The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge Exhibitions, Learning Activites, public programming, News, links & pictures from the Fitzwilliam.
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The Fitzwilliam Museum is the principal art museum of the University of Cambridge, with world-class collections spanning centuries and civilisations. The Fitz’s treasures range from Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman
antiquities to the arts of the 21st century, and include masterpieces by Titian, Canaletto and Picasso, illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance sculpture, medieval coins and outstanding

collections of Oriental and applied arts. Book your FREE timed ticket: https://tickets.museums.cam.ac.uk/overview/generaladmission

We also have a page for our Education Department, where you can find out more about all our learning projects: https://www.facebook.com/fitzeducation

🌦️ Rainy days getting you down? Escape to sunny Montmartre in Paris...This tree-lined street is in the bohemian quarter ...
05/06/2026

🌦️ Rainy days getting you down? Escape to sunny Montmartre in Paris...

This tree-lined street is in the bohemian quarter of the French capital, which was a popular meeting place and source of inspiration for artists in the 1880s.

🖌️ Here French artist Georges Seurat uses small, separate touches of colour to create a shimmering surface. It may be small, but there's lots to take in.

📍 Find this little painting in gallery 4

🔍 Georges Seurat, The Rue St. Vincent, Paris, in Spring. Oil on wooden panel, 1884. Photo © the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge

💍 Marriage in the 1800s looked very different than it does today...These 1817 portraits reveal how marriage was often ab...
31/05/2026

💍 Marriage in the 1800s looked very different than it does today...

These 1817 portraits reveal how marriage was often about money, status and joining two families together – not just love. Paintings like these helped showcase a couple's new social standing.

💰 Mrs Tiolier is shown smiling softly beneath a tree, with a grand estate shining in the background. Meanwhile, in his own marriage portrait, her husband stands confidently beside their grand home with a ledger-like book, hinting at the financial side of marriage.

Together, the portraits reveal the very different roles expected of husbands and wives at the time.

🔗 Get an up-close look at both Mr and Mrs Tiolier in gallery 3. Tap the link in our bio to plan your visit.

👰François-Édouard Picot, Portrait of Adélaïde-Sophie Cléret, Mme Tiolier, c. 1817, oil on canvas © The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.

🤵 François-Édouard Picot, Portrait of Nicolas-Pierre Tiolier, c. 1817, oil on canvas © The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.

👀 What do you see in the textures of this piece? Scroll through to take a closer lookMade in 1989 by Claudi Casanovas, t...
30/05/2026

👀 What do you see in the textures of this piece? Scroll through to take a closer look

Made in 1989 by Claudi Casanovas, this sculpture is titled 'Long Bowl'. But we certainly wouldn't be eating our cornflakes out of it.

📍 Come and see this intriguing object in gallery 27, where you can discover pottery and ceramics from Europe

📆 We're open and our galleries are free to visit Tuesday - Sunday

🔍 Claudi Casanovas, 'Long Bowl'. Stoneware, 1989. Gift from the collection of Richard Sykes and Penny Mason through the Contemporary Art Society, 2023. © Claudi Casanovas.

🤦‍♂️🫡 You might have spotted little figures like this in the galleries, but why are they doing this pose?Standing just u...
30/05/2026

🤦‍♂️🫡 You might have spotted little figures like this in the galleries, but why are they doing this pose?

Standing just under 10cm tall, this small bronze figure is over 3,000 years old and was made on the Mediterranean island of Crete, part of modern-day Greece. Figures like these have been found in Minoan sanctuaries (places of worship).

We can't say for sure, but given where they have been found it's thought that they show religious observers performing a gesture of worship. The Minoan culture on Crete didn't leave written histories we can understand, so we can't rely on writing or inscriptions to tell us. Even today, a similar body language gesture can have lots of meanings for different people and cultures.

📍 Say hello to this figure and its friends and find out more about the Minoans in gallery 21.

🔍 Bronze figure of a worshipper, made on Crete around 1800-1200 BCE. Photo © The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.

👀 Got any weekend plans?Enjoy some art and culture at the Fitz. Explore our free display, 'Frank Bowling: Seeking the Su...
29/05/2026

👀 Got any weekend plans?

Enjoy some art and culture at the Fitz. Explore our free display, 'Frank Bowling: Seeking the Sublime', where you can experience the bold vision of a contemporary British painter.

⚔️ You can also explore our 'War Craft' and 'Essence and Presence' displays alongside centuries of art from across the globe.

🍹 And a sunny day out wouldn't be complete without an iced coffee or lemonade from our Courtyard café.

🔗 Visit our website to plan your visit: https://bit.ly/4eKfWjl

📸 Photos by Lewis Ronald. Photos 3 Thomas Adank.

🔆 Feeling the heat? This bank holiday, we're looking to our Nature gallery to cool us down 🍃Maybe a cooling breeze from ...
25/05/2026

🔆 Feeling the heat? This bank holiday, we're looking to our Nature gallery to cool us down 🍃

Maybe a cooling breeze from Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s 'The Gust of Wind'?

🌼 Discover artists like Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, David Hockney and Barbara Hepworth in our Nature gallery and immerse yourself in the diverse range of artists who have found inspiration in the natural world from the 1700s to today.

We are open today, Monday 25 May, but please note we’ll be closed to visitors 26–29 May due to Unite industrial action taking place across the University of Cambridge. Tap the link to view our full hours and those for other University of Cambridge Museums sites: https://bit.ly/4dF0ZAu

👋 Hope to see you soon!

📍 Gallery 5, free entry

🍃 Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 'The Gust of Wind', c.1872, oil on canvas © The Fitzwilliam Museum.
📷 Rosie Powell Freelance

⚔️ Look at the scene that spirals around this vase and see if you can find the commander holding two swords 👀 The main s...
24/05/2026

⚔️ Look at the scene that spirals around this vase and see if you can find the commander holding two swords 👀

The main scene depicts warriors practising inside a walled courtyard with lush greenery – what other details can you see?

The image was copied from woodblock prints of famous Chinese stories like ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ – a historical novel originally written in the 1300s, which dramatises the lives and military achievements of feudal lords.

It’s painted with colourful enamels known as ‘famille vert’ or ‘green family’ for the vivid shades of green used 🌳

📍 See it on display with more art from East Asia in gallery 28
🔍 Hard-paste porcelain vase with coloured enamels. China, 1662–1722. Photos © the Fitzwilliam Museum

🐢 Can you guess what these tiny turtles were used for?These miniature sculptures were carved in Japan during the Edo per...
23/05/2026

🐢 Can you guess what these tiny turtles were used for?

These miniature sculptures were carved in Japan during the Edo period (1603–1868), but they weren't just decorative objects.

👘 Known as 'netsuke', these intricate carvings were designed to be worn. Since kimonos didn't have pockets, men carried personal items like to***co pouches, pipes and writing tools suspended from cords at the waist. A netsuke acted as a kind of toggle, keeping everything securely in place.

Over time, netsuke became works of art in their own right, carved into everything from flowers and fruit to figures from folklore and, of course, animals.

✨ So what's the verdict... would these turtles make it into your spring wardrobe rotation?

💚 Unknown maker in Japan, Netsuke, wood and ivory. Photos © The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.

📲🔑👛 What don't you leave home without? This is an 'etui', made in the mid-1700s in England, designed to hold essentials ...
23/05/2026

📲🔑👛 What don't you leave home without? This is an 'etui', made in the mid-1700s in England, designed to hold essentials when on the go, or to keep things neat on the dresser.

This loadout features seven items, all housed in a case less than 10cm tall:
✂️ A pair of scissors
🪡 A bodkin (large needle)
🥄 A spoon
✏️ A pencil-holder
📝 Ivory memorandum leaves (erasable tablets for writing)
🦷 A hinged toothpick and an ear pick housed inside a quill case
💭 One of the original items is missing - we wonder what it was?

By the middle of the 1700s, advances in technology meant copper could be rolled thinly to create objects like this relatively cheaply. The copper was then covered in a mixture of powdered, coloured glass (enamel) that when heated, formed a hard, glossy surface. Designs like these countryside scenes could be then be painted onto it.

🔍 Enamelled copper 'etui' with gilt metal mounts. Staffordshire or London, around 1760-70. Photos © The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge.

☀️ Looking for bank holiday plans with the kids?Join us on Monday 25 May for a special Family Day – a relaxed, artist-l...
22/05/2026

☀️ Looking for bank holiday plans with the kids?

Join us on Monday 25 May for a special Family Day – a relaxed, artist-led day of making, exploring and getting creative together.

Inspired by our free display, 'Frank Bowling: Seeking the Sublime', families can drop in across the museum and take part in activities led by artist Sandra Scott.

✨ Free
🎨 Drop-in
🏛️ Activities across multiple galleries
🖍️ Recommended for ages 2–10

🔗 Visit our website to find out more: https://bit.ly/4nZMHOK

Please note that the museum will be closed on 26–29 May due to Unite industrial action across the University of Cambridge. We're open on weekends and the bank holiday so we will see you then!

Check out our full opening hours and other University of Cambridge museums here: https://www.museums.cam.ac.uk/node/5400

📷 Photos by Lewis Ronald.

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