One of the things I absolutely love about the Art UK collection is the sheer number of works listed by 'unknown' artists. They vary from the downright quirky, through the clumsily appealing, via the proficient and all the way up to utterly breathtaking. I barely scratched the surface of all the anonymous artworks available to see but here are just a selection that I was really taken with.
Icon with Saint Luke Painting the Virgin 16th C
Greek School
Tempera & gilt on oak panel
H 19.5 x W 11.5 cm
Paintings Collection
The Lobster Smack, Canvey Island c.1900
unknown artist
Oil on panel
H 11 x W 14 cm
Dutch Cottage Museum
Dots over Brown Wash then Green
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 109.5 x W 110 cm
Kingston University: Art on Campus
unknown artist
Oil on wood, cloth, metal & wire
H 250 x W 150 cm
Djanogly City Academy Nottingham
Portrait of an Unidentified Gentleman
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 61 x W 45.5 cm
Nottingham Central Library
Billy Wood and Son 'Boxing Booth': Boxer Lee Savold
unknown artist
Oil on board
H 288 x W 89.3 cm
The Fairground Heritage Trust
Girl in a Pink Evening Gown at a Night Club
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 98 x W 64 cm
Dacorum Heritage Trust Ltd
Harold Wilson (1916–1995), Baron Wilson of Rievaulx
unknown artist
Oil on board
H 16.3 x W 13 cm
Bodleian Libraries
Early Days of the Steam Train (Effects of the Railroad on the Brute Creation) 1838
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 28 x W 35.4 cm
Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 199.5 x W 199.5 cm
Djanogly City Academy Nottingham
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 76 x W 64 cm
Examination Schools, University of Oxford
Portrait of a Young Man with Closed Eyes mid-20th C (?)
unknown artist
Oil on board
H 25.5 x W 20.5 cm
King's College London
Broomfield Esso Station 1980–1990s
unknown artist
Oil on paper
H 78.5 x W 128 cm
Glasgow Life Museums
Brooklyn Bridge, New York, USA early 1940s
unknown artist
Oil on wood
H 109 x W 228 cm
Harrington Aviation Museum
unknown artist
Acrylic on board
H 42 x W 86 cm
The REME Museum
View of St Andrews from the South 1846
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 44.7 x W 67.5 cm
University of St Andrews
'Coffee John' c.1900
unknown artist
Poster paint on cardboard
H 47.5 x W 58.1 cm
Glasgow Life Museums
Fukuzawa Yukichi, Founder of Keio University, Japan 1954
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 89 x W 59 cm
Paintings and Sculptures owned by Colleges in the University of Cambridge
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 46 x W 28 cm
Paisley Museum and Art Galleries, Renfrewshire Council Collections
Abstract with a Study of a Rock c.2000
unknown artist
Oil & mixed media on paper
H 131 x W 102 cm
University of Salford
Dissection early 19th C
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 100.5 x W 67.6 cm
The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
Mother and Son and Other Scenes*
unknown artist
Acrylic on canvas
H 91.4 x W 101.6 cm
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
unknown artist
Oil on panel
H 44 x W 36 cm
Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford
George Frederick Cooke as Gloucester in 'Richard III' by William Shakespeare c.1805
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 73 x W 61.5 cm
Theatre Royal, Bath
Cristofano Allori (1577–1621) (copy after)
Oil on canvas
H 29 x W 22 cm
St Anne's College, University of Oxford
Miss Sarah Evans Davies, Mayor (1928–1930)
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 61 x W 50.8 cm
Welshpool Town Council
The Last Fence, Jerry M. in the Grand National
unknown artist
Oil on wood panel
H 71 x W 92 cm
The National Horseracing Museum
Alderman Daniel Leopold Lipson (1886–1963), MP, Mayor of Cheltenham (1935–1937)
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 45 x W 34.9 cm
The Wilson
Smokestacks and Houses on Green
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 138 x W 112 cm
Kingston University: Art on Campus
Text and Blue Buildings on White
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 55 x W 55 cm
Kingston University: Art on Campus
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 67.5 x W 51 cm
Kingston University: Art on Campus
Actaeon Attacked by Hounds 1590–1610
unknown artist
Distemper on plaster
H 84.5 x W 118.7 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum
Portrait of an Unknown Lady 1825
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 76.4 x W 63.6 cm
Beamish, The North of England Open Air Museum
Portrait of a Wounded Argyll Soldier c.1910
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 95 x W 65 cm
The Regimental Museum of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders
Billy Wood and Son 'Boxing Booth': Fight between Billy Wood and Arnold 'Kid' Shepherd
unknown artist
Oil on board
H 263 x W 305 cm
The Fairground Heritage Trust
unknown artist
Beer stone
H 34.5 x W 27.5 x D 9.5 cm
Tiverton Museum of Mid Devon Life
Penrose Almshouses, Litchdon Street, Barnstaple, Devon
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 34.5 x W 52 cm
Museum of Barnstaple and North Devon
Painting of the 'Sunk' Lightship from Abeam early 20th C
unknown artist
Oil on wooden panel
H 13.5 x W 13.5 cm
Ramsgate Maritime Museum
Elizabeth II (1926–2022) 1950s
unknown artist
Oil on board
H 117 x W 86.5 cm
Knowsley Arts and Heritage Service
unknown artist
Oil on canvas
H 151 x W 139.5 cm
Kingston University: Art on Campus
