During its history the Club has staged a number of distinguished special exhibitions. The first opened in June 1880 at the newly built Art Gallery and consisted of 57 Old and Modern Masters lent by one of the Club's patrons, Sir Richard Wallace of Sudbourne Hall. It was the only occasion that pictures from the world-famous Wallace collection (now in London) have ever been loaned to another gallery. With help from the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Club also staged a major show of Constable, Gainsborough and "Old Suffolk Artists" in 1887 and again a particularly important bi-centenary exhibition of Gainsborough in 1927. Apart from these special exhibitions the Club often mounted smaller ones within the main annual exhibition and in 1913 a few works by pupils of the Ipswich School of Art were shown including five by Leonard Squirrell. Then a student, he was to become a member of the Club and serve for forty two years on its committee.

Previous section: High Street           Next section: Post World War II