Exeter’s Fine Art gallery: Highlights from the Collection

This gallery is sometimes closed for events, please check before you travel on the day of your visit to avoid disappointment. The fine art collection at RAMM is rich and varied. It consists of over 7000 paintings, prints, drawings, watercolours, miniatures and sculptures dating from the 1400s to the present day. Works on display will span over 450 years and will change from time to time to show the breadth and diversity of the collection. It will include new acquisitions and visitor favourites as well as works rarely displayed before. Watercolours, photographs and prints may change more frequently to protect their colours from excessive light exposure. This selection includes two of RAMM’s best known paintings, Portrait of a Man in a Red Suit and The Fair Toxophilites, as well as works by Richard Cosway, Lucy Kemp-Welch, William Etty and Barbara Hepworth. A new acquisition of vintage photographs by renowned Exeter-based photographer Jem Southam are displayed for the first time. Southam’s work is notable for its technical excellence and lyrical quality. His use of large-format cameras and natural light results in images that are both detailed and evocative. A selection of images from four different photographic series made between 1996 and 2011 are on display. The four series are Lyme Bay, The Pond at Upton Pyne, Painter’s Pool, and River Winter. They provide unique insights into the evolving relationship between people and landscape in Exeter and East Devon. Purchased with support from the Arts Council England/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, Art Fund and Friends of RAMM. Find out about the related events: artist-photographer Jem Southam in-conversation with Contemporary Art Curator Lara Goodband and behind the scenes: Jem Southam’s photographs. Featured images: Portrait of a Man in a Red Suit, artist unknown, oil on canvas, 1740-1780 and The Fair Toxophilites, William Powell Frith (1819-1909), oil on canvas, 1872. Information about accessibility is available on our Access page.