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!

11 artworks
  • 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
    The Horses of St Mark's, Venice
    Image credit: Birmingham Museums Trust

  • 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
    Totes Meer (Dead Sea)
    Image credit: Tate

  • 2013: Crisis of Brilliance

    C.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.

    In the Hold c.1913–4
    David Bomberg (1890–1957)
    Oil on canvas
    H 196.2 x W 231.1 cm
    Tate
    In the Hold
    © Tate. Image credit: Tate

  • 2014: Art and Life

    Ben Nicholson, Winifred Nicholson, Christopher Wood, Alfred Wallis, William Staite Murray, 1920–1931.

    Cyclamen and Primula c.1923
    Winifred Nicholson (1893–1981)
    Oil on paper
    H 50 x W 55 cm
    Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge
    Cyclamen and Primula
    © Trustees of Winifred Nicholson. Image credit: Kettle's Yard, University of Cambridge

  • 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)
    Train Landscape
    Image credit: Aberdeen Art Gallery & Museums

  • 2016: Winifred Knights

    The Deluge 1920
    Winifred Knights (1899–1947)
    Oil on canvas
    H 152.9 x W 183.5 cm
    Tate
    The Deluge
    Image credit: Tate

  • 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
    Self Portrait
    © estate of Vanessa Bell. All rights reserved, DACS 2025. Image credit: Yale Center for British Art

  • 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
    Bed of a Glacier Torrent
    Image credit: Royal Watercolour Society

  • 2018: Edward Bawden

    Brighton Pier 1958
    Edward Bawden (1903–1989)
    Linocut on paper
    H 52.8 x W 144 cm
    Jerwood Collection
    Brighton Pier
    © the estate of Edward Bawden. Image credit: Jerwood Collection

  • 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
    Windmill
    © Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Image credit: The Ingram Collection of Modern British and Contemporary Art

  • 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
    The Pomps of the Subsoil
    © ARS, NY and DACS, London 2025. Image credit: Robert and Lisa Sainsbury Collection, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, University of East Anglia