Ashmolean Museum

🖼 🏺🏛 World famous collections, from Egyptian mummies to contemporary art. 🕙 Open every day 10am–5pm.

[Ruskin Society @ruskinsociety]

🌸🌿🌼
From botanical study to artistic inspiration, plants have shaped how we understand and depict the natural world.
*In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World* @AshmoleanMuseum is a fascinating exhibition.
Well worth a visit.
Closes on 16 August
#InBloom #NatureStudy #Oxford

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

🐚✨ Booking is now open for Aphrodite: The Making of a Goddess.

Step into the world of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, beauty, and desire — later worshipped by the Romans as Venus.

Today she is thought of as a symbol of passion and beauty, but her story is far older and more complex.

Discover Aphrodite's remarkable journey from her origins on Cyprus over 3,000 years ago to her transformation into one of the most enduring figures of the ancient Greek and Roman worlds.

This major exhibition opens on 8 October 2026, find out more: https://t.co/9XpsTtuzMf

🏛️ Ashmolean Members go for free with no need to book
🗓️ 8 October 2026 until 11 April 2027
📍 Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

📷️ Crouching Aphrodite or Venus (detail), 100–199 CE, Roman marble after Hellenistic original © Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2026 | Royal Collection Trust. Photograph: British Museum

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

📢 We are delighted to announce a new exhibition for 2027 📢

Discover the sensory worlds of the Renaissance.

Uncover a time shaped by global exchange and alive with colour, texture, music, spices, entertainment and fragrance.

Experience works by artists including Raphael, Uccello, Dürer and Antonello da Messina, alongside sculptures, textiles, musical instruments and exquisite objects.

✨️ Renaissance Worlds: Art and the Senses will open on 4 June 2027: https://t.co/zP3c3blwTX

🏛️ Members go for free.

♟️ The Chess Game (detail), Sofonista Anguissola, 1555, oil on canvas © The Raczyński Foundation at the National Museum in Poznań

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💐 Jamie Compton, Lilium ‘Beverly’s Dream’ Wiltshire, Molly Goddard, Peony, East London and Anjelica Huston, Rosa ‘Sunstruck’, Los Angeles by Kate Friend, 2019 and 2022 C-type colour print. © Kate Friend Courtesy of Lyndsey Ingram, London

🌿 Rhododendron thomsonii from Joseph Dalton Hooker’s Rhododendrons of the Sikkim-Himalaya, Walter Hood Fitch (1817–1892), 1849-1851. © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

🖌️ Galeandra devoniana, Sarah Ann Drake (1803–1857), 1830s. © The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

🖌️ The Indian Shawl, Herbert David Richter (1874–1955) late 19th century, oil on canvas. Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire Council Collection.

✍️ Poppy Seed Head, Brigid Edwards (born 1940), 1999. © Brigid Edwards, Courtesy The Shirley Sherwood Collection

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⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ @guardian
"Consistently illuminating" @theobserveruk
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ @thetimes
"Much to savour" @telegraph

Step inside In Bloom and journey from Oxford to the farthest corners of the world and back, uncovering the global stories behind some of Britain’s most beloved blooms.

From the fascinating stories of curiosity and ingenuity of early plant explorers to the networks that shaped global trade, this exhibition reveals how the pursuit of exotic plants transformed landscapes, economies, and cultures, leaving a legacy that still shapes our world today.

🌷Plan your visit via the link in bio.
🏛️ Ashmolean Members enjoy free unlimited entry with no need to book.

📷 Photos by Hannah Pye.

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

👀 A closer look at the object that inspired today's animation by the talented Eilidh Morley.

This plate shows a sphinx with a lion’s body, a bird’s wings and a woman’s head.

It was made around 600 BCE, over 2,600 years ago. The colour of the clay suggests that it was made on Rhodes.

The plate was made during a time when there was increasing trade between the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, where the sphinx originated. Images of creatures such as the griffin and sphinx travelled westwards, perhaps as decorative designs on carved ivories or metal vessels. These were then adopted locally as pottery designs.

The sphinx became part of Greek mythology, as the monster who terrorised Thebes until Oedipus solved her riddle. Around the time this plate was made, sculptures of sphinxes started to appear on top of columns in Greek sites such as Delphi. Here they acted as guardian figures. The sphinx on this plate does not appear to have a defined role: she is still on her way from east to west.

🪽 Rhodian plate with sphinx design, c. 600 BCE. AN1885.631

[Aesthetica Magazine @AestheticaMag]

What do we really know about the plants and flowers in our gardens?

'In Bloom' at @AshmoleanMuseum features over 100 artworks and objects that take visitors on a journey to uncover the global stories behind some of Britain's most beloved blooms.

Until 19 August: https://t.co/OQbkRdbOG5

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We are delighted to share that, together, Oxford University's Gardens, Libraries and Museums welcomed over 3.8 million visitors last year!

Thank you to all of our wonderful visitors, the Ashmolean is currently the 31st most visited attraction in the UK and is now the most popular visitor attraction in Oxfordshire.

ALVA visitor figures: https://t.co/NoMPuPM1PI

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

🌸 Plates by Georg Dionysius Ehret designed for Chrisoph Jacob Trew's Plantae Selectae, 1750–73 . The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
🖌️ Orchids, Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, 1879, oil on panel © Private Collection, USA.
🌱 Plant models, Robert Brendel, c. 1860–1880, papier mâché & wood © Oxford University Herbaria, Department of Biology
🌻 Sunflower, Everard Kick & Daniel Frankcom, from the Florilegium, commissioned by Mary Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, 1703, bound volume with watercolours © The Duke and Duchess of Beaufort, Badminton Estate, Gloucestershire
📷 Hevea brasilensis (rubber latex) coagulated with acetic acid, 19th century. © Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
🌸 Nature Series installation, Justine Smith, 2025, mixed media. © Collection of the artist
💐 Anjelica Huston, Rosa ‘Sunstruck’, Los Angeles, Kate Friend, 2022 C-type colour print. © Kate Friend Courtesy of Lyndsey Ingram, London
🖤 From The Circuit of Dispossession, Anahita Norouzi, 2022 Crude oil on translucent paper. © Anahita Norouzi. Courtesy of Anahita Norouzi and Galerie Nicolas Robert
🌼Works by Işık Güner, 2024. Watercolour on rice paper. © Işık GünerCollection of Işık Güner
📷 Illustratio systema sexualis Linnaei, John Miller 1770–77. Bound volume with hand-coloured engravings. The Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
🖌️ The Indian Shawl, Herbert David Richter (1874–1955) late 19th century, oil on canvas. Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, North Yorkshire Council Collection.

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

📣 In Bloom: How Plants Change Our World is now open.

★ ★ ★ ★ The Guardian

"There's much to savour" The Telegraph

🏦 Ashmolean Members go for free with no need to book.

🌱https://t.co/TiRfHlLvUg

🎵Eric Sutherland

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

Coming soon... 🌸 🪻 🌿 🪴

Our next major exhibition In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World opens on 19 March.

🏛️ Ashmolean Members enjoy free unlimited entry with no need to book.

🎟️ Plan your visit: https://t.co/MrfhuWNSG5

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

🌷🌿 Tickets are now available for In Bloom: How Plants Changed Our World.

Beyond their beauty, many plants and flowers have hidden histories – tales of exploration, obsession, and knowledge.

📆 Opening 19 March 2026, this major new exhibition will take you from Oxford to the farthest corners of the world and back, uncovering the global stories behind some of Britain’s most beloved blooms – from roses and tulips to camellias and peonies.

🏛️ Ashmolean Members enjoy unlimited free exhibition entry with no need to book.

Find out more and plan your visit: https://t.co/vD9nAEYUEn

💐 A Vase of Flowers, Simon Verelst, c. 1669–1675, oil on canvas.
🎨 Orchids, Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema, 1879, oil on panel © Private Collection, USA. Photo courtesy of the Richard Green Gallery, London
🩷 Duncan Grant, Hollyhock, Charleston, Kate Friend, 2019, C-type print. Courtesy of the artist & Lyndsey Ingram

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

📣 Last chance to see This Is What You Get: Stanley Donwood, Radiohead, Thom Yorke – this exhibition closes 18 January 📣

Don't miss this unique opportunity to look at the creative forces behind some of the most important and influential music of the past few decades.

🎟️ Weekend tickets are very limited. We highly recommend booking in advance, or visiting in the week for greater availability.

🏛️ Ashmolean Members go for free.

🎨 Membranes (detail), Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke, 2022, tempera, gouache on canvas © Stanley Donwood & Thom Yorke. Photo Emma Wood. Courtesy of TIN MAN ART

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

John R R Tolkien was born on this day in 1892.

Tolkien, the author of 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings', was a student and eventually a professor at University of Oxford. Back in 1977, the Ashmolean hosted an exhibition of his drawings.

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

Take a closer look at the artwork that inspired the animation...

This print, 'A Drinking Party', forms part of a series titled 'A Set of Goldfish series' by Utagawa Kuniyoshi and dates to 1839–1842.

🌟A Drinking Party, part of A Set of Goldfish series, nishiki-e, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861). EA1971.157

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

Happy New Year to you! ✨

We hope this magical animation by Matilde Senos fills your day with joy!

The Museum is closed today but will be reopening from tomorrow - we can't wait to welcome you then.

⭐️ A Drinking Party, part of A Set of Goldfish series, nishiki-e, by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861). EA1971.157

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

These creatures and characters Daphne Wright hang on the walls of our current Ashmolean NOW exhibition Deep-Rooted Things.

Made of unfired clay and mixed media, these sculptures derive from a series of collectible posters that once came free with the Guardian newspaper and hung on the bedroom walls of Wright’s children.

See these and Daphne Wright's incredible life-size sculptures for FREE - Deep-Rooted Things is on display in Gallery 8 until 8 February.

🐇 Pet Rodents and Rabbits, Daphne Wright, 2019, unfired clay & mixed media © Daphne Wright. Courtesy the artist and Frith Street Gallery, London

🦎 Pet Amphibians and Reptiles (detail), Daphne Wright, 2019, unfired clay & mixed media © Daphne Wright. Courtesy the artist and Frith Street Gallery, London

🐕 Dogs: Utility, Toy, Hound and Terrier, Daphne Wright, 2024–2025 unfired clay & mixed media © Daphne Wright. Courtesy the artist

@daphnewright_art @frithstreetgallery

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

A look at the original work that inspired today's animation 🔍

These studies of a sleepy, restful hound, captured for a portrait of this dog, are by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, son of Giovanni Battista Tiepolo and elder brother of Lorenzo Baldissera Tiepolo.

These drawings were made using pen with brown ink and a brown wash, over black chalk on laid paper. ✍️

🐶 Studies of a dog, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727 - 1804). 20.8cm tall x 26.5 cm wide. WA1937.223

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

We hope you are all resting and relaxing like this perfect pooch.

This charming animation was created by Will Lang and inspired by an 18th century study of a dog produced by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo.

🐶 Studies of a dog, Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727 - 1804). 20.8cm tall x 26.5 cm wide. WA1937.223

[Ashmolean Museum @AshmoleanMuseum]

🎄 The festive break has now begun for our galleries 🎄

Over the Christmas and New Year period the Museum will be closed 24–26 December and on 1 January. We will be open as usual on all other days, 10am–5pm.

We look forward to welcoming you back to the Museum soon!

💫 Illustration by Kate Baylay