Prepare to be amazed. On Feb. 18, the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, England, will reveal 64 of some 400 pictures made over five centuries and amassed by David J. Lewis over the past 40 years. They include Rubens’s Allegory of the River God Maranon and Battle of the Amazons (below, right) and Jan van Hemmessen’s Man of Sorrows, plus works by Lucas Cranach, Pissarro, Sisley, Delacroix, and others.
What makes the collection all the more interesting, according to the British press, is that many of the pictures, cleaned and restored in preparation for the show and a catalogue, tell new art-historical tales.
Yesterday, The Independent carried an article saying that:
Among the revelations is the discovery of a sketch for two of El Greco’s most famous paintings, of the Spanish town of Toledo. The Coronation of the Virgin was thought to be, primarily, a studio painting, but when it was cleaned a sketch of the town was found in the bottom-right corner, by El Greco himself.
Another painting, thought to be a copy of the Spanish master Velazquez, was shown to be the work of Delacroix when the full signature – “Delacroix after Velazquez” – was revealed.
Xanthe Brooke, the exhibition’s curator, said: “In the case of Delacroix, we have a new painting in his oeuvre.”
The Independent calls the collection, which is known as the Schorr Collection, the largest in private hands in Britain.
Lewis is a chartered surveyor, but I could find no further information of him or the source of his wealth.
When the Liverpool Daily Post interviewed Lewis recently, he said his collecting began because he needed something to decorate his home:Â “When you’re faced with empty walls you decide what would be very nice to enhance them. That was when we were youn and that’s what we did and then one thing led to another.”
You may want to view the video posted on the Walker’s website, too.
A Collector’s Eye: Cranach to Pissarro closes on May 15.
Between next Friday and then, I hope we learn much more about the collection and the collector. To amass a treasure trove like this completely out of view is pretty unusual.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of David Lewis via The Liverpool Daily Press