Walker Art Gallery. The Walker Art Gallery is an art gallery in Liverpool, which houses one of the largest art collections in England, outside London.
It is part of the National Museums Liverpool group, and is promoted as the National Gallery of the North because it is not a local or regional gallery but is part of the national museums and galleries administered directly from central government funds. The Walker Art Gallery's collection dates from 1819 when the Liverpool Royal Institution acquired 37 paintings from the collection of William Roscoe, who had to sell his collection following the failure of his banking business, though it was saved from being broken up by his friends and associates.
In 1843, the Royal Institution's collection was displayed in a purpose-built gallery next to the Institution's main premises. In 1850 negotiations by an association of citizens to take over the Institution's collection, for display in a proposed art gallery, library and museum, came to nothing.
The collection grew over the following decades: in 1851 Liverpool Town Council bought Liverpool Academy's diploma collection and further works were acquired from the Liverpool Society for the Fine Arts, founded in 1858. The competition between the Academy and Society eventually led to both collapsing.
William Brown Library and Museum opened in 1860, named after a Liverpool merchant whose generosity enabled the Town