Collections

Gallery Theft - three paintings were stolen from Christ Church Picture Gallery in the night of 14th March 2020. More information. 

Detail of Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, painted by Tintoretto   Detail of a drawing by Raphael  

Detail of marble bust of Guise by John Bacon

 

 

 

 

The majority of our paintings can be found on the BBC Your Paintings website in partnership with the Public Catalogue Foundation.

For full information on the collection, please consult our catalogues by the distinguished art historian James Byam Shaw (1903-1992). The catalogues are out of print but a few copies of each are still available for purchase in the Gallery shop (Paintings catalogue £25, Drawings catalogue £80).

James Byam Shaw, Paintings by Old Masters at Christ Church Oxford, Oxford 1967

James Byam Shaw, Drawings by Old Masters at Christ Church Oxford, Oxford 1976 (2 vols.)

A shorter guide which contains a brief history and selected highlights of the collection is also available. Christopher Baker, Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford, 2002. This volume contains 30 full-page colour illustrations; it may be purchased at the Gallery desk or ordered (post and package extra) for £8.50.

Still the most useful work for an overview of the portraits in Christ Church is Mrs. Reginald Lane Poole’s Catalogue of Portraits in the Possession of the University, Colleges and the County of Oxford, vol. 3, Oxford 1925 (pp.1 – 116).