The Tullie House Museum & Gallery Celebrated Mervyn Peake's Centenary

Written by Charlotte Huntley Sunday, 06 May 2012 23:10

Carlisle, UK.- Mervyn Peake (1911 – 1968) is the best-selling author and illustrator who became internationally recognised for his Gormenghast trilogy of books, often placed alongside great imaginative works of fiction such as J R R Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia. 2011 is the 100th anniversary of Peake’s birth and a range of exhibitions, events, publications and broadcasts are being presented to celebrate the centenary year. On Saturday 23 July, one of the largest exhibitions ever staged of the artist’s work, "Lines of Flight: Mervyn Peake, the Illustrated Work" showed at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle.

Presenting almost 200 of Peake’s most beautiful illustrative works, "Lines of Flight" brings to life characters from the Gormenghast trilogy; from family favourites such as 'Tales' by the Brothers Grimm and 'Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde'; as well as from desert island and pirate adventure stories: 'Swiss Family Robinson', 'Treasure Island' and Peake’s first published work, 'Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor'. The exhibition, "Lines of Flight", has been initiated and created by the Maison d’Ailleurs, museum of science fiction, utopia and extraordinary journeys in Yverdon-les-Bains, July, as the month of Peake’s birth, provides the climax to these celebrations with the UK publication of a new hardback edition of The Illustrated Gormenghast by Vintage Books as well as publications in countries including the USA, Poland and Germany. The British Library ais also presenting an exhibition of Peake’s original manuscripts.

Close to the borders of England and Scotland and to the Lake District, Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery is a meeting point of the History, Nature and Art in one of Britain’s most fascinating regions. The rich collections are a resource of local, regional and national importance. Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery transferred to Trust in May. The Museum is now an independent organisation and is supported by a Board of Trustees chaired by Roger Cooke. Tullie House has extensive and important art collection including Fine Art, Decorative Art and Textiles. Their main priorities are to maintain, record and interpret special collections of fine and decorative art of national importance, to record and interpret artistic activity in Carlisle and northern Cumbria from the eighteenth century onwards, to collect leading contemporary artists and makers working in Carlisle and Cumbria and to record and interpret decorative art and textiles made in, used or associated with Carlisle and northern Cumbria from the eighteenth century onwards. The Fine Art collection includes 4800 mainly British paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints, sketchbooks and a small collection of sculpture dating from around 1650 to the present day. Special strengths include, North Cumbrian artists and views dating from the 18th century to the present day including William James Blacklock, Sam Bough, Winifred Nicholson, Sheila Fell, Donald Wilkinson and Julian Cooper, 19th century artists including Samuel Palmer and the Pre-Raphaelites: D G Rossetti, Elizabeth Siddal, William Morris, Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones and Arthur Hughes, 20th century artists including Charles Ricketts, Paul Nash, Wyndham Lewis, Stanley Spencer and Peter Blake and 21st century artists including Keith Tyson. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.tulliehouse.co.uk

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