Fine Art collection

The museum has around 3000 pieces of fine art. Notable artists represented include William Ratcliffe (1870-1955), a member of the Camden Town Group, Margaret Thomas (1842-1929), who created works based on her global travels, Frederick Landseer Griggs, regarded as the foremost English print-maker of the early twentieth century, Spencer Gore (1878-1914), who was inspired by a stay in Letchworth Garden City to create his painting ‘Letchworth, the Road’ which is on display at the museum, Samuel Lucas Sr (1805-1870) and Samuel Lucas Jr (1840-1919). Samuel Lucas Sr is best known for his large oil painting of Hitchin Market Place in 1841, in which he included images of many well-known local people.
Other artists represented in the collections include Hope Joseph, Gerard Ceunis, Esther Seebohm, Theodor Kern, Evacustes A Phipson, Margaret Thompson and Evangeline Barratt. The Belgian Ceunis fled from the Germans during the invasion of Antwerp in 1915 to become the proprietor of a ladies’ clothes shop in Hitchin, while Kern was a refugee from Nazi occupied Austria who taught at Luton College of Art, leaving a body of work in diverse styles. Phipson’s street scenes are notable for their photorealistic qualities, which document many lost buildings in Hitchin.