16 C O N T E X T 8 4 : M A Y 2 0 0 4 GRAHAM TITE A liberal education in itself Cambridge has gained a hidden asset at the Fitzwilliam Museum in the form of new galleries and other facilities built in its courtyard space. travels and a lifetime of collecting, and £100,000 of South Sea Annuities for the purpose of erecting a ‘good and substantial Museum Repository’. Pictures, books, manuscripts and prints formed the corpus of the gift. The first two wagonloads of the viscount’s collection arrived in the university city in April 1816.This deposit remained for over a quarter of a century in temporary accommodation at the old Perse Grammar School site in Free School Lane.The museum’s first building rose gradually from the 1834–5 architectural competition – won by George Basevi (1795–1845) – to the laying of the foundation stone in November 1837, and the first admissions of members of the university and their visitors to the Founder’s Building in 1848. On three days a week the public was also admitted, providing ‘By any standard one of the finest museums in England and standing comparison with any other of its size in Europe’ is how the Fitzwilliam is described by Nicholas Baring, chairman of its development committee. Visited by about a quarter to a third of a million people each year, the museum needs to be searched for, due to its location well to the south of Cambridge’s tourist hub. Merely curious tourists might be put off by the daunting appearance of the museum’s entrance. The institution can take pride in the quality of its visitors as well as in their number. Its visitors are drawn to the place principally by the quality and range of its works of art and antiquities. With the books, archives and reserve collections that accompany what the public galleries exhibit, the Fitzwilliam houses most functions a museum can offer. It is notably a picture gallery, but its holdings extend widely beyond the paintings. In London you would need to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum, the British Museum and the National Gallery to view the same scope of exhibits. A similarity between the main galleries and the interiors in Britain’s best country houses has often been remarked. The character of this architectural setting has been developing ever since the university purchased a site from the oldest college in Cambridge, Peterhouse. A building was needed to house the collection bequeathed to the university by Richard, 7th Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion (1745–1816). In the year of his death he donated the results of his youthful The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge – Founder’s Building All photos ©The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge The Fitzwilliam Museum Courtyard Development (John J Cain)
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