The Whitworth Art Gallery is an art gallery in Manchester, England, containing about 55,000 items in its collection. The museum is located south of the Manchester University campus, in Whitworth Park.
It was founded by Robert Darbishire with a donation from Sir Joseph Whitworth in 1889, as The Whitworth Institute and Park. The first building was completed in 1908. In 1958 the gallery became part of the University of Manchester
The Whitworth has notable collections of watercolours, sculptures, wallpapers and textiles. The gallery focuses on modern artists, and the art collections include works by Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth, Ford Madox Brown, Eduardo Paolozzi, Francis Bacon, William Blake, David Hockney, L. S. Lowry, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh and Pablo Picasso, and a fine collection of works by J.M.W. Turner.
One of its most famous works is the marble sculpture Genesis (1929–1931) by Sir Jacob Epstein.
On Saturday 26 April 2003, three paintings—Van Gogh’s The Fortification of Paris with Houses, Picasso’s Poverty and Gauguin’s Tahitian Landscape — were stolen from the gallery. They were later found rolled up in a by a nearby public toilet and were subsequently put back on display.