Government Art Collection

For the first time, Stanley Spencer's 'The Poultry Market, Petersfield' has gone on display in the town that inspired it, on loan from the Government Art Collection 🏛️

Between 1921 and 1923 Spencer lived and worked in and around Petersfield, Hampshire after returning from the Western Front only a few years earlier, having survived the battles of Horseshoe Hill and Doiran, a bout of malaria, and the death of his elder brother Sydney.

Spencer would have seen this view of the poultry market whilst staying at his friend and fellow artist Flora Twort's studio. Though long gone, this 1960s photograph (slide 2) shows what the poultry market used to look like.

📍 See Spencer's painting alongside early works by Flora Twort at Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery. Until 26 September 2026.

Stanley Spencer, A Petersfield View, 1926 © the estate of Stanley Spencer. All rights reserved / Bridgeman Images
Slide 1 © Courtesy of Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery

[Image ID 1: a painting depicting an urban landscape under an overcast sky. The composition is made up of muted colour palette of green, grey, ochre and umber. In the foreground there is a poultry market filled with empty chicken coops and in the background are rolling hills. The painting is hung on a white wall.]

The Chelsea Flower Show opens this week and we're taking a shovel and spade to our collection to see what garden-inspired works we can find 🪏🌳

John Minton, The Garden, 1950 © Royal College of Art / Bridgeman Images.
Charles Ginner, Novar Cottage, Bearley, Warwickshire, 1933
Elizabeth Blackadder, Cat in a Garden, 1977 © the artist's estate / Bridgeman Images.
David Tindle, The Garden, 1977 © the artist / Bridgeman Images.

[Image ID 1: a watercolour depicting a walled garden. Green patches of lawn are separated by a pathway. Alongside the path is a low red-brick wall decorated with stone statues of classical figures.
Image ID 2: a painting depicting the back view of a redbrick cottage and thatched building from the perspective of the garden. The garden is lush with green foliage and flowers. By the cottage is a traditional well and a barrel attached to the house via a drain pipe.
Image ID 3: a watercolour depicting a wood panel fence and side of a shed in the background and in the foreground a vegetable patch covered by semi-transparent blue sheet. A black cat walks along the side of the fence.
Image ID 4: a grassy garden where a door removed from its hinges, leans against a small table, with what looks to be a hedgehog on top. A blue towel hangs from a clothesline and an empty chair faces outwards, with poppies growing around it. A child’s ball is hidden in the grass; while, in the background, there's a slide and the A-frame of a swing set.]

Remembering the imagination and wit of cartoonist Glen Baxter, who died last month aged 82. We are lucky to have a number of his prints in our collection, which have been displayed in government buildings in London, Brussels and Canberra.

Baxter's iconic imagery often features cowboys, comic-book characters and sporting heroes, which are illustrated alongside deadpan, surrealist captions.

Glen Baxter, 'How he hated Saturday morning shopping', 'I sensed that Brenda was trying to impress me….', and 'Mr Unwin often gave me advice on how to distract the bowler', 1984 © the artist's estate.

[Image ID 1: an illustration of a man in a red speedboat on a river with his head down on the wheel. He is surrounded by trees and twisted branches thick with moss and hanging vines. The caption reads: 'How he hated Saturday morning shopping'.
Image ID 2: two schoolgirls inside a blue room. One is sat at a desk and looks up at the other who is carrying a large wooden cupboard on her back. The caption reads: 'I sensed that Brenda was trying to impress me….'.
Image ID 3: two men in cricket whites stand against a bright blue sky with large white clouds. One of the men holds a bat in one hand and a mirror up in the other – which doesn't operate like a normal mirror, but repeats the figure as he appears instead of reflecting. The caption reads: 'Mr Unwin often gave me advice on how to distract the bowler'.]

Happy 90th birthday to British design icon Margaret Calvert!

⚠️ Calvert is best known for designing the UK road signage system with Jock Kinneir, which was launched on all British roads on 1 January 1965 and is still in place today. Calvert's iconic 'Man at Work' road sign provided the starting point for her 2008 painting 'Woman at Work'.

This screen print is currently on display at the UK Ambassador's Residence in Paris . 📍 🇫🇷

Margaret Calvert, Women at Work, 2018 © Margaret Calvert



[Image ID: a red, triangular road sign with a figure in black in the middle, usually used to denote roadworks; the figure is digging and appears to be wearing a skirt]

Happy 100th birthday Sir David Attenborough! 🎂🌱🦍

We're celebrating with Marcus Coates' photographic series 'Ritual for Reconciliation', which features crumpled portraits of animals, including a kestrel, an ostrich and a Galapagos land iguana.

Printed on rice paper, each photo was scrunched up into a fist-size ball and then opened out again to reveal creases and crevasses. A strange beauty emerges from this initial destructive act, transforming a 2D image into a sculptural form. By imbuing the photos with a physical form, Coates is attempting to retrieve the lost experience of his intitial encounter with that animal.

Marcus Coates, Kestrel (Falco Tinnunculus) England, Sally Lightfoot Crabs (Grapsus Grapsus) Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Galapagos Land Iguana (Conolophus Subcristatus) Galapagos Islands, 2013 © Marcus Coates

[Image ID 1: a crumpled up photo of a the head of a kestrel
Image ID 2: a crumpled up photo of a two orange-coloured crabs
Image ID 3: a crumpled up photo of the head and body of a iguna]

'I have a strong sense that London hasn’t been properly painted … It has always cried out to be painted, and not been.' - Frank Auerbach

Frank Auerbach always chose to paint subjects that were close to him. Mornington Crescent - depicted here in his characteristically thick, buttery strokes - was near his studio in North London.

Even though his paintings might look as if they have been executed very quickly, Auerbach laboured over his works for a long time. Multiple layers of paint were added and then repeatedly scraped off.

The longer you look, the more the painting reveals. In the foreground figures in blue stroll past heavy black railings, and in the background we can just make out the charactestic deep maroon red tiles of Mornington Crescent tube station.

Today we're marking the 95th anniversary of Frank Auerbach's birth in 1931.

Frank Auerbach, Mornington Crescent, 1970 © Frank Auerbach

[Image ID: An abstracted view of Mornington Crescent in north London, painted with thick brushstrokes. A pelican-crossing beacon frames the painting on the left, while schematically painted blue figures appear to stroll past heavy black railings. The deep red tiles of Mornington Crescent tube station can be seen on the right.]

Congratulations to Tanoa Sasraku and Simeon Barclay who have been nominated for the 2026 Turner Prize – two artists we are lucky enough to represent in the Collection! 🎉

🪨 Tanoa Sasraku’s practice includes sculpture, drawing and filmmaking. Landscapes, pigments, and minerals are key features of her art. This is one of a series of four wall sculptures, which each contain a chunk of pigment found in Devon and Scotland. Small and rectangular, they are inspired by the Baghdad battery - an ancient form of battery made from clay pots, iron and copper rods, which was believed to have the power to raise the dead.

🌹 Multi-media artist Simeon Barclay explores identity in his art, drawing imagery from adverts, magazines, television and music. In this painting (slide 2), Barclay depicts a rose on the cover of Country Life magazine. He uses the rose as a symbol for a British idea of beauty – the description of an 'English rose' is typically applied to white fair-skinned women. Through his work, Barclay seeks to reclaim aspirational imagery in popular culture, in order to offer alternative narratives of British identity.

Tanao Sasruka, Red-Wet Cell, 2022 © Tanoa Sasraku
Simeon Barclay, Miss Julian, 2021 © Simeon Barclay

👑 On the 100th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's birth, we're looking back at some of the iconic depictions of her 70-year reign – and the surprising stories behind their creation.

In early 2000, Lucian Freud – in his late seventies – was asked to paint a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Celebrated for his raw, intimate portraits, Freud often required dozens of sittings lasting many hours for a single work. The Queen, however, would usually sit for 4 at most. 20 sittings took place for the portrait between May 2000 and December 2001.

The Queen was originally going to visit Freud’s London studio, but when the press got word of the plan the location changed to St James’s Palace. Each sitting took place in the morning and would last 2 hours.

David Dawson, Freud’s long-time friend and studio assistant, would help set up the easel and then leave Freud, the Queen and her lady in waiting until the time was up. Between sittings, the portrait was smuggled in and out of the palace in a shoebox!

Dawson managed to take this photograph during one of the sittings – documenting a startlingly informal and intimate moment.

🌍️ Displayed across the globe, there are over 30 separate depictions of the Queen in the Government Art Collection. Discover them all on our website – link in bio.

David Dawson, Lucian Freud painting the Queen – 33/36, photograph, 2001 © David Dawson / Bridgeman Images 2026

🔔 Last chance 🔔 to see Happy & Glorious which closes 18 April.

This joint exhibition between The National Archives and the Government Art Collection, features new works of art commissioned for the Coronation of Their Majesties King Charles III and Queen Camilla.

Don’t miss the chance to see artworks by Vanley Burke, Joy Gerrard, Sophie Gerrard, Mohamed Hassan, Dale Lewis, Hew Locke, Cornelia Parker and Leslie Thompson.

The exhibition is free to visit and can be found installed across The National Archives building in Kew, London.

Find out more on our website: https://artcollection.dcms.gov.uk/whats-happening/coronation-commissions-exhibition-the-national-archives/

To celebrate the 250th anniversary of John Constable's birth, the Government Art Collection has loaned his portrait of Jane Anne Inglis (née Mason) to 'Constable: A Cast of Characters' at Ipswich Museums 👩🏻

Dressed in white, the sixteen-year-old Jane Anne is depicted here at the cusp of adulthood. The portrait is thought to have been painted in 1808 during a family trip to London, where she and her parents visited her mother’s cousin, the young John Constable.

This was not the only time Jane Anne modelled for Constable. The following year he made a pencil portrait study of her, which was discovered in 2020 in a family album belonging to the Mason family. Celebrating Constable 250 offers an opportunity to show the two portraits of Jane Anne together, for the first time.

Discover the full story on the Government Art Collection's website: https://artcollection.dcms.gov.uk/stories/a-closer-look-john-constable-at-250/

See both portraits for yourself at Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich 📅 Until 14 June 2026.