In celebration of its 40th anniversary in 2022, Pallant House in Chichester is showing a small but significant collection of rarely displayed drawings from its founding collection, the Hussey Bequest. Assembled by the Rev’d Walter Hussey, Dean of Chichester Cathedral, the collection spans the 16th to 20th centuries, with a strong focus on Renaissance works.

Old Master drawings and British landscapes by Thomas Gainsborough and John Robert Cozens will be shown alongside a group of beautiful set and costume designs for the Ballets Russes. One of the undoubted highlights of the show will be Head of an Eagle (c.1527-28), an ink drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist Giulio Romano, who was the chief assistant of Raphael. Also worthy of note is Jean Antoine Watteau’s Etude de Quatres Personnages, avec Deux Femmes Assises (1708), which Hussey bought on the advice of his friend Henry Moore.

This bijou exhibition offers a rare chance to see some of the extraordinary ‘hidden secrets’ housed at Pallant House. Never has there been a better time to hop on a train south.