Art and the decorative arts

The Cumberland Art Gallery

The art collection at Hampton Court Palace has two principal categories: topographical artwork and portraiture.

Many works of art are on display to visitors. The works of art collection includes prints, watercolours, pen and ink drawings, a small number of oil paintings, photographs and a few works in other media.

Subjects include landscape views of palaces and gardens, historic scenes set within palace interiors, and royalty and courtiers associated with palaces.

Meet the masters

Download the Historic Royal Palaces podcast and join Andrew Graham-Dixon in a panel discussion analysing the lives of iconic artists Rembrandt, Van Dyck and Caravaggio. This podcast is a recording of a ticketed event called 'Meet the masters', which was held ahead of the opening of the Cumberland Art Gallery. This free podcast was first made available on iTunes in December 2014.

A significant collection

The diverse nature of the objects in our collection reflects the fact that the palaces have been lived in or constantly used for over 1000 years. Some of the objects in the decorative arts and social history collection have been acquired to furnish rooms to improve visitors' understanding of life in the palaces. Many have also been acquired to tell the stories of the people that lived in the palaces. A few of the objects have been left behind by former residents. A good example are the items from Apartment 23 at Hampton Court Palace which belonged to Lady Manning who occupied that apartment from 1935 to 1992. They form the core of an internationally significant collection of social history objects.

Fringe loom

During the reign of King George III, Queen Charlotte focussed her time and energy into their humble home of Kew Palace. This portable fringe making machine, or fringe loom, epitomises Charlotte's life at the palace.  

You can help

Palace upkeep is expensive work and as an independent charity we receive no funding from the Government or the Crown. We depend on our visitors, members, donors, volunteers and sponsors to help us.