Last Friday (4th December 2015) Worthing Museum and Art Gallery gratefully received a new painting for their collection, Amberley, a charming West Sussex landscape painted by local artist Jack Merriott, gifted from the Science Museum.
Witnessed by Worthing Mayor Michael Donin and Mayoress Linda Edwards, the Worthing Museum and Art Gallery curator Emma Walder accepted the painting from Lord Richard Faulkner of Worcester.
Lord Faulkner, Deputy Chairman of the Science Museum Group and Chair of Railway Heritage Designation Advisory Board who are responsible, under the Railway Heritage Act, for ensuring artefact’s and records that are a significant part of the nation’s railway history are preserved.
He adds “Jack Merriott was a major railway artist who was commissioned by British Railways in the late 1940s and ‘50s to produce paintings which provided the artwork for posters and carriage prints promoting rail travel.
It is particularly fitting that ‘Amberley’ has been found a home in Worthing, the town in which Merriott died in 1968. This painting was the inspiration for the British Rail poster “The South Downs.” I am delighted to now hand it over to Worthing Museum and Art Gallery, where it will be expertly restored to its former glory and available to view again in Spring 2015.”
Councillor Daniel Humphreys, Leader of Worthing Borough Council says; “This painting is a very welcome addition to the collection at Worthing Museum and Art Gallery and we are very grateful to The Science Museum and the Railway Heritage Designation Advisory board for gifting it to us for restoration and safe keeping. It is a vibrant picture, depicting one of many lovely landscapes we have here in West Sussex and I am sure this painting will continue to encourage visitors, as it did when it was originally commissioned by British Rail.”