From Albert Moore to Hokusai to Wedgewood to Jeremy Deller, there is something for everyone in the museum’s art collection. Spread across the upstairs galleries you will find a wide variety of artistic styles to explore.
Step into the Victorian Gallery and explore the oil painting collection dating back to the 17th Century. Head next door and up to the mezzanine (via the stairs or the lift) to our Contemporary Art Galleries which features our collection of 21st century art and some of the museum’s most recent art acquisitions.
Our recently re-displayed Hart Gallery features a selection of Japanese woodblock prints and Orthodox Icons, which are some of the largest collections outside of London.
Explore the galleries in more detail on our Bloomberg Connects guide or take a closer look at the collection over on Art UK where you will find images, stories and curations featuring the artworks.
Want to purchase a print of art in in our collections to hang on your own walls? You can find a range of high quality art prints, frames and also high resolution images to purchase and license for commercial use from our Art UK Shop.
Other prints are available through Bridgeman Art Library.
Our art collection features a range of oil paintings, mostly from the Victorian period. On display in the Victorian Gallery are visitors favourites including Love of the Winds and The Seasons by celebrated artist Albert Moore, Cherries / Mother and Child by Frederic Lord Leighton, and John Collier’s tragic depiction of Hetty Sorrel.
Nestled in amongst the art from the past few centuries you will find one of our most recent art acquisitions, Sana, painted in 2021 by Azraa Motala, a multidisciplinary visual artist from Preston. Find out more about her work created as part of the 2021 British Textile Biennial here.
Explore the oil paintings on display in our gallery virtually via our curation on Art UK. Interested in something that is not currently on display? You can see our wider collection here.
We are continuing to build and develop our post-twentieth century contemporary art collection featuring paintings, ceramics, prints, sculpture and digital media. In 2024 we opened a dedicated gallery space dedicated to showing this collection featuring artworks by Halima Cassell, Jamie Holman, Bharti Parmar and Nina Hamnett. You can explore the artworks on display here Contemporary Art at Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery.
We are committed to collecting contemporary artworks by local artists from the Blackburn and Darwen and wider Lancashire community. Through the support of the Friends of Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery we have been able to purchase a number of new works from our yearly Art Open exhibition. Recent additions to the collection include pieces by Adil Adim, Zara Saghir and Sam Gorman.
The museum has had generous support over the years from the Contemporary Art Society who have helped us to purchase a number of important works including Rider (1969) by Albert ‘Bert’ Henry Thomas Irvin, Still Life (1916) by Nina Hamnett and most recently History of the World (1998) by Jeremy Deller, which was added to the collection in 2023/24.
We are not able to keep our watercolour collection on permanent display as light fades the delicate surface of the paintings.
Instead we bring them out regularly for temporary exhibitions and displays, such as our recent Watercolour Gallery 1874 exhibition celebrating 150 years of displaying watercolours in the museum. Researchers and members of the public can arrange an appointment to see specific items, see our FAQ for more details.
Highlights of our collection include J. M. W. Turner, famous for his scenes using clever light and colour, Thomas Girtin and David Cox who are renowned landscape painters and William Henry Hunt known for his depictions of birds and their nest, earning him the nickname ‘Bird’s Nest Hunt’.
Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery hold a collection of over 1000 Japanese Ukiyo-e woodblock prints by around 100 different artists, from Katsushika Hokusai to Ando Hirogshe to Utagawa Kunisada. It is one of the largest collections of prints outside London.
These were donated to the museum by Thomas Boys Lewis (1869-1942), a cotton trader who established a hugely successful company in the early years of the 20th Century and used his money to collect items and invest in local heritage.
Notable prints in the collection include Hokusai’s popular print The Great Wave off Kanagawa, considered to be one of the most reproduced art image in history and Hiroshige’s famous series 53 Stations of the Tokaido Road.
The museum’s religious iconography collection grew over the late 19th century and is now one of largest in the country.
Icons are religious works of art, most commonly a painting on board. Our icons date from the 1300s to the late 1800s and were made in Russia, Greece and Eastern Cypress.
They form part of Orthodox Christian worship and are often used at home for private prayer. Some believe them to have protective and healing qualities and inner meanings are conveyed by the symbolism and colours featured.
For more information see our Blackburn Icons: Religious Iconography Collection curation on Art UK.
There is both local and global representation within Blackburn’s Decorative Arts collection. From ceramics produced in Darwen, to East Asian vases to drinking vessels from South America. Famous potteries including Pilkington’s Royal Lancastrian lustreware, Wedgewood and Spode are also represented in the collection.
The museum also holds examples of contemporary ceramics including pieces by internationally famous artist Halima Cassell, whose work responds to Islamic architecture and African pattern, and a selection of test pieces produced by architectural terracotta company Shaws of Darwen.
Our most recent acquisition is by ceramic artist Nehal Aamir who was commissioned to create works for the Nature of Gothic exhibition in 2025. Her works ‘Night, Dawn, Daylight‘ are a trio of large standing frames that are now part of our permanent collection.