Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery

The Museum owes its existence to one Thomas Charles (1777–1855), a surgeon-turned-antiquary who owned the picturesque but neglected Chillington Manor built circa 1651 located in the town centre. His not inconsiderable archaeological and art collection was bequeathed to Maidstone on his demise. This included works by many foreign artists which was not added to for some years. Gradually by the early 20th century more ‘contemporary’ Victorian oils such as paintings by Albert Goodwin a locally born painter were acquired. In 1889, Samuel Bentlif (1819–1897), a local footwear retailer, offered to build a two-storey art gallery wing onto Chillington House, a late-Victorian building next to Chillington Manor, in memory of his brother George Amatt Bentlif (1806–1887) an avid collector. The Bentlif Art Gallery wing was opened in 1890 and comprised a library and three separate galleries for exhibitions, watercolours and oils in the late 19th century Renaissance taste. George Bentlif's collection of more than 200 paintings was bequeathed to the museum in 1897 and the Bentlif Trust was set up to care for and develop the collection. It is still active today. Notable artists in the collection included not only Albert Goodwin, but Arthur Hughes, Thomas Sidney Cooper, Henry Bright (1814–1873) and Henry Mark Anthony (1817–1886). During the 20th century the museum's collection was expanded with the addition of paintings by James Dromgole Linton, Mervyn Peake, George Lambourn, Anna Zinkeisen, Elinor Bellingham-Smith and Bernard Dunstan, Frederick Cuming and Rodrigo Moynihan. By mid-2014 the fine art collection comprised nearly 500 items.