The Gallery is excited to announce that two important works by John Craxton and a luminous Marie Laurencin painting have joined the collection, through support from Arts Council England. The works arrived in time for the launch of the new autumn season and, following expert conservation, are now on public display.

These significant works were allocated to the Gallery from the Estate of Sinclair Hood through the Acceptance in Lieu Scheme (AiL). Sinclair Hood FBA (1917-2021) was a British archaeologist and Director of the British School of Archaeology in Athens and led excavations at Knossos from 1957-61.

Opening the new exhibition at the Gallery on Friday 27 October, Arts and Heritage Minister Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay said:

“These three splendid works are wonderful additions to the collection of Pallant House Gallery, which I have had the pleasure of visiting as Arts Minister. I am delighted that the Acceptance in Lieu scheme will mean that they can be looked after so well in Chichester and shared with the public for generations to come.”

Two pieces by John Craxton; Head Among Leaves (1948) and Greek Fisherman (Seated Boy from Hydra) (1960), show the development of Craxton’s style when he moved to Greece. They were both conserved and reframed specially for the new exhibition, ‘John Craxton: A Modern Odyssey’, which runs until 21 April 2024.

The third work, Girl with Pearl Earrings (1934) by Marie Laurencin is one of only seven paintings by the French artist in British public collections until this acquisition. The painting complements existing examples of international modern art within the Gallery’s collection and contributes to its growing representation of female artists. It has also been conserved and reframed and is on display in Room 1 of the Historic House. This coincides with the opening of a major exhibition at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia ‘Marie Laurencin: Sapphic Paris’.

In addition to these exciting new allocations, three of the five important Leonard Rosoman paintings in his A Patriot For Me series, which also came to the Gallery through the AiL scheme in 2020 from the Estate of Roxanne Wruble Levy Rosoman, were unveiled as the current installation for the Historic House staircase.

Alongside ‘John Craxton: A Modern Odyssey’, contemporary artist Jake Grewal has curated a separate display of works by Craxton’s contemporaries selected from the Gallery’s collection. Two of these, Skylight Landscape (1941) and Frozen Lake (Black Park Pond, Iver Heath, Bucks) (1928) by Paul Nash, were donated to the Gallery by Jeremy Greenwood and Alan Swerdlow through the Cultural Gift scheme in 2022.

The impact of government schemes, such as the AiL Scheme and the Cultural Gift Scheme, cannot be underestimated. They enable once privately-owned works to be shared with wider audiences through public institutions, enriching collections and diversifying perspectives.

What is the AiL Scheme?

The Acceptance in Lieu (AiL) scheme offers tax-efficient estate planning, which enables those who owe Inheritance Tax to settle the amount by giving significant cultural, scientific or historic objects, which, if accepted, are then allocated by Arts Council England to public institutions, galleries, museums or libraries. Ensuring these objects are available to all is central to this scheme, yet conditional offers can be made to ensure certain objects are allocated to a particular institution.

Pallant House Gallery’s commitment to rotating its collections regularly and showcasing as many of its works as possible complements the aims of the AiL scheme and the Gallery is delighted that, through donors’ generosity, it is able to share these works with new audiences.

If you are interested in finding out more about supporting the Gallery, donating work, and the Acceptance in Lieu scheme, please contact Tess Viljoen on t.viljoen@pallant.org.uk or 01243 770818.

In April 2023 the Gallery hosted a seminar in partnership with Evelyn Partners.

Watch the seminar