We moved to East Dulwich in south east London back in 2007, and feel privileged living there not only for the plethora of green spaces - of which there are many - but also because just a short 15 minute walk from home, across a few roads, past Enid Blyton's childhood home and through Dulwich Park, is Dulwich Picture Gallery, our local gallery. Timing-wise I personally could not have lucked out more, as the last decade has been a magnificent one for the Gallery in terms of their string of exhibitions of British Art in the first half of the 20th Century, my specialised final year subject at university. Bookmarked moreover by exhibitions on Whistler and Hockney, here are eleven great shows they have put on in this period. Thank you!
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2009: Sickert in Venice
The Horses of St Mark's, Venice 1905–1906
Walter Richard Sickert (1860–1942)
Oil on canvas
H 50.2 x W 42.2 cm
Birmingham Museums Trust
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2010: Paul Nash
Totes Meer (Dead Sea) 1940–1
Paul Nash (1889–1946)
Oil on canvas
H 101.6 x W 152.4 cm
Tate
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2013: Crisis of Brilliance
In the Hold c.1913–4C.R.W. Nevinson, Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler, Dora Carrington, David Bomberg and Paul Nash, students together at the Slade School of Art in London between 1908 and 1912.
David Bomberg (1890–1957)
Oil on canvas
H 196.2 x W 231.1 cm
Tate
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2014: Art and Life
Cyclamen and Primula c.1923Ben Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, William Staite Murray, 1920–1931.
Winifred Nicholson (1893–1981)
Oil on paper
H 50 x W 55 cm
Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge
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2015: Ravilious
Train Landscape 1940
Eric Ravilious (1903–1942)
Watercolour on paper (collage)
H 44.1 x W 54.8 cm
Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums
1940, watercolour on paper (collage) by Eric Ravilious (1903–1942)
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2016: Winifred Knights
The Deluge 1920
Winifred Knights (1899–1947)
Oil on canvas
H 152.9 x W 183.5 cm
Tate
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2017: Vanessa Bell
Self Portrait c.1915
Vanessa Bell (1879–1961)
Oil on canvas laid on panel
H 63.8 x W 45.9 cm
Yale Center for British Art
© estate of Vanessa Bell. All rights reserved, DACS 2025. Image credit: Yale Center for British Art
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2017: Sargent: The Watercolours
Bed of a Glacier Torrent 1904
John Singer Sargent (1856–1925)
Watercolour on paper
H 35.5 x W 50.7 cm
Royal Watercolour Society
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2018: Edward Bawden
Brighton Pier 1958
Edward Bawden (1903–1989)
Linocut on paper
H 52.8 x W 144 cm
Jerwood Collection
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2019: Cutting Edge: Modernist British Printmaking
Windmill 1933
Sybil Andrews (1898–1992)
Colour linocut on paper
H 31 x W 21 cm
The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art
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2020: British Surrealism
The Pomps of the Subsoil 1947
Leonora Carrington (1917–2011)
Oil on canvas
H 58.5 x W 93 cm
Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts