A wide-ranging collection of artworks, from old masters to modern, has been gathered in an exhibition that is, well, quite eclectic.
The collection, which ranges from paintings by Hendrick Goltzius to Salvador Dalí, has been interspersed with modern works by the gallery owner, Glenn Brown.
Glenn Brown’s work is very marmite and of a certain taste, but collecting a range of other artists and putting them on display around his work gives the visitor a chance to see usually private works by well-known artists, and for free.
The Dali is a collection of erotic sketches, and your decision about how close you get up to it to look may be a measure of prudishness. It also sits next to a totally unrelated 19th-century still life of flowers in a vase by Henri Fantin-Latour.
A charming triple set of French ladies by Albert Victor-Ormsby Wood forms an almost triptych, while surrealism comes from photos by John Stezaker.
A more atmospheric cellar is lined with botanical sketches, mostly by Marion Adnams
As an exhibition, it’s so wide-ranging that it feels like it’s a random selection of artworks without any theme or reason. A person with a PhD in art theory will probably work it out, but for the rest of us “mere mortals”, it’s still an enjoyable collection of art to wander around.
It’s likely that everyone will find at least one artwork that they like in the collection.
The exhibition, Fail We May, Sail We Must, is at the Brown Collection in Marylebone until August 2027 and is free to visit.
It’s open Wednesday to Saturday, 10.30am to 6pm.
1 Bentinck Mews,
Marylebone,
London,
W1U 2AF