Exhibitions

The 31st May 2022 will be the 150th anniversary of the birth of William Heath Robinson. He was trained as an artist at the Royal Academy Schools, and as past exhibitions at the Museum have shown, he was a great illustrator and a highly accomplished painter in watercolours, but it is as a humorous artist…

‘Scene through Wood’ offers a visual feast of the finest wood engravings of the past 100 years, and celebrates the extraordinary artists, past and present, who made them. Curated by engraver and artist Anne Desmet RA RE, this exhibition from the University of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum — home to one of the most extensive collections...

Throughout his career Shakespeare’s plays, and especially the songs within them, provided a source of inspiration for some of Heath Robinson’s most popular and successful illustrations.

Pictures from an exceptional private collection

Heath Robinson’s illustrations for the Fairy Tale works of Hans Andersen and Charles Perrault, with works on the same subjects by children’s book illustrator Michael Foreman

Acidic, bawdy, grotesque. Heath Robinson’s illustrations for Rabelais explore a dark and dramatic part of his practice, characterised by expressive linework and grim subjects. See them alongside Goya’s Los Caprichos; experimental etchings portraying beasts, scoundrels and a society in ruin.

Alongside a sensational artistic career, Mary V. Wheelhouse was also a fierce suffragette. See her art and activism come together in this retrospective exhibition.