The Bowes Museum, built in the style of a French château and set in the beautiful countryside of County Durham, is a striking architectural feature which houses John and Joséphine Bowes' magnificent collection of European and decorative arts. The Designated collections, which span the 14th to 19th centuries, include important paintings by Sassetta, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and François Boucher.

In 1862 the couple purchased some 75 Spanish paintings from the Condesa de Quinto in Paris. This group includes works by El Greco and Francisco de Goya and now forms the nucleus of the Museum’s important collection of Spanish paintings.

Joséphine Bowes, a talented and dedicated painter, was a keen collector of contemporary French paintings. She purchased works by major French artists such as Gustave Courbet, Henri Fantin-Latour, Eugène Louis Boudin and Aldophe Monticelli.

The Bowes Museum continues to acquire works of art to complement the Founders’ Collection and has added two fine works by Canaletto and paintings by Lawrence Alma-Tadema, George Frederic Watts and Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer to the collection.