Gallery looks close to home for an exhibition of old favourites

OLD favourites will be on show at the Mercer Art Gallery in Harrogate as staff get busy preparing exhibitions for 2010.

This year, the spotlight is on Harrogate’s own outstanding art collection.

“We show a wide diversity of art at the Mercer, from the great Victorians to new media work, but our visitors are always thrilled to see the old favourites,’’ said Curator of Art, Jane Sellars.

“For example, people want to see works by William Powell Frith, Harrogate’s most famous artist. Especially a picture we bought just a year ago, Private View at the Royal Academy, which portrays all the celebrities of the day, such as Oscar Wilde and Lily Langtry.’’

John Atkinson Grimshaw, born in Leeds, is another Yorkshire favourite to be found in the Harrogate collection. Grimshaw’s lovely gloomy winter scene In the Gloaming (A Yorkshire Home) will be one of the main attractions in The Secret Garden, an exhibition inspired by Frances Hodgson Burnett’s much-loved children’s book, first published in serial form a whole century ago in 1910.

Treasures of the Mercer, with William Powell Frith’s famous painting Many Happy Returns of the Day, opens March 27 and runs until July 25.

The Secret Garden opens April 2 and runs until June 6.