Russell-Cotes Art Gallery & Museum Exhibition

I took a visit down to the Russell-Cotes Museum and gallery and was quite impressed. It was originally the home of Sir Merton and Lady Russell-Cotes. The house was completed in the last year of Queen Victorias reign making it one of the last Victorian Manor houses ever built.
The house was filled with souvenirs collected by the couple on their work travels which included Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Scandinavia and Australia. Merton also bought paintings, objects and furniture owned by the rich and famous at auctions.

They announced they'd give the house and contents to the people in Bournemouth in 1907 to showcase their art collection and souvenirs.

Beautiful tiles - 3D enhanced by shading and colours - I get lots of inspiration from the form, shapes and colours like this for clothes, styles, colours, layering and materials.

The house was amazing and inspirational in itself. I learnt quite a few historical facts there and it was beautifully decorated, with beautiful royal wallpaper, a fountain inside and stained glass windows for parts of the ceilings. Even the toilet tiles were amazing! They created beautiful 3D swirling shapes with shadowing colours painted on them, hundreds of them which looked magical, I could imagine using them as inspiration in a trend book or as inspiration in my project as they give me lots of ideas!

Amazing decorative piece in Annie Russel-Cotes Tea Room with real butterflies incased between glass creating an enchantingly elegant decorative display. Really feminine and relaxingly romanic - really compliments and suits the decoration, the reason for the room and the chilled out atmosphere.

This is a recreation based on the only known photograph of Annie Russell-Cotes on her wedding day in 1860. It was a typical dress for it’s day. Thought concepts of traditional wedding emerged during Victoria’s reign, mostly women worse dresses they could incorporate into their wardrobes afterwards.

Wedding bonnet and box worn in 1966 in Bournemouth. This will help toward my project as similar styles of hat I have seen in the shops and on the catwalk and the materials, shapes and colours are very fashionable right now so helps to show this style has been made current again and is help toward my project theory.

All in all im glad I visited the Russell-Coates museum. I’ve gained knowledge of the victorian age and historical clothing as well as knowledge of paintings and other cultural souvenirs and lifestyle because of these. They will help toward inspiration for parts of my project and intend to use them for my research.