The seaside town of Eastbourne, in the lea of Beachy Head, owes much to the philanthropic impulses of Alderman Chisholm Towner. Back in 1920, he decided that the people of the town would benefit from exposure to good art, as well as the bracing sea air of the South Coast. He donated twenty-two paintings to Eastbourne, with the idea that they might form the nucleus of a local gallery. His hopes were soon realised. An eighteenth-century manor house was acquired to house the bequest, which consisted mostly of moralising Victorian narrative pictures by artists such as Frederick Goodall and Henry Dawson – paintings of animals and children, fallen women, romanticised images of gypsy encampments, and the like.
The fledgling gallery opened in 1923. A curator, Arthur Reeves Fowkes, was appointed to oversee the expansion of the collection. Under his leadership, a “Pictures of Sussex” policy was developed. The Corporation of Eastbourne funded the acquisition of paintings of the local landscape, “in order to provide the visitor with a complete review of this beautiful country.” An unrivalled collection of paintings, drawings and watercolours of the Sussex scene was gradually accumulated. Subsequent curators left their own imprint on the gallery. During the 1940s and 1950s, a number of works by the great English painter Walter Richard Sickert entered the collection. In the early 1960s, under the energetic direction of the abstract painter William Gear, the gallery acquired numerous pictures by the more adventurous British painters of the time, including Alan Davie, Roger Hilton, Bryan Winter and Derek Boshier. For a brief period, dedicated followers of fashion saw the Towner as a happening place.
The collection continued quietly to expand during the late twentieth century, thanks in part to several major bequests, including a large donation of works on paper by Eric Ravilious, gifted...
The fledgling gallery opened in 1923. A curator, Arthur Reeves Fowkes, was appointed to oversee the expansion of the collection. Under his leadership, a “Pictures of Sussex” policy was developed. The Corporation of Eastbourne funded the acquisition of paintings of the local landscape, “in order to provide the visitor with a complete review of this beautiful country.” An unrivalled collection of paintings, drawings and watercolours of the Sussex scene was gradually accumulated. Subsequent curators left their own imprint on the gallery. During the 1940s and 1950s, a number of works by the great English painter Walter Richard Sickert entered the collection. In the early 1960s, under the energetic direction of the abstract painter William Gear, the gallery acquired numerous pictures by the more adventurous British painters of the time, including Alan Davie, Roger Hilton, Bryan Winter and Derek Boshier. For a brief period, dedicated followers of fashion saw the Towner as a happening place.
The collection continued quietly to expand during the late twentieth century, thanks in part to several major bequests, including a large donation of works on paper by Eric Ravilious, gifted...
