In May the Gallery was delighted to accept a gift of five British works from the collection of Lesley Lewis: a fine oil painting of Hawes, Wensleydale by Wilson Steer, two small figurative watercolours by J. C. Ibbetson and two further landscapes in watercolour by Charles Bulteel Fisher and Paul van Lander.

Mrs Lewis was one of the original four students to enrol in the Institute in 1932. She remembers being taught by James Byam Shaw, the drawings expert at Colnaghi’s. Her MA thesis, deposited in 1937, was entitled ‘The Rise of Neo-Classic Architecture in England’. Mrs Lewis published works on a wide range of subjects including Connoisseurs and Secret Agents (1961) about the covert activities in Rome between Cardinal Alessandro Albani and the antiquarian collector and spy Philip von Stosch.

Dr. Joanna Selborne