Fine Art

From 1868 or later. The print collection includes works by master printmakers such as Francisco Goya, William Blake and Walter Sickert and by modern masters – Pop Artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Richard Hamilton. We also have the four major series of prints produced by David Hockney; Six Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, The Blue Guitar, A Rake’s Progress and Illustrations of the Poetry of C. P. Cavafy.

The Fine Art collection comprises of approximately 10,739 items and was begun in 1879 when the first public museum and art gallery opened in Bradford. Oil paintings mainly dating from the mid-nineteenth century onwards form 23% of the whole, and another 27% is watercolours, to date mainly from the 19^th and 20^th centuries. The largest part of the collection is made up of prints, 50% of the total, and half of these date from 1868 or later. There are fewer than 100 items of sculpture.

In the 1980s the service began actively collecting the work of South Asian and Black artists to better reflect the contemporary population of Bradford. Examples include textiles, paintings, calligraphy, prints and decorative objects.