Chester is England’s most picturesque city, a unique place of great antiquity and visual delight attracting millions of visitors from across the world. The Grosvenor Museum is the city’s flagship cultural venue, with collections of archaeology, fine and decorative arts, natural and social history, of local, regional, national and international importance. The Grosvenor Museum was built in 1885–1886 to house the collections of the Chester Architectural, Archaeological and Historic Society, and the Chester Society of Natural Science, Literature and Art, together with Schools of Science and Art. The costs were met by Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, and by a major public appeal. The Museum’s art collection spans half a millennium, from the 16th to the 21st century, and is strongly focused on people and places, artists and collectors from Cheshire and North Wales. Paintings comprise just seven per cent of the fine art collection, which is formed mostly from works on paper, and the Museum also holds an outstanding collection of silver. The majority of the paintings are permanently displayed in the Art Gallery, the period rooms, and elsewhere in the Museum. The Grosvenor Museum’s collection of paintings exists to document and celebrate creativity, to encourage learning and reflection, to delight the eye and fire the imagination. Much has been achieved, and it now provides a firm foundation for the further development of an art collection worthy of Chester.