Now Open at The Sherborne: Quentin Blake Takes Flight

There’s a brilliant new reason to visit The Sherborne — two Quentin Blake exhibitions are now open, alongside a newly conserved historic treasure returning to view.

Across our first-floor galleries, you’ll find Blake’s unmistakable line at full tilt: quick, witty, deeply human — and full of movement. Whether you come for the laughter, the tenderness, or the sheer joy of drawing, these exhibitions are made to be experienced slowly… and smiled at often.

Airborne over Sherborne

Quentin Blake’s drawings have always carried a sense of lift — lines that leap, figures caught mid-flight, stories that rise off the page. Airborne over Sherborne invites you into that feeling of flight and freedom with a vibrant new series of works made in 2025. Here are birds, contraptions, and impossible inventions that somehow feel completely believable in Blake’s world — playful, energetic, and wonderfully alive. Set within The Sherborne’s luminous Georgian interiors, the exhibition becomes a conversation between contemporary mark-making and a house layered with history.

100 Portraits

Created exclusively for The Sherborne, 100 Portraits offers a rare chance to meet Blake’s imagination now: vivid, warm, and unmistakably his. These portraits are not “likenesses” of specific people, but encounters — characters discovered through drawing. A tilt of the head, a glance, a single line that suggests an entire personality: each portrait feels like a small drama caught mid-emergence.

The Folke Altarpiece: The Resurrection

Shown within Airborne over Sherborne, the newly conserved Folke Altarpiece (The Resurrection) brings Baroque drama and light into the galleries. Christ rises above the tomb, banner held aloft, while angels flank the scene and Roman guards recoil below. Attributed to Sir James Thornhill (1675–1734) — renowned for grand decorative painting and the extraordinary mural that presides at The Sherborne — it makes a striking counterpoint to Blake’s airborne imagination: two very different artists, both alive to movement, character, and theatrical storytelling.

Known as the Folke Church Altarpiece (or “The Folke Resurrection”), the painting hung in St Lawrence Church, Folke for many years before damp conditions led to its move into the care of Dorset County Museum. Conserved with the support of the Friends of Sherborne House, and in consultation with Folke Parochial Church Council, it now returns as part of the living, layered heritage of this place — not a hidden treasure, but a story shared.

Come and draw with us

Quentin Blake is a joyful champion of drawing — not as something you have to be “good” at, but something you do. Wander, look, and let the artworks spark your imagination. Choose a portrait or an airborne figure that catches your eye, draw it quickly, then pause for the eyes (that’s where expression lives). Give your character a name. Where are they going?

Visit us

No booking required — just drop in.
Monday–Saturday: 10:30am–4pm
Sunday: 10:30am–3pm

And if you’re already thinking ahead: Valentine’s at The Sherborne is coming soon, with a specially curated menu at Macready’s and one extraordinary, once-only private dining experience beneath the Thornhill mural. Keep an eye out — or join the waiting list to be first to know.