Masterworks from the Beaverbrook Art Gallery

Art collections tell stories that reflect the interests of the collector and his or her times.Masterworks from the Beaverbrook Art Gallery advances a dramatic narrative in the epic tale of multi-millionaire business tycoon, pushy newspaper publisher, shrewd politician, master propagandist, published author, and great philanthropist Sir William Maxwell (Max) Aitken, also known as Lord Beaverbrook.In 1959, Sir Max Aitken opened the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, which introduced an exemplary collection of paintings. Amassed by Lord Beaverbrook and his entourage of curators and colleagues, the Gallery's founding collection formed the core of what is now one of the finest and most significant collections of British art in North America. Featuring works by J.M.W. Turner and Lucian Freud, Graham Sutherland and Walter Sickert as well as signature pieces by Thomas Gainsborough, John Constable, John Singleton Copley, Eugène Delacroix, Joshua Reynolds, and Salvador Dalí, these masterworks represent the distinctive nature and quality of the Gallery's exquisite collection.For the first time, these major works have been brought together in this lavish publication. Featuring more than 75 colour reproductions, Masterworks from the Beaverbrook Art Gallery also includes essays on the history of the collection and individual masterpieces by six major writer-critics: art historian and Dalí scholar Elliott H. King; James Hamilton, author of Turner: A Life; Richard Calvocoressi, Director of the Henry Moore Foundation; writer-curator Angus Stewart; art historian Katharine Eustace; and curator and principal author of this publication, Terry Graff of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. Rounding out the book is the story of the dispute between the Gallery and the two Beaverbrook foundations by journalist Marty Klinkenberg and Beaverbrook Art Gallery Director and CEO Bernard Riordon.