Government Art Collection

Trooping the Colour takes place today!💂‍♀️💂🏻‍♂️💂🏾

This annual event is held on Horse Guards Parade, London, and has marked the monarch's official birthday since 1748.

The ceremony began as a practical parade designed to display a regiment's Colour – their flag – to troops. It was vital for troops to recognise their Colour when it was used as a rallying point on the battlefield.

Jacques Emile Blanche, Trooping the Colour before Edward VII, 20th century
Edward Bawden, Troops in the Mall, 1953
Frederick Taylor, Trooping the Colour, 20th century

[Image ID 1: standing to attention, members of the Horse Guards, dressed in their iconic red and black uniforms, are depicted during the ceremony of the Trooping of the Colour.
Image ID 2: in the centre, members of the Horse Guards in their red and black uniforms stand to attention in a square. A mass of spectators represented in blue with black outlines encircle the troops and above them is a line of trees represented in blue.
Image ID 3: a view of a grand building (the Old Admiralty Building) and an open courtyard populated with a number of troops dressed in elaborate uniform on horseback.]

Happy 250th Birthday John Constable! 🎂

We are lucky enough to have a portrait by Constable in our collection, which depicts the artist's young relative Jane Anne Inglis (née Mason) when she was a teenager. A year later, Constable went back to draw Jane, in a sketch that was discovered in a Mason family album in 2020.

See the depictions reunited at Constable: A Cast of Characters at Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich, which closes on Sunday ()

John Constable, Jane Anne Inglis (née Mason), c.1808
Mason Family Album 1794-1862 © Ipswich Borough Council collection and Colchester & Ipswich Museums. With assistance from Art Fund, Arts Council V&A Purchase Grant Fund, the Friends of the Ipswich Museums and Felix Cobbold Bequest. Conservation was undertaken by Museum Conservation Services and funded by the Friends of the Ipswich Museums.

Image ID 1: half-length painting of a woman with brown hair in a white satin dress, head turned to the left.
Image ID 2: a half-length sketch of a young woman depicted with her hair up, she gazes out at the viewer.]

It's Derby Day at Epsom Downs racecourse! 🏇 In this painting by Charles Ernest Cundall however, the race has been relegated to the background of the painting. Instead, Cundall focuses on the throngs of punters enjoying a day out.

Whilst we can't pick out individual faces, our attention – like those in crowd – is instead drawn to the bright lettering on the signs advertising the many bookmakers.

Charles Ernest Cundall, Derby Day, 1933 © Estate of the Artist

[Image ID: a vast view of the Epsom Downs racecourse, showing the stands, the race, cars driving up, and above all, the throngs of bookmakers and punters in the foreground.]

Where to see GAC artworks in June 🌻

L. S. Lowry - 'Lancashire Fair: Good Friday, Daisy Nook' at Play Power📍Sainsbury Centre, Norwich
📆 Until 4 October 2026

Walter Sickert - 'Two Coster Girls' at Walter Sickert: Working Notes📍 Charleston, Lewes
📆 Until 11 October 2026

Paul Nash - 'Event on the Downs' at Comrades in Art: Artists Against Fascism📍 Towner Eastbourne
📆 Until 18 October 2026

Visit our website to find the full list of works on show around the UK – https://artcollection.dcms.gov.uk/explore-the-collection/on-show/



Slide 1 © Image courtesy of Towner Gallery, Eastbourne.

[Image ID 1: a photo of an exhibition showing a painting on the left of a fair, and two small sculptures of figures in a glass case on the right.
Image ID 2: a painting of two women in a dimly lit room.
Image ID 3: a photo of an exhibition showing a number of paintings on a white wall.]

For the first time, Stanley Spencer's 'The Poultry Market, Petersfield' has gone on display in the town that inspired it, on loan from the Government Art Collection 🏛️

Between 1921 and 1923 Spencer lived and worked in and around Petersfield, Hampshire after returning from the Western Front only a few years earlier, having survived the battles of Horseshoe Hill and Doiran, a bout of malaria, and the death of his elder brother Sydney.

Spencer would have seen this view of the poultry market whilst staying at his friend and fellow artist Flora Twort's studio. Though long gone, this 1960s photograph (slide 2) shows what the poultry market used to look like.

📍 See Spencer's painting alongside early works by Flora Twort at Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery. Until 26 September 2026.

Stanley Spencer, A Petersfield View, 1926 © the estate of Stanley Spencer. All rights reserved / Bridgeman Images
Slide 1 © Courtesy of Petersfield Museum and Art Gallery

[Image ID 1: a painting depicting an urban landscape under an overcast sky. The composition is made up of muted colour palette of green, grey, ochre and umber. In the foreground there is a poultry market filled with empty chicken coops and in the background are rolling hills. The painting is hung on a white wall.]

The Chelsea Flower Show opens this week and we're taking a shovel and spade to our collection to see what garden-inspired works we can find 🪏🌳

John Minton, The Garden, 1950 © Royal College of Art / Bridgeman Images.
Charles Ginner, Novar Cottage, Bearley, Warwickshire, 1933
Elizabeth Blackadder, Cat in a Garden, 1977 © the artist's estate / Bridgeman Images.
David Tindle, The Garden, 1977 © the artist / Bridgeman Images.

[Image ID 1: a watercolour depicting a walled garden. Green patches of lawn are separated by a pathway. Alongside the path is a low red-brick wall decorated with stone statues of classical figures.
Image ID 2: a painting depicting the back view of a redbrick cottage and thatched building from the perspective of the garden. The garden is lush with green foliage and flowers. By the cottage is a traditional well and a barrel attached to the house via a drain pipe.
Image ID 3: a watercolour depicting a wood panel fence and side of a shed in the background and in the foreground a vegetable patch covered by semi-transparent blue sheet. A black cat walks along the side of the fence.
Image ID 4: a grassy garden where a door removed from its hinges, leans against a small table, with what looks to be a hedgehog on top. A blue towel hangs from a clothesline and an empty chair faces outwards, with poppies growing around it. A child’s ball is hidden in the grass; while, in the background, there's a slide and the A-frame of a swing set.]

Remembering the imagination and wit of cartoonist Glen Baxter, who died last month aged 82. We are lucky to have a number of his prints in our collection, which have been displayed in government buildings in London, Brussels and Canberra.

Baxter's iconic imagery often features cowboys, comic-book characters and sporting heroes, which are illustrated alongside deadpan, surrealist captions.

Glen Baxter, 'How he hated Saturday morning shopping', 'I sensed that Brenda was trying to impress me….', and 'Mr Unwin often gave me advice on how to distract the bowler', 1984 © the artist's estate.

[Image ID 1: an illustration of a man in a red speedboat on a river with his head down on the wheel. He is surrounded by trees and twisted branches thick with moss and hanging vines. The caption reads: 'How he hated Saturday morning shopping'.
Image ID 2: two schoolgirls inside a blue room. One is sat at a desk and looks up at the other who is carrying a large wooden cupboard on her back. The caption reads: 'I sensed that Brenda was trying to impress me….'.
Image ID 3: two men in cricket whites stand against a bright blue sky with large white clouds. One of the men holds a bat in one hand and a mirror up in the other – which doesn't operate like a normal mirror, but repeats the figure as he appears instead of reflecting. The caption reads: 'Mr Unwin often gave me advice on how to distract the bowler'.]

Happy 90th birthday to British design icon Margaret Calvert!

⚠️ Calvert is best known for designing the UK road signage system with Jock Kinneir, which was launched on all British roads on 1 January 1965 and is still in place today. Calvert's iconic 'Man at Work' road sign provided the starting point for her 2008 painting 'Woman at Work'.

This screen print is currently on display at the UK Ambassador's Residence in Paris . 📍 🇫🇷

Margaret Calvert, Women at Work, 2018 © Margaret Calvert



[Image ID: a red, triangular road sign with a figure in black in the middle, usually used to denote roadworks; the figure is digging and appears to be wearing a skirt]

Happy 100th birthday Sir David Attenborough! 🎂🌱🦍

We're celebrating with Marcus Coates' photographic series 'Ritual for Reconciliation', which features crumpled portraits of animals, including a kestrel, an ostrich and a Galapagos land iguana.

Printed on rice paper, each photo was scrunched up into a fist-size ball and then opened out again to reveal creases and crevasses. A strange beauty emerges from this initial destructive act, transforming a 2D image into a sculptural form. By imbuing the photos with a physical form, Coates is attempting to retrieve the lost experience of his intitial encounter with that animal.

Marcus Coates, Kestrel (Falco Tinnunculus) England, Sally Lightfoot Crabs (Grapsus Grapsus) Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, Galapagos Land Iguana (Conolophus Subcristatus) Galapagos Islands, 2013 © Marcus Coates

[Image ID 1: a crumpled up photo of a the head of a kestrel
Image ID 2: a crumpled up photo of a two orange-coloured crabs
Image ID 3: a crumpled up photo of the head and body of a iguna]

'I have a strong sense that London hasn’t been properly painted … It has always cried out to be painted, and not been.' - Frank Auerbach

Frank Auerbach always chose to paint subjects that were close to him. Mornington Crescent - depicted here in his characteristically thick, buttery strokes - was near his studio in North London.

Even though his paintings might look as if they have been executed very quickly, Auerbach laboured over his works for a long time. Multiple layers of paint were added and then repeatedly scraped off.

The longer you look, the more the painting reveals. In the foreground figures in blue stroll past heavy black railings, and in the background we can just make out the charactestic deep maroon red tiles of Mornington Crescent tube station.

Today we're marking the 95th anniversary of Frank Auerbach's birth in 1931.

Frank Auerbach, Mornington Crescent, 1970 © Frank Auerbach

[Image ID: An abstracted view of Mornington Crescent in north London, painted with thick brushstrokes. A pelican-crossing beacon frames the painting on the left, while schematically painted blue figures appear to stroll past heavy black railings. The deep red tiles of Mornington Crescent tube station can be seen on the right.]