Change Afoot!
The Gwen Raverat Gallery at Broughton House
For 20 years the Broughton House Gallery has been showing 9 exhibitions a year of the work of living artists. For the last 7 years we have also been the home of the works of Gwen Raverat, granddaughter of Charles Darwin and one of the most famous wood engravers of the 20th century. Not only have we managed the Archive of over 500 different engravings printed by herself, but we have under the Broughton House Books imprint, published three books reproducing her engravings (Gwen Raverat: Wood Engravings of Cambridge, Gwen Raverat in France and Gwen Raverat: A Miscellany).
We have also put on exhibitions of work by other members of the Darwin family: Sophie Gurney (Gwen's younger daughter), Lucy Raverat, Nelly Trevelyan and Emily Prior, her three granddaughters. In 2001 we celebrated the publication of Frances Spalding's biography Gwen Raverat: Friends, Family and Affections, by an exhibition including oil paintings by Gwen and her husband, Jacques Raverat, never seen in public before.
The gallery has become known as the place to go and see and buy her engravings and where all the books about her of featuring her work as an illustrator can be found. It is appropriate that it should be in Cambridge, where she was born (in Newnham Grange), spent all her early years and the last 11 years of her life (in The Granary), both now part of Darwin College.
We have decided to end our 9 exhibitions a year, build on these Darwin and Raverat associations and turn the gallery into the Gwen Raverat Gallery at Broughton House, open by appointment and invitation. The change will take place in April 2008, in good time for the celebration of the 150th anniversary (2009) of the publication of The Origin of Species. There will be an opening for all those faithful visitors to the gallery who have built it up over the last 20 years into something of a Cambridge institution.
The Gwen Raverat Archive will now be permanently accessible by appointment as well as during normal gallery opening hours.
About the Gallery
Broughton House Gallery was founded in 1987 by the present owner Rosemary Davidson, and is the longest established commercial art gallery in Cambridge. It combines a friendly, informal atmosphere with professional presentation of high quality work.
The gallery occupies the ground floor of an 18th century townhouse with a walled garden and is easily accessible by wheelchairs and pushchairs. Children are very welcome.
Location
The Gallery is at 98 King Street, in the heart of Cambridge, five minutes walk from Drummer Street Bus Station and ten minutes from King’s Parade. There is pay and display parking on the street.
You can find the gallery on Multimap.
Architecture and Garden
The gallery was remodelled and extended by Tristan Rees Roberts of Freeland Rees Roberts and was short-listed for an architectural award. The walled garden is often used to show sculptures.
