Christ’s College was re-founded in 1505 by Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of the King, Henry VII, from the original God’s House. The Tudor full-length portrait of Lady Margaret dominates the Hall, although the College’s 73 oil paintings are mostly portraits of Masters and Fellows, or alumni which include Charles Darwin and John Milton. Sir Arthur Shipley, Dr John Peile, Dr Alfred Cort Haddon, whose eponymous library overlooks Downing Street, are all represented in fine oil paintings. Among the more modern portraits is that of Sir John Plumb by Laurence Gowing, which exudes a distinctively academic atmosphere, in marked contrast that that of Dr Alan Munro by Annabel Cullen, which radiates benign authority. It is a collection that the College enjoys and hopes, through the Public Catalogue Foundation, to give pleasure to many more. The collection has accumulated over the past 500 years or so, through commissions, benefactions and gifts and is constantly being added to, albeit slowly.

It is stressed that the paintings at Christ's College are not in public ownership. In accordance with the charitable aims of the College, which is a private institution, we are including our paintings on this website to widen public awareness and for the benefit of scholarship. The paintings are hung throughout the College, mainly in private areas.