Wellcome Library on loan
30 April 2010
China Through the Lens of John Thomson 1868-1872 will visit Hartlepool in late 2010 and the Burrell Collection in Glasgow in 2011, having already exhibited at the Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool and touring China last year. It features 150 photographs selected from 688 glass negatives by the Victorian traveller John Thomson (1837-1921), from Sir Henry Wellcome's collection. The portraits record Thomson's travels in China, Indochina and Cyprus in the 1860s and 1870s. They offer a fascinating insight into his subjects and majestic landscapes, yet were for the most part unpublished in his lifetime.
Meanwhile, the National Gallery in London is exhibiting 'Acts of Mercy' (above; 14 July-17 October) by Frederick Cayley Robinson, one of the most distinctive yet elusive British painters of the early 20th century. Purchased by the Trust in 2009, the work comprises four large-scale panels in two pairs, exploring the positive forces of the human spirit in the face of destruction.
