Rebecca Steward, Thomas Beach, 1783
The oil painting collection is strong in portraits reflecting the people who have shaped the county. There are important eighteenth-century portraits by George Romney, Thomas Gainsborough and Thomas Beach. The nineteenth and twentieth century landscapes in the collection reveal the rolling downs, views of the Frome and Dorset’s Jurassic coastline. There is a body of work by Frederick Whitehead who painted the scenery of Thomas Hardy’s Wessex. From 1893 he travelled in Dorset for six months each year in his caravan, ‘The Rambler’. His wife Beatrice entered into the spirit of the lifestyle by dressing up as a gypsy and telling fortunes. Next to the caravan was a small portable studio so that he could paint in all weathers. There is also a portfolio of Hardy's Wessex views painted by John Everett, the Dorset-born artist and friend of Augustus John and Thomas Hardy.