MacGeary Gallery, Brussels 
Galeria Kin , Mexico 
1997 John Bellany "A toast to Mexico", Beaux Arts, London 
1998 John Bellany "a Scottish odyssey", Beaux Arts, London 
1998-99 Elaine Baker Gallery, Boca Raton, Florida 
2000 Beaux Arts, London 
Solomon Gallery, Dublin 
2001 John Bellany University of Northumbria 
Haven Beaux Arts, London 
2002 John Bellany at 60 Beaux Arts, London 
60 Birthday Exhibition, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, 
Edinburgh 
2003 Beaux Arts, Bath 
Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh 
2004 Solomon Gallery, Dublin 
Beaux Arts, London 
Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh ( Edinburgh Festival Exhibition) 
2005 East Lothian exhibitions to celebrate John Bellany’s 
Freeman Award 
National Gallery of China, Bejing 
The John Bellany Odyssey Mitchell Library, Glasgow 
2006 Beaux Arts, London 

 Selected Group Exhibitions 

 1963 Edinburgh Festival Exhibition, hung on railings, Castle Terrace 
(with Alexander Moffat) 
1967 John Moores Exhibition 6, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 
1968 London Group 
1971 Scottish Realism, (Scottish Arts Council Touring Exhibition) 
10 Scottish Printmakers , Sussex University 
1972 British Figurative Art, Nova London Gallery, Copenhagen 
1973 Fanfare for Europe, Drian Gallery, London 
Figures in the Landscape , (Arts Council Touring Exhibition) 
London Group , Whitechapel Art Gallery, London 
1974 A Choice Selection, Scottish Arts Council Gallery, Edinburgh 
British Painting'74' , Hayward Gallery, London 
British Art '74' , Germany (British Council Touring Exhibition) 
John Moores Exhibition 9 , Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 
1976 John Moores Exhibition 10, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 
1977 25 Years of British Painting, Royal Academy, London 
Expressionism and Scottish Painting , 
(Scottish Arts Council touring exhibition) 
Royal College of Art, London 
Scottish Painting , Edinburgh College of Art 
British Painting , Nottingham Castle 
1979 Scottish Artists, Amos Anderson Gallery, Helsinki 
Tate '79 , Tate Gallery, London 
Independent Irish Artists Exhibition , Municipal 
Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin 
(with Bacon, Crozier and Freud representing Britain) 
British Painting , Oxford University 
The British Art Show , Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, 
(and touring exhibition) 
1980 John Moores Exhibition 12, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 
(Prize Winner) 
British Art 1940-1980: The Arts Council Collection, 
Hayward Gallery, London 
1981 National Portrait Gallery, London 
13 British Artists , (British Council exhibition touring) Germany 
Art and the Sea , (touring exhibition) 
lan Birksted Gallery, London 
1982 The Subjective Eye, (touring exhibition) 
John Moores Exhibition 13 , Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 
Contemporary Choice , Serpentine Gallery, London 
Inner Worlds , (Arts Council touring exhibition) 
Drawing Towards Prints , Printmakers' Workshop, Edinburgh 
1983 Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin 
Self-Portraits , (Scottish Arts Council touring exhibition) 
1984 Scottish Expressionism, Warwick Arts Trust, London 
The Hard-Won Image , Tate Gallery, London 
The British Art Show , (touring exhibition) 
1985 Athena International Awards, Mall Galleries London
 (joint first-prize) 
British Painting , Manchester City Art Galleries; 
Fine Art Society, Edinburgh 
1986 Man and Animals, (Arts Council exhibition), Nottingham Castle 
Celtic Vision , touring exhibition opened in Madrid 
Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, The Royal Academy, London 
(every year from 1986-2002) 
1987 Scottish Painting 1954-87, 369 Gallery, Edinburgh 
Warwick Arts Trust, London 
Awarded George Walliston Prize for best work in 
Royal Academy, London 
Represented Britain: Ljubljana Print Biennale, 
Yugoslavia , 2nd Triennale of European Engraving, Grada, Italy 
The Self Portrait , selected by Edward Lucie-Smith and Sean Kelly, 
Artsite Gallery, Bath; 
Fischer Fine Art, London 
The Scottish Bestiary (portfolio of prints touring exhibition), 
The Banqueting House, London 
1988 British Romantic Painting, touring exhibition opened in Madrid 
The Royal College of Art Print Portfolio Exhibition, 
Victoria and Albert Museum, London 
1989 El Greco, National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (guest artist) 
Eros in Albion (House of Massaccio) Italy, (British Council Exhibition) 
British Figurative Painting , selected by Norbert Lynton 
Every Picture Tells a Story , (British Council touring exhibition), 
Hong Kong; Singapore; Africa 
Scottish Paintings since 1900 , 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh; 
Barbican Art Gallery, London 
1990 Glasgow's Great British Art Show, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow 
The Compass Contribution , Tramway, Glasgow 
8 Scottish Printmakers , (British Council touring exhibition), 
Singapore ; Glasgow 
Turning the Century; The New Scottish Painting (touring show), 
Raab Gallery, London; Milan, Berlin; USA 
Bellany, Howson, McFadyen , Auchencloss Gallery, New York 
Scotland Creates , McLellan Galleries, Glasgow 
1992 New British Art , Denmark , (British Council Exhibition) 
1993 Scottish Painting, Flowers East, London 
Contemporary Trends in British Art , Hayward Gallery, London 
John Moores Exhibition 18 , Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool 
1994 The Bigger Picture, McLellan Galleries, Glasgow 
1995 Contemporary British Artists, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
New York 
1996 Contemporary European Figurative Painting, 
Walter Gropius Gallery, Berlin 
National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh 
Contemporary Scottish Painting , Edinburgh City Art Centre 
An American Passion - The Susan Kasen Summer and 
Robert D. Summer collection of contemporary 
British Painting , McLellan Galleries, Glasgow; 
Royal College of Art, London 
Inaugural exhibition of the Collection, Gallery of Modern Art, 
Glasgow 
A Scottish Renaissance , Hong Kong Gallery 
(British Council Exhibition) 
1997 Contemporary Scottish Portraits, 
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh 
British Art from the Arts Council Collection , 
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London 
1998 Religious Images, National Gallery of New South Wales, 
Sydney 
Edinburgh Festival Group, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 
25 Years of the Kilkenny Castle Guest Artists Project , Kilkenny 
1999 Rehang with Max Beckmann and 
Stanley Spencer, Tate Gallery, London 
Scottish Artists, Solomon Gallery, Dublin 
Scottish Art Now , Festival Exhibition, Edinburgh City Art Centre 
2000 Beaux Arts, London 
Solomon Gallery, Dublin 
Newcastle University Gallery, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne 
The Sea , John Bellany and Sir William McTaggart, 
Edinburgh City Art Centre 
National Gallery of Melbourne, Australia 
Melbourne Millennium Exhibition , representing Britain, 
Bellany, Bacon and Spencer 
2001 Beaux Arts, London 
Scottish National Gallery, Duff House, Banff 
Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh 
Pittenween Gallery, Fife 
2002 Beaux Arts, London 
Ricci Foundation Galleries, Barga, Tuscany, Italy 
Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh Solomon Gallery, Dublin 
St. Paul ’s Cathedral, London 
The Enchanted Land : Puccini’s Landscape, 
Lights and Colours Mitchell Library, Glasgow 
National Gallery of China, Beijing 
Shanghai Gallery of Art, China 
European Union Gallery, Brussels 
Royal Academy Summer exhibitions every year from 1985-2005 
Awards, Commissions and Prizes 
1962 Andrew Grant Scholarship; travelled to Paris 
1965 Postgraduate Travelling Scholarship; 
travelled to Holland and Belgium 
Com missioned by Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries 
to paint murals for Chesser House, Edinburgh 
Burston Award at Royal College of Art, London 
1980 John Moores Prize Winner 
1981 Major Arts Council Award 
1985 Athena International Art Award (joint first-prize winner) 
1987 Wollaston Award, Royal Academy, London 
1991 Commissioned to paint Lord Renfrew and 
Sir Roy Caine by the National Portrait Gallery, London 
1992 British Council visit to Central Europe; Prague; 
Vienna; Budapest 
1993 Korn/Ferry Picture of the Year, Royal Academy, 
London 
1995 Glasgow Herald Award for Excellence 
2002 Cheval Medal from City of Florence 
2004 Fishers in the Snow presented to the new S
cottish Parliament 
2005 Honoured by becoming the first Freeman of 
East Lothian 

 Public collections 

 Aberdeen Art Gallery 
Arts Council of Great Britain 
Belfast Polytechnic 
British Council 
British Museum, London 
Chesser House, Edinburgh 
Contemporary Art Society 
Dundee Central Museum and Art Gallery 
Dublin Museum of Modern Art 
Edinburgh Corporation 
Ferens Art Gallery, Hull 
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge 
Glasgow Art Galleries and Museums 
Government Art Collection 
Hatton Gallery, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne 
Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow 
J. F. Kennedy Library, Boston 
Kassa Kasser Museum , New York 
Kirkcaldy Museum and Art Gallery 
Leeds City Art Gallery 
Leicester Museum and Art Gallery 
Maclaurin Art Gallery, Ayr 
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 
Middlesbrough Art Gallery 
Museum of Boca Raton , Florida 
Museum of London 
Museum of Modern Art, New York 
National Gallery of Art, Gdansk 
National Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin 
National Gallery of Poland, Warsaw 
National Library of Congress, Washington 
National Portrait Gallery, London 
New York Public Library 
Perth Museum and Art Gallery 
Royal College of Art, London 
Scottish Arts Council 
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh    
Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh    
Sheffield City Art Gallery    
Southampton City Art Gallery   
 Swindon Museum and Art Gallery    
Tate Gallery, London    
University of Western Australia, Perth   
 Victoria and Albert Museum, London   
Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester   
 Wolverhampton Municipal Art Gallery and Museum        
 Zuider Zee Museum, Holland