Wycombe Museum’s Art Collection features local scenes and portraits of local people, as well as pieces by artists who have lived locally. It includes oil paintings, prints and drawings and a small amount of sculpture, and spans the 1600s to the present day.
In the Museum’s Art Gallery we show off some of the best art associated with Wycombe District.
Like other parts of our collection, we have much more in storage that we simply don’t have the wall space to show.Some items from our Art Collection are loaned to other venues.Â
Oil Painting Collection Highlights
The High Street, West Wycombe, looking towards the Pedestal and Branch Wood at Downley
By Walter Stamps (1876 – 1964)
Oil, date unknown
The village of West Wycombe has changed very little in the past few centuries. The High Street contains buildings dating from the 1400s, such as the timber-framed Church Loft. The village was owned by the Dashwood family of West Wycombe House until 1929, when it was bought by the Royal Society of Arts, who repaired many of the houses. West Wycombe village has been owned by the National Trust since 1934.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Walter Stamps was the Head of the Wycombe School of Art from 1911. His students included furniture designers Robin Day and also Edwin Clinch, who was a prominent designer of Utility furniture during the Second World War.
Museum number HIWLH : 1990.668
The Blue Chair
By Paul Stevenson (1926-2009)
Oil and pencil on carved board, 1992
This painting was inspired by a visit to the Picasso Museum in Provence. There, the chair is displayed covered with brushes, paints and newspapers.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Paul Stevenson studied architecture at The Northern Polytechnic in London and fine art at St. Martin’s College of Art. In 1960, he took up the post of Lecturer in Fine Art at what is now Bucks New University. He retired in 1983 and spent the rest of his life as a full-time practising artist, exhibiting his work in London and in various parts of the country. He lived in Prestwood.
Stevenson based much of his work on themes such as flight, or, like the example here, chairs.
Find out more in our Art Research section.Â
Museum number HIWLH : 29.5.1997.1
Family Portrait of Lord Wharton
After Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680)
Oil, about 1656
This is Lord Wharton, his second wife Lady Jane Goodwin, and their son Henry. Lord Wharton was a member of the court of King Charles I. During the Civil War in the 1640s Wharton supported Parliament against the King.
Lord Wharton owned many properties in Buckinghamshire. These included Wooburn, Waddesdon, Winchendon, and Weston. He acquired most them through his marriage to his second wife, pictured here.Â
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Find out more in our Art Research section.Â
Museum number HIWLH : 1991.224
The Raising of Lazarus
By Joachim Wteweal (1566 – 1638)
Oil, about 1610
This large oil painting shows the biblical figure Lazarus, who had been dead for four days before being brought back to life by Jesus. Joachim Wtewael was a Dutch painter and merchant, whose work focused on religious and mythological subjects.
The Raising of Lazarus is currently on loan to The National Gallery, which kindly restored the painting to use in their displays. You can visit The Raising of Lazarus in Room 24 of The National Gallery. You can see how the painting looked before restoration – and watch a video about their restoration of the painting – below.
Museum number HIWLH : 1991.229
William, Earl of Shelburne
By Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 – 1792)
Oil, about 1782
This is William Fitzmaurice Petty, Earl of Shelburne (1737-1805). He was elected the Member of Parliament for Wycombe in 1760. Shelburne became Foreign Secretary in 1782. He was briefly Prime Minister during the final months of the American War of Independence, between 1782-83. He negotiated the peace treaty with America, leading to the end of the war.
The Petty family lived at Loakes Manor in High Wycombe, which is now Wycombe Abbey School, a girls’ boarding school. The family also paid for High Wycombe’s Guildhall, including the design.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sir Joshua Reynolds was Britain’s most popular portrait painter in the 1700s. He painted most of the wealthy, fashionable and famous people of his day. In 1760 he founded the Society of Artists and in 1768 became the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts.
Find out more in our Art Research section.Â
Museum number HIWLH : 1990.58
Moses Tryon
By Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680)
Oil, about 1646
This portrait shows Sir Moses Tryon. His family moved from the Netherlands to London in around 1580 to escape religious persecution. The painting was passed down through Tryon’s family, and was donated by his descendants to the Museum when it was founded in 1932.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Peter Lely was one of England’s most fashionable portrait artists during the mid-1600s. He painted King Charles I, and Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell succeeded Charles I after Parliament overthrew the Crown in 1649. Lely was also principal painter to King Charles II once the monarchy was restored in 1660. The fact that Lely painted the country’s rulers regardless of their politics shows how popular he was. Lely had connections to Princes Risborough.
Find out more in our Art Research section.Â
Museum number HIWLH : 1991.221
Abstract
By Henry Trivick (1908-1982)
Oil on card, date unknown
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Henry Trivick’s studio, the Friary Studio, was at Well End near Bourne End. He was a visiting instructor at The Regent Street Polytechnic, now the University of Westminster. Trivick was a friend of the artist Stanley Spencer, who lived in Cookham. They worked together to produce lithographic prints from Spencer’s drawings.
Henry Trivick worked from the early-to-mid 1900s. Many of his prints and paintings were in the abstract style that was fashionable at the time. He gave many of his abstract prints and landscape prints to Wycombe Museum in the 1980s.
Museum number HIWLH : T 7.3.1998.1
Isabella and the Pot of Basil
By G Grenville Manton (1855-1932)
Oil, 1919
This seemingly serene painting in the Pre-Raphaelite style shows the scene of what is actually a very morbid story. Isabella’s tale, told in the poem by John Keats, tells how she was in love with Lorenzo, one of her brothers’ employees. Isabella’s brothers disapproved of her choice of lover, and lured Lorenzo into the woods to kill him. Learning of Lorenzo’s death, Isabella is beside herself with grief – she finds his body and buries her murdered lover’s head in a pot of basil, which she waters with her tears until she dies of a broken heart.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
George Grenville Manton was best known as a portrait painter and a magazine illustrator. He was a member of the Royal Institute of British Artists.
Find out more in our Art Research section.
Museum number HIWLH : 1990.585
Joseph Pettifer
By Joseph Highmore (1692-1780)
Oil, around 1745
Joseph Pettifer was last in the line of several Pettifers who all became Mayor of High Wycombe. Joseph died at just 19 years of age, before he could become mayor himself.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Joseph Highmore trained as a legal practitioner at the request of his family, but abandoned the trade at age 17 to become a professional artist. He was a portrait and historical painter, illustrator and writer, and is best known for painting scenes from Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela, 1740, one of the first English novels.
During conservation in 1990, it was discovered the varnish used by the artist had discoloured over time, and that Pettifer’s green coat was originally blue.
Find out more in our Art Research section.
Museum number HIWLH : 1990.657
Want to see more paintings?
Prints & Drawings Collection Highlights
Pann Mill
By Lorna Cassidy (1933 – present)
Print, date unknown
There has been a Pann Mill at the mill’s current location from at least 1086, probably earlier. It is one of 37 water mills on, or near, the River Wye from its source in West Wycombe to where it feeds into the Thames at Bourne End. In 1962, when this print was made, Pann Mill was still working and made animal feed. It was mostly demolished in 1972 to enable the widening of the London Road. The remains have now been restored and added to, and the High Wycombe Society still grinds corn there on special open days, usually three days per year.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lorna Cassidy is a Wycombe-based artist who has been making prints of Wycombe District for more than 50 years. She has an interest in local history and in recording historic buildings, such as chair factories and mills. Often she chooses to record a view that would soon vanish. She has also recorded gradual changes to the town, such as the development of the High Street.
Museum number HIWLH : 2009.7.2
High Street, High Wycombe in 1772
By William Hannan (1720 – 1775)
Engraving by ST Sparrow, 1772
The view looks toward the Guildhall, showing several coaching inns, including the Red Lion, the Antelope, the Three Tunns, the Cross Keys and the Catherine Wheel.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
The engraving is of a painting by William Hannan. The engraver was S T Sparrow, and it was published by John How, a bookseller of High Wycombe in November 1772. The location of the original painting is unknown.
William Hannan was a Scottish-born artist. He painted several views of West Wycombe Park. He is buried at High Wycombe Parish Church.
Museum number HIWLH : 1990.656
The Chair-Maker
By Stanley
Line engraving print, around 1940s
Shows chairmaker Jack Goodchild in his workshop.
Unfortunately nothing is known about the artist.Â
Museum number HIWLH : T 4.4.1995.9
View from Bassetsbury Manor
By Winifred Peeler (1895-1988)
Pastel drawing, 1965
View from Bassetsbury Manor showing bowling in progress, Rye beyond and hospital in left background.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Winifred Peeler, who was from Chelsea, lived in a caravan in the grounds of Saunderton Workhouse. She was friends with local artist Lorna Cassidy, and the two would go on camping holidays together.
 Museum number HIWLH : 2010.44
A View of the Cascade in the Garden of Sir Francis Dashwood Bart at West Wycombe in the county of Bucks
By William Hannan (1720 – 1775)
Engraving by William Wollett (1735-1785)
Sir Francis Dashwood II (1708 – 1781) founded the Knights of St Francis of Wycombe, also known as the Hell-Fire Club. He was also a pioneer of the Neo-Classical style, which was inspired by ancient Greek and Roman architecture.
He is mostly responsible for the look of the house and its garden. He commissioned features including the cascade shown in this engraving, a swan-shaped lake, bridges, statues, and temples. This is one of several paintings made by William Hannan of the Dashwood’s estate in West Wycombe.Â
ABOUT THE ARTIST
William Hannan was a Scottish-born artist. He painted several views of West Wycombe Park. He is buried at High Wycombe Parish Church. The engraver, William Woollett, was one of the most celebrated engravers of his time. He produced 123 over his career. Born to Dutch parents in Maidstone, Kent, he studied at the St. Martin’s Lane academy – a precursor to the Royal Academy of Art. Woollett died in London aged 50. There is a memorial to him in Westminster Abbey.
Museum number HIWLH : 1990.653
Got questions about our collection?
Do you have a painting you’re hoping to learn more about? Or perhaps you have something you’d like to offer to our collection.
Sculpture Collection Highlights
Alfred Oakley (1878 – 1959)
Sculptural works make up a very small proportion of the Museum’s Art Collection. It is mainly comprised of works by the artist Alfred Oakley. Oakley was a High Wycombe born sculptor who worked in bronze, stone and wood. The son of James Oakley, a chairmaker, Alfred was a chair maker’s apprentice where he learned the basics of the woodcarving crafts. He began his career as a woodcarver for the High Wycombe furniture maker Walter Skull. After his apprenticeship, he attended City & Guilds School (now Lambeth School of Art) between 1903 and 1910.
He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps at the outbreak of the First World War and worked as a stretcher bearer around the Somme. After the war he returned to London, working from a studio in Hampstead.
Over the course of his career Oakley showed work in Paris, Brussels, Venice and Buenos Aires. He has works in the Tate collection, and received awards from the Royal Society of British Sculptors. He carried out work for churches, public buildings and even aboard the ship RMS Queen Mary.
Spanish Comb
Mahogany wood sculpture, around 1932
Museum number HIWLH : 2005.11.13
Andamans
Wood sculpture, around 1915
Museum number HIWLH : 2005.11.11
Java
Teak wood sculpture, around 1930
Museum number HIWLH : 2005.11.2
Want to use one of our pictures?
Have you seen one of our pictures that you would like a copy of? Our images are available to be purchased or licensed for private and public reproductions in print and media. Take a look at our Licensing Information page to find out more.
Researching our Art Collection
Cally Trench – artist, researcher, and museum volunteer – has researched a number of the museum’s artworks and delivered fascinating talks on the history of their subjects and artists. Below are abridged versions of the notes for these painting talks.
Art FAQs
Can I get copies of any of the Museum’s photographs and paintings?
Wycombe Museum’s photographs, and prints of many of our paintings are available to be purchased and licensed for reproduction. You can find out more on our Image Licensing page.
Can I see more historic photographs online?
There is a public access online database of old photographs of High Wycombe:Â Sharing Wycombe's Old Photographs, 'SWOP'.
It contains digitised versions of most photographs in the archives of Wycombe Museum, High Wycombe Library, and The Bucks Free Press, as well as those in private collections.Â
SWOP is free to use and has advanced search features to help find what you're looking for.Â
Can I see more of Wycombe Museum's art collection?
You are able to view all of Wycombe Museum’s oil paintings on ArtUK, which have been digitised through the Public Catalogue Foundation.
See Wycombe Museum's oil paintings.
