Compton Verney offers a unique opportunity to view art in the setting of a Grade 1 listed Robert Adam mansion located in 120 acres of spectacular parkland. Compton Verney is home to six permanent collections.
• Naples – Compton Verney’s collection of paintings from Naples represents a cross-section of masterpieces from the ‘Golden Age’ of Neapolitan art from 1600 to 1800.
• Germanic – The collection of Northern European medieval art from 1450-1650 includes work by Cranach, Riemenschneider and Schongauer.
• China -The display of Chinese bronzes at Compton Verney is the largest collection outside London, including objects from the Neolithic and Shang periods.
• British Portraits – This collection features works by Sir Joshua Reynolds and a number of society portraits including Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Edward VI.
• British Folk Art – Compton Verney holds the largest collection of British Folk Art in the UK, bought in its entirety to prevent it from being split up and sold abroad.
• The Marx-Lambert Collection – This collection features the work of twentieth-century textile designer Enid Marx and objects which she collected with the historian Margaret Lambert.
Whilst visiting take time out to explore the grounds, landscaped by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown, the most eminent landscape architect of the eighteeth-century. Although the original estate was split up and sold a century ago, the ‘pleasure grounds’ at Compton Verney still clearly reflect the sweeping grassland, ornamental lakes and Cedars of Lebanon for which Brown is famous. The grounds are also home to a rich variety of wildlife, including birds and three species of bat.
