Art for All: Thomas Horsfall’s Gift to Manchester Thomas Coglan Horsfall (1844-1932) was a pioneering philanthropist who established the Manchester Art Museum in 1884 in Harpurhey, moving it to larger premises at Ancoats Hall in 1886. The Museum was at the forefront of developments in art education, operating an innovative picture loan scheme for schools. In the 1880s, Harpurhey and Ancoats were crowded working class areas: the residents lived hard lives in impoverished surroundings. Horsfall wanted to make them aware of natural beauty by means of the Museum. He decided to locate the Museum close to their homes and to open it until 10 o’clock at night and on Sundays so that working people could visit. The Museum showed decorative and industrial art, original paintings and drawings, and copious reproductions. The works of art were arranged in themed rooms and everything had an explanatory label. Clubs for rambling, singing and woodcarving were formed and twice-weekly entertainments were held in the Museum’s concert hall. In 1918, the Museum and its contents were transferred to the management of Manchester City Council. The Museum finally closed in 1953. The majority of the items in this exhibition are from the original Museum.
Burne-Jones was interested in embroidery as an art form from the days that he and Morris were decorating Red House with hangings. Pencil sketch - Sketchbook c. 1862-1863 Wightwick NT 1288047 Study of a stylised Cherry branch with fruit A stylized drawing from an as yet unidentified herbal, which was the basis that Morris and Burne-Jones used for the trees that separated the Good Women in the design for the embroidery that was to have been for Ruskin. The projected series had been intended for the girls of the Winnington School under the supervision of Georgiana and Miss Bell. However the project was abandoned. A number of embroideries similar were made for the Red House for example: St Catherine (now held at Kelmscott Manor). At this stage Burne-Jones was as involved in designing plant forms for the backgrounds for their projects, as was Morris.