Northampton Borough Council Museums and Gallery are well known for the world's largest collection of footwear. This Collection incorporates some fine examples of seventeenth to nineteenth century Dutch and Flemish genre paintings which feature cobblers, shoemakers and bootblacks including works by Jan Miel and Hendrik van Oort. The collections boast a very fine fifteenth to eighteenth century Italian Collection including works by Garofalo, Guardi and Girolamo da Santa Croce. The remaining paintings are, with some exceptions, British and include works by Helen Pavel, Sickert and John Nash. The art collection began in 1868 with active collecting of Italian art in the early 1950s and relatively regular purchases up until the end of the 1970s. Many of the works in the collection have been donated by local people or with the assistance of grant aid bodies and a very supportive Museum 'Friends' group. Paintings in the collection including Bolton Abbey' by John William Inchbold, 'The Holy Family with Saints' by Garofalo and 'Louise Colet' by James Tissot.