Local Art Resources

Marischal Museum, Aberdeen University

The Virtual Museum: www.abdn.ac.uk/virtualmuseum
The database is at www.abdn.ac.uk/museumsearch

Aberdeen Medieval Manuscripts on line

The two major illuminated manyscripts are available online:

Aberdeen Art Gallery

Aberdeen Art Gallery boasts one of the finest collections of Victorian painting outside London. It offers examples of work by almost all the leading Victorian painters, both Scottish and English: Millais, Rossetti, Holman Hunt, J W Waterhouse, Alma Tadema, Ford Madox Brown, Guthrie, Lavery, Herkomer, Arthur Hughes, Orchardson, Watts, and others. The gallery has an impressive collection of works by William Dyce and John 'Spanish' Phillip.

The gallery also has pictures by leading 19th-century French masters such as Monet, Fantin-Latour, Daubigny, Sisley and Renoir.  

There is a distinguished collection of 20th century fine and applied art. The gallery also hosts visiting exhibitions and has a Reference Library.

Other Resources in Aberdeen

The Peacock Print Archive, currently being transferred to the Art Gallery,
contains a copy of everything that has been printed by this prolific local workshop including work by major contemporary artists like Bellany, Davie, Howson and Blackadder.

Marischal Museum, which forms part of the university's Heritage Division, has collections of ethnological and local artefacts. It also hosts occasional art and photographic exhibitions.

The recently renovated and expanded Maritime Museum won Scottish Museum of the Year award in 1997.

Around Aberdeen

The north-east of Scotland has a preponderance of prestigious granite and sandstone structures from prehistoric times onwards. The numerous stone circles and carved Pictish stones, as well as the extensive remains of medieval ecclesiastical buildings at Elgin, Aberdeen, Arbroath and Brechin, provide a continuing source for academic debate.

The development of the Scottish tower house can be studied through numerous examples, mostly still inhabited. The rugged qualities of granite proved well suited to the simple lines of the Neoclassical style of which many distinguished examples can be found, both in the city and in the surrounding countryside. Booming prosperity in the late Victorian and Edwardian periods left a vivid architectural legacy and the City archives provide a rich source for study.