Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art

The Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art is a small museum in Canonbury Square, Islington, London. It stands in a converted Grade II-listed Georgian house called Northampton Lodge, once the home and office of architect Sir Basil Spence. The gallery is the only one in Britain devoted to modern Italian art and operates as a registered charity. It sits in a quiet square lined with terraced houses, a short walk from Highbury & Islington station. The collection began with Eric Estorick, an American sociologist who moved to England after the Second World War. On honeymoon in 1947 he and his wife Salome discovered a book by Umberto Boccioni and soon met the Futurist artist Mario Sironi in Milan. They bought hundreds of drawings from his studio and spent the next few years building a focused group of works. The Estoricks turned down offers from museums in Italy, the United States and Israel, and in 1993 Eric set up a foundation to keep the collection together. Inside, the main rooms display Futurist paintings by Boccioni, Balla, Carrà, Severini, Russolo and Soffici. There are also figurative works and sculptures from 1890 to the 1950s, including pieces by Modigliani, Morandi, de Chirico, Sironi and Marini. Temporary exhibitions run alongside the permanent displays, showing how Italian modernism evolved across the first half of the 20th century. The house’s calm atmosphere and carefully chosen artworks make it a quiet place to explore a distinctive slice of European modernism.