Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art

The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art is a museum located in Canonbury Square in the London Borough of Islington, United Kingdom. It is the country's only gallery devoted to modern Italian art and operates as a registered charity. The collection was assembled by the American sociologist and writer Eric Estorick (1913-1993), who began collecting after moving to England following the Second World War. The museum opened to the public in 1998 and holds particular significance for its concentration on Futurist and early twentieth-century Italian art, a field otherwise poorly represented in British public collections.

Eric Estorick and his German-born English wife Salome (1920-1989) discovered Umberto Boccioni's book Futurist Painting and Sculpture (1914) during their honeymoon in 1947. Before the trip ended, they visited the former Futurist Mario Sironi in Milan and acquired most of the contents of his studio, including hundreds of drawings. The couple built up the collection primarily between 1953 and 1958. The works were shown in several temporary exhibitions, including one at the Tate Gallery in London in 1956, and the key pieces were on long-term loan to the Tate from 1966 to 1975. The Estoricks declined offers to sell their collection to the Italian government and to museums in the United States and Israel. Six months before his death, Eric Estorick established the Eric and Salome Estorick Foundation and donated all his Italian works to it. The Eric and Salome Estorick Foundation was formally founded in 1994 as a charitable body. The museum moved into its current premises in 1998, with the conversion supported by a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The core of the collection is its Futurist works, though it also encompasses figurative art and sculpture dating from 1890 to the 1950s. The holdings span the full range of Italian modernist production in the first half of the twentieth century, with particular depth in Futurism and metaphysical painting. The collection includes works by the principal protagonists of Futurism: Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carrà, Gino Severini, Luigi Russolo, and Ardengo Soffici. Beyond the Futurist circle, it contains works by Giorgio de Chirico, Amedeo Modigliani, Giorgio Morandi, Mario Sironi, and Marino Marini. The French Wikipedia source specifically notes the presence of Luigi Russolo's La musica and Giorgio de Chirico's La Révolte du sage as representative holdings.

Among the signature works in the collection are Giacomo Balla's La mano del violinista (1912) and Velocità d'automobile (1913); Umberto Boccioni's Idolo moderno (1910); Carlo Carrà's L'uscita da teatro (1910); Giorgio de Chirico's La rivolta del saggio (1916); Luigi Russolo's La musica (1911); and Gino Severini's Le Boulevard (1910-1911) and Danzatrice (Ballerina + mare) (1913). The collection also includes Amedeo Modigliani's Dr François Brabander (1918), Marino Marini's Quadriga (1942) and Pomona (1943), Renato Guttuso's Eroe proletario (1953), and Medardo Rosso's Impressioni di boulevard. Donna con veletta (1893). Later acquisitions and holdings extend to works by Massimo Campigli, Giacomo Manzù, Zoran Mušič, Ottone Rosai, and Giuditta Scalini.

The museum occupies Northampton Lodge, a converted Grade II-listed Georgian house in Canonbury Square. The building was constructed between 1807 and 1810 by the entrepreneur Henry Leroux of Stoke Newington, who in 1803 had leased the plot from Charles Compton, 1st Marquess of Northampton. It remained a private residence until 1916, then served as an artificial flower factory until 1968. The building was listed Grade II in rebuilt 1953, but subsequently fell into decline. In 1974 it was acquired by the British architect Sir Basil Spence and renovated by architect Anthony Blee. Its later occupants included architect Colin St. John Wilson, who used it as offices and a personal studio, followed by an information technology company. The conversion for museum use was planned by architect Nathaniel Gee.

The Estorick Collection is situated in Canonbury Square in the district of Islington, in central London. It is owned and operated by the Eric and Salome Estorick Foundation, a registered charity. The museum opened at this location in 1998 and continues to present the permanent collection alongside temporary exhibitions. Visitors can access information through the museum's official website at www.estorickcollection.com.