The story
The Ferens Art Gallery in Hull was a gift, land and money both, from Thomas Ferens, a soap-and-chemicals manufacturer and local benefactor, and it opened under his name in 1927. For a museum in a working port on the Humber, its old-master holdings come as a real surprise.
There is a rare 14th-century gold-ground panel by the Sienese painter Pietro Lorenzetti, the only work by him in any British collection, and a crisp Portrait of a Young Woman by Frans Hals. As you would expect of Hull, marine painting is a strength, ships and grey northern seas, together with 20th-century British art.
The gallery gained a modern extension in 1991 and was smartened up again to serve as a main venue when Hull was UK City of Culture in 2017.
