Civic Paintings

Gravesham Borough Council Civic Paintings Collection

Over many centuries, oil paintings, including portraits, watercolours and sketches have come into council ownership, through donation and for other reasons, to record the deeds of prominent citizens and celebrate important occasions or events. This gallery shows all the oil paintings in the collections, which have rarely, if ever, been seen as a whole.
Although unique in every sense, the collection is not highly valuable in financial terms; it lacks works by the more famous portrait artists of the last century. However, what is amply evident is the style and format adopted to portray the eminent of the town in the Victorian period. The collection thus offers interesting material on social history. The painting of the schooner by W. Dunnage is undoubtedly the pick of the collection.

Alan Ridgers.

Click on an image for a larger view or click on the  icon in the bottom right corner of each image for a full screen slideshow.