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31 Jan 2023: He cultivated new patrons too, starting with members of the University and forging new alliances with those who lacked formal Cambridge connections.

31 Jan 2023: A new chapter of my life. This content is archived. ... A new chapter of my life. Sydney Cockerell portrait. The directorship of Sydney Cockerell (1908-1937) is celebrated as one of the most dynamic and enriching periods in the history of

31 Jan 2023: Their annual subscriptions allowed the Director to strengthen the existing holdings, such as Turner’s watercolours or the Greek vases, and to establish new collections, for instance of Blake’s works

31 Jan 2023: He ensured that new collections came with funds for new galleries. ... The ‘new Fitzwilliam’ became a model for museums in Britain and abroad, prompting Cockerell’s notorious statement: ‘I found it a pigsty; I turned it into a palace.’.

31 Jan 2023: He cultivated new patrons too, starting with members of the University and forging new alliances with those who lacked formal Cambridge connections. ... Through his wide interests and connections, and through his associative approach to collecting, he

31 Jan 2023: The Macclesfield Psalter. This content is archived. The Macclesfield Psalter. East Anglia, probably Norwich, c.1330-1340. Purchased in 2005 with grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Art Fund, the Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum,

31 Jan 2023: storage until 2005 when a new conservation campaign began at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

31 Jan 2023: When a third piece from the Botticelli was donated five years later, Cockerell noted that another, ‘less important fragment’ was in Pierpont Morgan’s collection in New York, a self-congratulatory

31 Jan 2023: John Ruskin. This content is archived. John Ruskin. John Ruskin (1819-1900), Entrance to the South Transept of Rouen Cathedral, 1854. Sydney Carlyle Cockerell’s artistic interests and social ideas were first shaped by John Ruskin. Having read his

31 Jan 2023: The pre-Raphaelites. This content is archived. The pre-Raphaelites. In July 1894 Cockerell was appointed Secretary of the Kelmscott Press, William Morris’s last great enterprise launched in 1891. It inspired the setting up of other Private Presses

31 Jan 2023: Simon Bening (1483-1561). This content is archived. Simon Bening (1483-1561). These are three of the six miniatures at the Fitzwilliam which, together with many others now dispersed around the world, once embellished a sumptuous Book of Hours made

31 Jan 2023: William Morris. This content is archived. William Morris. William Morris (1834-1896) Icelandic sagas 1873-1874. Sydney Carlyle Cockerell’s artistic interests and social ideas were first shaped by John Ruskin. Having read his hero’s works since

31 Jan 2023: Music. This content is archived. Music. Sydney Cockerell’s passion for music was nurtured by his family, which boasted talented amateurs, and by his close circle of friends which included no lesser music critics than George Bernard Shaw and Dr

31 Jan 2023: Cockerell believed that he would leave his manuscripts to Cambridge. In December 1917 Yates Thompson ‘horrified’ him with the news that his collection was to be sold at auction. ... The Psalter-Hours of Isabelle of France. Page from 'The

31 Jan 2023: Panel of ten tiles. This content is archived. Panel of ten tiles. This panel of ten Damascus tiles was the very first object Cockerell acquired with the Friends’ subscriptions. He bought it at Christie’s on 26 February 1909 and brought it to the

31 Jan 2023: Antiquities. This content is archived. Antiquities. Cockerell’s interest in antiquities, first aroused in the 1880s by Philip Webb, developed fully upon his arrival at the Fitzwilliam Museum. By 1910 he had made important purchases and was

31 Jan 2023: William Scawen Blunt. This content is archived. William Scawen Blunt. Wilfrid Blunt 1900. The Wilfrid Blunt Papers bequeathed by him in 1922. A member of the establishment, a former diplomat and a wealthy landowner, Wilfrid Blunt was also a famous

31 Jan 2023: John Ruskin and William Turner. This content is archived. John Ruskin and William Turner. Cockerell used the Friends’ subscriptions strategically, in combination with other funds, gifts and bequests, to develop important collections over time. He

31 Jan 2023: His interest in Blake was awakened in the 1890s by the poets in his new circle of friends, notably W.B. ... Although it came in 1985, it was due largely to his friendship with Cockerell, which began as soon as the new Director arrived in Cambridge and

31 Jan 2023: Oriental Ceramics. This content is archived. Oriental Ceramics. Cockerell created an outstanding collection of Oriental pottery for the Fitzwilliam Museum. The first important acquisitions came with Charles Fairfax Murray’s donation in 1911 and