This is the first of three volumes comprehensively cataloguing the contents of the oldest public gallery in England. Dulwich Picture Gallery was founded in 1811, but its origins date back a further two hundred years to the foundation of Dulwich College by Edward Alleyn, the celebrated Elizabethan actor and theatrical entrepreneur. Alleyn's own somewhat primitive collection was housed in the college, along with a rather more discerning assortment of paintings bequeathed by William Cartwright (also an actor) including a remarkable group of theatrical portraits. Francis Bourgeois's bequest in 1811 of a treasure trove of paintings by, among others, Poussin, Rembrandt and Rubens, transformed the gallery into a major public collection, which now found a fitting home in an influential new building designed by Sir John Soane.
The Linley bequest of 1835 contributed several major canvases by Gainsborough, shifting the focus of the collection towards the previously neglected area of British art; a process further consolidated by many other gifts and bequests, most notably that of Charles Fairfax Murray in 1911. Benefiting from the meticulous scholarship of John Ingamells, this long-awaited volume offers a host of fascinating insights into the formation of a great collection.