The Collection

It started in 1925 when John Booth (1857–1941), son of the founder of the well known grocery business presented The Herd Lassie by Richard Ansdell RA to the townspeople of the borough of Lytham St Annes, Lancashire.

Booth said it should be ‘a nucleus for the formation of an art gallery’ and this was the beginning of what became a steady stream of donations and bequests following Booth’s philanthropic example.

Richard Ansdell’s paintings are an important feature in the Collection.

He was part of the art colony in Lytham which, by the late nineteenth century, was attracting famous artists and wealthy art collectors who lived in the expensive villas along the beach of Victorian Lytham.

Ansdell lived here too, building his own modest villa in an area between these villas and Commonside. This area became known as Ansdell, named after him. It is believed to be the only place in the country named after an artist.

His great great granddaughter, Sarah Kellam, regards this collection of twenty-seven paintings within the LSA Art Collection as the most significant in the world and almost the largest.

John Booth’s legacy has been to initiate the Collection.

Over eighty years later the Booth family most generously provided the beautiful Fylde Gallery within its new Lytham store, specifically for the display of artworks from the Collection.

Unfortunately, due to up-to-date criteria for displaying the Collection, the Gallery is no longer used as an exhibition venue.