Royal Albert Memorial Museum

The initial concept of the Royal Albert Memorial Museum in Exeter was as a lasting memorial to Prince Albert. An appeal fund was launched in 1861 and the building was completed in stages from 1868 until 1899 when the York Wing was opened by the Duke and Duchess of York, later King George V and Queen Mary. The fine art collection alone contains in excess of 7000 thousand objects spanning paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture. Victorian artists predominate including the work of Myles Birket Foster, Kate Greenaway, Samuel Prout, Samuel Cousins, Edward Poynter, William Powell Frith and Stanhope Forbes. Devonian painters are also well represented and include examples by Francis Towne John White Abbott and a considerable collection of works by Frederick John Widgery. The museum also boasts a collection of 20th century British art that includes artists such as Walter Sickert, Duncan Grant, Paul Nash and Barbara Hepworth and well as the former principal of Exeter School of Art, Clifford Fishwick.