About
Pallant House Gallery is one of the finest small art galleries in Britain, housing an outstanding collection of Modern British art in an architectural setting that combines a Grade I listed Queen Anne townhouse with a striking contemporary extension. Located in the heart of Chichester's historic city centre, the gallery has earned a national reputation that far exceeds what might be expected of a regional institution, with a collection and exhibition programme that rivals many larger metropolitan galleries.
The original building is a magnificent Queen Anne townhouse built in 1712, one of the finest domestic buildings of its period in the south of England. Its elegant proportions, carved stone doorcase, and beautifully restored period interiors provide an intimate and sympathetic setting for displaying art — the domestic scale of the rooms creating a viewing experience quite different from the vast white-walled spaces of larger galleries. The modern extension, designed by Long and Kentish and completed in 2006, provides additional gallery space, improved facilities, and a contemporary architectural counterpoint to the historic house without overwhelming it.
The collection's strength lies in Modern British art from the early twentieth century to the present day, built around the extraordinary bequest of Walter Hussey, Dean of Chichester Cathedral, who assembled one of the most distinguished private collections of modern art in Britain. Hussey's gifts to the gallery included major works by Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, Ceri Richards, and many other leading figures of mid-twentieth-century British art, forming a core collection of exceptional quality that has been steadily expanded through subsequent acquisitions and donations.
The gallery's holdings now encompass a broad survey of British art from the Camden Town Group and Bloomsbury painters of the early twentieth century through the Neo-Romantics, St Ives School, Pop Art, and contemporary practice. Works by Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Blake, R.B. Kitaj, and Bridget Riley sit alongside emerging contemporary artists in a collection that traces the development of British art through the twentieth century with unusual coherence and depth.
The temporary exhibition programme is ambitious and critically acclaimed, regularly mounting shows that attract national attention and bring important works from public and private collections across the country to Chichester. The gallery has been shortlisted for the Art Fund Museum of the Year award, recognition of the quality of its exhibitions, collection, and contribution to the cultural life of the region.
Pallant House Gallery also runs an extensive programme of education, community engagement, and artist residencies that extend its reach beyond the gallery walls. Studio sessions, talks, tours, and family activities make the collection accessible to a wide audience, while the gallery's work with schools and community groups across West Sussex ensures that the benefits of this exceptional collection are shared as broadly as possible.
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Highlights
The Walter Hussey Collection
The core of the gallery's collection is the extraordinary bequest of Walter Hussey, Dean of Chichester Cathedral from 1955 to 1977, who was one of the most distinguished private patrons and collectors of modern art in twentieth-century Britain. Hussey's gifts to the gallery include major works by Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, Ceri Richards, and Marc Chagall — artists he befriended and commissioned during a lifetime of passionate engagement with contemporary art.
The intimacy of the Queen Anne house setting allows these works to be displayed in rooms of domestic scale, creating a viewing experience that recalls the private collection from which they came.
Henry Moore and the Neo-Romantics
The gallery holds important works by Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, John Piper, and other leading figures of the Neo-Romantic movement that dominated British art in the 1940s and 1950s.
Sutherland's powerful paintings of the Welsh landscape, Piper's architectural compositions, and Moore's sculptural studies form a concentration of Neo-Romantic art of exceptional quality. The connection between these artists and the Sussex landscape — Sutherland in particular drew inspiration from the natural forms of the South Downs and the coast — gives these works a particular resonance in their Chichester setting.
Pop Art and Eduardo Paolozzi
The gallery's Pop Art holdings include significant works by Eduardo Paolozzi, Peter Blake, R.
B. Kitaj, and Richard Hamilton that trace the emergence of this influential movement from its roots in post-war collage and mass culture to its full flowering in the 1960s.
Paolozzi is particularly well represented, with prints, collages, and sculptures that span his career and demonstrate his restless experimental approach to image-making. The Pop Art works provide a dynamic counterpoint to the more traditional Modern British art in the collection, reflecting the gallery's commitment to showing the full breadth of twentieth-century British art.
The St Ives School
Works by Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, and other artists associated with the St Ives School represent the abstract and semi-abstract tradition that became one of the most distinctive contributions of British art to the international modern movement. Nicholson's refined geometric compositions and Hepworth's sculptural forms are displayed alongside the vivid colour-field paintings of Heron and Frost, tracing the evolution of the St Ives aesthetic from its roots in the 1940s through to its international recognition in the decades that followed.
Collections
Modern British Art: The Collection
The core permanent display spanning the historic house and modern wing, presenting the gallery's outstanding collection of Modern British art from the early twentieth century to the present — including works from the Walter Hussey bequest, the St Ives School, Neo-Romantic painting, Pop Art, and contemporary acquisitions.
The Hussey Room
A dedicated space celebrating the collection and patronage of Dean Walter Hussey, whose extraordinary gifts form the heart of the gallery's holdings — with works by Moore, Sutherland, Piper, and Chagall displayed in the intimate setting of the Queen Anne house.
Prints and Works on Paper
The gallery's extensive print collection is shown in rotating displays that explore the rich tradition of British printmaking from the early twentieth century to the present, with particular strengths in the work of Paolozzi, Piper, and contemporary printmakers.
Current Exhibitions
A display of recent additions to the permanent collection, featuring paintings, prints, and sculptures acquired through purchase and donation that extend and deepen the gallery's representation of Modern British art.