Mixing Oil & Water

Art of the Waterways: NarrowBoat, Winter 2011

Caroline Jones

Caroline Jones on how ‘roses and castles’ now appear in the same book as ‘old masters’

The Public Catalogue Foundation is a registered charity which was set up in 2003 to ultimately reveal the entire national collection of oil paintings in public ownership in the United Kingdom. It does this through the publication of catalogues in the ‘Oil Paintings in Public Ownership’ series and through the Art UK website. The catalogues are being published mainly on a county-by-county basis. Each volume brings together, from either a single county or adjoining counties, all the oil, acrylic and tempera paintings in museum and archive collections, together with paintings held in civic buildings such as town halls, libraries, universities, hospitals and fire stations. Each catalogue contains a colour photograph and basic information about each painting. All paintings held in the various collections are reproduced, whatever the quality, whatever the condition. The catalogues really do cover all aspects of art held in public ownership. The Foundation’s first catalogue…