21 August 2009

A series of large-scale paintings by the fashionable, turn-of-the-century British artist Fredrick Cayley Robinson (1862-1927) has been purchased by the Wellcome Trust for public display in the Wellcome Library.

Collectively titled 'Acts of Mercy', and executed between 1916 and 1920, these significant works were given to Middlesex Hospital by Sir Edmund Davis, the mining financier and art collector. The four paintings were on display at the Middlesex Hospital, which was part of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH) until 2007 when the Hospital closed for refurbishment.

UCLH, Tate Britain and the Wellcome Trust have been in discussion to ensure these important works are retained for public benefit, as Sir Edmund Davis intended. Tate Britain offered to safeguard the paintings while discussions about finding a permanent location to display these extremely large works were ongoing.

The Wellcome Trust has agreed to buy the paintings for £235 000 and display two in the entrance to its Wellcome Library, which is part of Wellcome Collection on Euston Road, next to University College Hospital. The other pair will be kept in the Library's state-of-the-art storage facilities, where they can also be viewed on special request. UCLH will continue to look for an appropriate location to display these in any future developments.

Clare Matterson, Director of Medicine, Society and History at the Wellcome Trust, commented: "I am delighted that we will be able to offer a new home for the Robinson paintings close to their place of origin. The Wellcome Library - one of the world's greatest collections of the history of medicine - provides a fitting dwelling for them and enables continued public enjoyment and access to these evocative and beautiful paintings."

Sir Peter Dixon, Chairman of UCLH, said: "It is wonderful news that we have been able to find a suitable home for these important paintings. The Wellcome Trust have always been great neighbours for UCLH and this brings us even closer together. I am particularly grateful for their generosity in permitting us to exhibit two of the paintings when we can find a suitable location. The proceeds from the sale will be used exclusively for the development of our arts programme designed to benefit patients."

Stephen Deuchar, Director of Tate Britain, said: "We feel that the Wellcome Trust offers an extremely appropriate home for these important works. Wellcome Collection is a highly successful museum, and the display of the Cayley Robinsons in the Wellcome Library will be of great public benefit. Tate is delighted to have played its part in finding an excellent permanent home for them."

The four canvases form two pairs. One of the pairs shows orphans and the other shows medical patients, reflecting the social and clinical roles of hospitals respectively. In the former pair, orphan girls are receiving sustenance and upbringing. In the latter, patients, including some men injured in World War I, gather at the entrance to a hospital. The paintings were commissioned by Sir Edmund Davis in approximately 1915 and were presented to the Middlesex Hospital, in London; there they were displayed in the entrance hall until 2007.

The paintings will be on public display in the Wellcome Library from March 2009.

Frederick Cayley Robinson was a symbolist painter and illustrator. He is rumoured to have designed a China dinner service intended for the Titanic, but it is not known whether it was ever used.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact

Mike Findlay
Wellcome Collection Media Officer
T 020 7611 8612
E m.findlay@wellcome.ac.uk

Notes for editors

1. The symbolist painter and illustrator Frederick Cayley Robinson was born in Brentford upon Thames, and studied in the St John's Wood Academy and then (1885) in the Royal Academy Schools. At the end of the 1880s he sailed around the English coast, reflected in the subjects of many of his paintings. From 1891 he spent three years in the Académie Julian, Paris, and then lived variously in Florence, Newlyn in Cornwall, and elsewhere, before settling finally in London in Holland Park. From 1914 to 1924, he also typically spent three months of each year in Scotland, where he held a Professorship at Glasgow School of Art. He exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1895, and became RWS in 1918 and ARA in 1921.

2. The Wellcome Trust is the largest charity in the UK. It funds innovative biomedical research, in the UK and internationally, spending over £600 million each year to support the brightest scientists with the best ideas. The Wellcome Trust supports public debate about biomedical research and its impact on health and wellbeing.

3. The Wellcome Trust's former headquarters, the Wellcome Building on London's Euston Road, has been redesigned by Hopkins Architects to become a new £30 million public venue. Free to all, Wellcome Collection explores the connections between medicine, life and art in the past, present and future. The building comprises three galleries, a public events space, the Wellcome Library, a café, a bookshop, conference facilities and a members' club.

4. University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), situated in the West End of London, is one of the largest NHS trusts in the United Kingdom and provides first-class acute and specialist services.

The new state-of-the-art University College Hospital, which opened in 2005, is the focal point of the Trust, alongside five cutting-edge specialist hospitals.

UCLH was recognised for its commitment to, and excellence in, research and development when the Department of Health announced in December 2006 that it would be one of just five comprehensive biomedical research centres in the country.

The Trust has a tradition of innovation and enjoys close links with its sister organisation, University College London - a world-leading medical school, offering the very best in training and education.