Private Collections

‘A Small Oasis’: The Tom Alexander Collection

15 September 2026

Philip Smith

From his home on the Isle of Arran, Tom Alexander (1915 - 2000) assembled a collection that brought together many of the leading artists of his time. Its beginnings were modest: an annual allowance of thirty or forty pounds, a close interest in contemporary art and the confidence to write directly to the artists he admired.

Over the following decades, works by Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland, Barbara Hepworth, William Scott and L. S. Lowry joined a collection shaped by personal correspondence and the pleasure of living with art.

Illustrated: Tom Alexander in the drawing room of the family home, Harar, sitting on a padauk stool by David Gilbert, with Ben Nicholson’s Composition and Hans Coper’s Digswell Composite Form behind. Photograph courtesy of the Estate.

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Alexander’s interest developed during the Second World War, when he visited galleries while stationed near towns and cities. His first purchase, a painting by James Treen, was acquired in Lewes in 1943 and taken to the nursing home where his daughter Judith had just been born. Catherine, his wife, remembered the doctor and nurses laughing at this unfamiliar modern picture.

After the war, Alexander and his brother Jim bought the village store in Brodick, returning to the island where they had spent childhood holidays. His collecting budget came from payment for a fortnight’s annual training with the Officers Supplementary Reserve. With four children, he had to buy carefully. Books and reproductions informed his choices, and his letters combined knowledge of an artist’s work with a frank account of what he could afford.

Illustrated above: Tom Alexander in the drawing room of the family home, Harar, holding Victor Pasmore’s Untitled, 1959 with Hans Coper’s Digswell Composite Form and a Lucie Rie bowl behind. Photograph taken for the BBC’s Anderson Country programme, March 1994. | Works displayed at Harar, including a vase by Kate McClellan, bowls by Lucie Rie, an enamel by Anne Robin Banks and a black vase by Hans Coper. | Tom Alexander at Harar with a work by Victor Pasmore. Photographed for Gerry Anderson’s Anderson Country, BBC, 14 March 1994. Photographs courtesy of the Estate.

Correspondence with Britain’s Leading Artists

Writing to William Scott in 1962, he explained his wish to buy one picture each year before admitting: “And now we come to the snag.” His budget was £40. Scott responded by offering a gouache entitled Arran, pleased by the prospect of its finding a home on the island. Ceri Richards expressed a similar delight: “It is fascinating to think of this small oasis of contemporary painting existing in that island setting.”

Works by Lucie Rie, Hans Coper, Stanley Spencer, Victor Pasmore, Prunella Clough and Sidney Nolan reflect the breadth of Alexander’s interests. Spencer’s correspondence is particularly revealing. In March 1955, he offered Alexander a study for The Resurrection of the Soldiers at Burghclere, which he had bought back for £25 and was prepared to sell for £30. Despite protesting, “I never if I can help it write letters. I hate writing letters”, Spencer described the picture at length, explaining the mules, their discarded pack saddles and the straw in the foreground.

Stanley Spencer, writing to Tom Alexander

26 May 1954
I will have to pass your letter to my dealer as I am in haste trying to paint trees and I am tired out by the struggle against flowers dying and the icey [sic] wind.

2 March 1955
I have not forgotten about doing a painting for you for the price you originally stated. I am sending an oil-on-paper painting - a study made for my altarpiece at Burghclere. You will see in the Penguin book a reproduction of this altarpiece and the study was for the top left-hand portion of this picture.

I had not seen this study for many years and when I saw it I bought it for £25. If you care to give me £30 for it you may have it.

3 March 1955
It is […] so difficult to find a painting of mine at all that fits your price. I never, if I can help it, write letters. I hate writing letters and I am very bad at answering letters.

The parcel I shall send off this morning. The painting you will find in it is […] oil on paper. The scene is of mules in the ‘Resurrection of Soldiers’ altarpiece painting at Burghclere. These mules have been relieved of their burdens and the objects on the ground are the mules’ pack saddles, and lying between the mules are their mounts. A portion of a truss of straw is in the foreground.

Pasmore’s letters have a different humour. Apologising for a delay in July 1959, he explained: “I have had to paint something specially for you.” Later, asked about its meaning, he replied: “There is no title and, as to its meaning, this is as much a mystery to me as it is to your small children!”

Victor Pasmore, writing to Tom Alexander

18 February 1959
I must apologise for the delay in replying to your letter. Yes, I should be glad to let you have a painting if I can find a good small one, the price of which can approximate to the amount proposed in your letter. Unfortunately I have nothing at present in my studio here in Newcastle; but I shall be returning to my home in London in about a fortnight and I will see what I have there.

11 July 1959
Herewith at last the picture as promised. I must apologise for the long delay, but I have had to paint something especially for you. I hope you will not be disappointed.

The picture should not be framed. However, if you do find a frame necessary, the frame should be kept well away from the edges of the painting. To get the best effect, the picture should be hung on a white or near-white background.

18 July 1959
Many thanks indeed for your letter and cheque. I am delighted that you are all pleased with the painting and I hope, when you find a suitable place to hang it, it will continue to give you pleasure. There is no title and, as to its meaning, this is as much a mystery to me as to your small daughter!

All good wishes,
Victor Pasmore

Catherine shared actively in the decisions, and neither was overawed by reputation. When Nicholson initially sent a drawing of a jug, they returned it, explaining their preference for his abstract paintings. He responded with a small composition of two standing forms. Such exchanges give the collection its unusually personal character.

At Harar, the family home, pictures hung alongside ceramics and furniture chosen with comparable care. Photographs show Rie bowls and a Coper vase on the mantelpiece; Clough’s work and Nolan’s landscapes formed part of the same domestic surroundings. The collection also encompassed Ivon Hitchens, John Piper, William Roberts, Alan Davie, Anne Redpath, William Gillies and William Johnstone. In 2010, its history was celebrated in an exhibition at the Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh.

The surviving letters record how much this appreciative audience meant to the artists themselves, revealing the relationships behind the collection and the affection with which its works were chosen and lived with.