Unseen artwork by original Beatles member displayed in Liverpool for the first time

Previously unseen artworks by one of the founding members of The Beatles are on display in Liverpool for the first time.

The four artworks pieces, created by the band’s original bass player, Stuart Sutcliffe, were unveiled at the Liverpool Beatles Museum on Mathew Street today (Thursday, January 29).

Edinburgh-born Sutcliffe joined the band after meeting John Lennon at Liverpool College of Art and performed with them in Hamburg. He decided to leave the group in 1961 to focus on his art career but sadly died the following year, aged just 21.

Four of his works have now been loaned to the museum by Hereward Harrison, a close friend of Sutcliffe’s sister, Pauline Sutcliffe.

Mr Harrison said Ms Sutcliffe, who died in 2019, gave him the pieces as presents over their 50 years of friendship and he had them framed and kept them on his wall. He said she would be ‘delighted’, adding: “She would be so pleased I was taking them back to Liverpool.”

The items are the latest exhibits to go on display at the Mathew Street museum owned by Roag Best, brother of original Beatles drummer Pete Best.

Mr Harrison, 82, said Stuart was famous due to his Beatles connection but that his “real talent was art”.

He said that Ms Sutcliffe, who wrote a book about her late brother and organised exhibitions of his art, had ‘kept his memory alive’.

The collection will be available to view for nine months.