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The Robert Cripps Gallery, Magdalene College Cambridge. Exhibition: Everest 1921 - A Reconnaissance

The Robert Cripps Gallery

The College opened the new Robert Cripps Gallery at Magdalene College in November 2021 and is delighted with this new gallery space for visiting exhibitions and for occasionally displaying parts of the College art collection to the wider community.

The Gallery has been named in honour of Mr Robert Cripps AM, a passionate art collector, generous supporter and Honorary Fellow of the College since 2005. The Robert Cripps Gallery forms a key part of the award-winning New Library, a purpose-built space for Magdalene students and staff to meet, work, relax and find inspiration.

Upcoming Exhibition

George Mallory: Magdalene to the Mountain

20 June – 28 September 2024

Mallory in his studyThe exhibition will draw on material held in the Magdalene College Archive to reflect on the life and career of George Mallory.

Starting by focusing on his time at Magdalene and covering his academic interests, his sporting achievements and his social and cultural pursuits. It will move on to highlight his experiences during WWI, drawing on the letters he exchanged with his wife Ruth during his service in France. This provides invaluable information into his character and also the social history of life at home and the part played by women. The remainder of the exhibition looks at his time on the three expeditions to Everest and his lecture tour in the USA as told through his own letters, before commemorating the deaths of Mallory and Irvine on the mountain.

The exhibition will coincide with the conclusion of a major project to digitise all of Mallory’s correspondence allowing these letters to be made available for viewing online.

In association with The Foster Museum, Palo Alto, California, the archival material will be complemented by a series of watercolours of the north and eastern faces of Mt. Everest, and its northern approaches, by the en plein air artist Tony Foster.

Opening Times

20 June - 28 September 2024

Open: 14:00 - 16:00 Monday - Saturday
Closed: Sunday

Information for Visitors

  • to arrange access to the exhibition please call into the Porters’ Lodge on Magdalene Street
  • entrance will be to the Gallery and Pepys Library only
  • visitors are requested not to enter other parts of the New Library

Past Exhibitions

The Perspective of the Medieval Scribe

Exhibition of Medieval Manuscripts from the libraries of Magdalene College. A unique double exhibition revealing medieval perspectives on the physical world, on other worlds, and on the creative potential of image and word with the natural world, with music and with science.

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The Personality and Legacy of Fox (1923-2023)

Sir Cyril Fred Fox (1882-1967) was one of the most distinguished archaeologists to have graduated from Magdalene. 2023 is the centenary of his celebrated book The Archaeology of the Cambridge Regio. The exhibition draws Fox'e publications and other materials, to look at Fox’s personality and the...

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The world according to Jiří Kolář

Jiří Kolář (1914-2002) was a prolific Czech artist across media: a poet, writer, and translator who expanded the boundaries of modern art by deconstructing the printed image and word. In re-assembling and constructing images in collage, he created often absurd commentaries on modern life and the...

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Duncan Robinson In Memoriam

Duncan Robinson CBE (1943 - 2022) was a leading authority on British art from the eighteenth century onwards. He was also a well-loved Master of Magdalene College, 2002 – 2012, a highly respected teacher and a witty, engaging and very warm man. This exhibition reflects aspects of his remarkably full...

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Cross-Connections: Paintings by Ruth Rix

A selection of work by Ruth Rix from sixty years of painting, shown alongside prints by her mother Helga Michie, a Kindertransport refugee from Vienna.

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Will Carter - Man of Letters

An important retrospective featuring the wide-ranging portfolio of one of Cambridge’s most respected and much-loved resident artists, including many examples of his calligraphy, letter carving, printing, and typefaces.

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From Southwold to Alice Springs

From Southwold to Alice Springs: Selected works from the Collection of Robert Cripps, showcased a small snapshot of the paintings, drawings and engravings acquired over many years by a remarkable collector, reflecting both his deep roots in the countryside and coast of East Anglia and his...

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Fragile Planet - Watercolour Journeys into Wild Places

Fragile Planet was a major exhibition of watercolours by Cornwall’s world-renowned wilderness artist, Tony Foster. Fragile Planet - Watercolour Journeys into Wild Places, highlights the precariousness of the world’s wildernesses and endangered environments, many of which Tony visited and painted...

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Everest 1921 - A Reconnaissance

Pioneering works in the history of photography! With the kind permission of the Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), this exhibition showcased a selection of prints of the approaches to Mount Everest, taken in 1921 and reconstructed from newly digitised fragile silver nitrate negatives.

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