A small collection of around 700 artworks, about half of which are works on paper, grew from the group of around one hundred pictures bequeathed by the painter Mary Elizabeth Stormont to the Rye Art Gallery Trust she founded in 1957 including paintings by her husband Howard Gull Stormont. The Trustees, friends, supporters and donors, by gift, purchase and bequest, have continued to grow the collection with a development policy focusing on British Art, including Edward Burra and Paul Nash, who both lived in Rye, Frank Short, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell, Ivon Hitchens, John Bratby, Eric Gill, John Piper and Fred Cuming. In 1990 Margaret Barnard bequeathed works by her and husband Robert Mackechnie, a member of the Seven and Five Society.