Raise Your Mugs To Harold Gilman

As a regular visitor to the Walker this is a very familiar painting, looking forward to seeing it again in the refurbished British Art gallery.


135th anniversary of major British artist’s birth.

The artist responsible for one of the Walker Art Gallery’s most popular paintings was born 135 years ago this Friday.

Born on 11 February 1876, Harold Gilman was a founder member of the Camden Town Group, an influential artist collective formed at the beginning of the 20th century.

Mrs Mounter is a colourful portrait of Gilman’s landlady. The charming depiction of the elderly woman in her distinctive red head scarf, sat at a table with an un-matching tea set, is one of the gallery’s most-loved paintings. The painting will feature in the Walker Art Gallery’s newly-refurbished interactive gallery, British Art: 1880 to 1950, which opens from 25 March 2011.

Painted around 1916/17 the techniques Gilman used for Mrs Mounter were inspired by European Post-Impressionist painters, such as van Gogh, Cezanne and Gauguin.