The personal archive of art historian and collector Rupert Forbes Gunnis (1899 - 1965).
Selection of material from the Rupert Gunnis archive Courtesy of the Gunnis Estate and Leeds Museums & Galleries (Henry Moore Institute Archive). Photo: George Booth Passport belonging to Rupert Gunnis Courtesy of the Gunnis Estate and Leeds Museums & Galleries (Henry Moore Institute Archive). Photo: George Booth Two drawings of memorial plaques, possibly by Rupert Gunnis Courtesy of the Gunnis Estate and Leeds Museums & Galleries (Henry Moore Institute Archive). Photo: George Booth A page from Rupert Gunnis' scrapbook 'Historic Cyprus' showing press cuttings related to sculpture Courtesy of the Gunnis Estate and Leeds Museums & Galleries (Henry Moore Institute Archive). Photo: George Booth Pages from Rupert Gunnis' Diary, 1927 Courtesy of the Gunnis Estate and Leeds Museums & Galleries (Henry Moore Institute Archive). Photo: George Booth
Gunnis is well-known for this ‘Dictionary of British Sculptors 1660-1851’, published in 1953, which was the result of many years of dedicated research by Gunnis and a team of helpers. A revised edition was recently published with the support of the Institute, and the Archive holds papers relating to both the first edition, and revision project.
Within the archive are many papers that document Gunnis’s life and work, from childhood through to the months leading up to his death in June 1965, the majority of which were written, collected or compiled by Gunnis himself. From an early age, the papers show Gunnis was a keen writer and collector of information, later finding antiquities and sculpture as the focus for his interests.
The collection also includes photograph albums, drawings, press-cuttings, scrapbooks, journals, correspondence and diaries, and is particularly rich in relation to his period of colonial service when in Cyprus from 1926-1939 where he was a founder of the Cyprus Museum and wrote ‘Historic Cyprus’.