Public Catalogue Foundation

The Public Catalogue Foundation’s Comprehensive Illustrated Catalogue of Publicly Owned Oil Paintings in Kent will be published at the end of the year. The United Kingdom holds in its public galleries and civic buildings arguably the greatest publicly owned collection of oil paintings in the world. Some 80% of these paintings are rarely, if ever, seen, being held for reasons good and bad in stacks and storage. More curiously, very few galleries have published a comprehensive illustrated catalogue of their collections. In short, we have little idea of what we own. The Public Catalogue Foundation has been set up specifically to enable the public to learn for the first time what it owns and to be able to see an image of every painting in its national collection in a ‘Pevsner-like’ series of illustrated catalogues.

The Kent volume will comprise 1800 oil paintings from over 50 locations across Kent. As many of these paintings sit in museum storerooms or civic buildings, this completely illustrated catalogue will publish photographs of paintings that have rarely, if ever, been on display to the public. The Kent volume will be the first in a national series. The price and purchasing details will be outlined in the January 2004 Newsletter. For more information, please ring Fred Hohler or Andrew Ellis on 020 7932 8124.

Andrew Ellis