First opened in 1939 and housed in a beautiful and period, custom-designed building, Southampton City Art Gallery holds one of the finest collections of art in the south of England. Currently comprising over 5,000 works and spanning eight centuries, the collection is an outstanding educational resource that can trace the history of European art from the Renaissance to the present. The core, however, is British twentieth century and contemporary art. Strong clusters of this element include Post-Impressionism (Camden Town Group), Surrealism, St Ives, and progressive contemporary (Turner Prize) from the mid-1970s.

Notable works include Allegretto di Nuzio's 'Coronation of the Virgin', Giuseppe Arcimboldo's 'Summer', J. M. W. Turner's 'Fishermen upon a Lee Shore in Squally Weather', Claude Monet's 'The Church at Vétheuil', Edward Burne-Jones's 'The Perseus Series', Walter Sickert's 'The Juvenile Lead', Paul Delvaux's 'A Siren in Full Moonlight' and Chris Ofili's 'Two Doo Voodoo'.