Beaverbrook Art Gallery
New Brunswick's provincial art gallery on the Saint John River, given to the province by Lord Beaverbrook.
The gallery was given to the people of New Brunswick by the press proprietor and politician Lord Beaverbrook, who was born in Ontario and raised in Newcastle, New Brunswick. It opened on Queen Street in Fredericton on 16 September 1959, on a riverside site beside the Legislative Assembly building, and was designated the provincial art gallery of New Brunswick in 1994. The founding gift included British and European paintings that Beaverbrook had acquired, among them portraits by Gainsborough, Reynolds and Romney.
Its best known work is Salvador Dali's very large canvas Santiago El Grande, painted in 1957 and shown in a purpose-built space. The collection also covers Atlantic Canadian and Canadian art, with groups of works by Alex Colville, Miller Brittain and Jack Humphrey, as well as British art, decorative arts and contemporary acquisitions. The Harrison McCain Pavilion, designed by KPMB Architects and opened in September 2022, added a glazed wing facing the Saint John River with further exhibition galleries.
Highlights
- Salvador Dali's monumental canvas Santiago El Grande, 1957
- Founding gift of British portraits from Lord Beaverbrook
- Harrison McCain Pavilion of 2022 by KPMB, facing the river
- Strong holdings of Atlantic Canadian art, including Alex Colville
