The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour

10 October – 17 December 2022

Kirkby Gallery is thrilled to announce that in Winter 2022 is will be hosting Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas’s Hélène Rouart in her Father’s Study, one of only three venues selected to do so as part of The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour, sponsored by Christie’s.

This significant work by Degas will be presented alongside other works by Impressionists including Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Mary Cassatt, bringing art of international importance to Kirkby Gallery for Knowsley’s Liverpool City Region Borough of Culture Year celebrations in 2022.

The National Gallery Masterpiece Tour will see this stunning large-scale painting displayed at Gallery Oldham alongside other portraits of women from their collections, followed by Glan-yr-afon/The Riverside where it will be contextualised with other explorations of the female form in relation to the male gaze.

The Tour will then be concluded at Kirkby Gallery, where Hélène Rouart in her Father’s Study will take centre stage within the space. The intriguing domestic scene of monumental scale will offer visitors the opportunity to explore ideas around portraiture and identity.

It will be shown in tandem with Making an Impression: Prints by Manet, Pissarro and their Contemporaries, an exhibition on loan from The Ashmolean Museum. The display at Kirkby Gallery will also reveal the many fascinating connections between the Rouart family, Degas and the featured Impressionists, examining their artistic practice and relationships both personal and professional.

Please note that bags must be placed in our storage receptacles when you enter the Gallery and returned at the end of your visit.

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas. Hélène Rouart in her Father’s Study. About 1886.
© The National Gallery, London.