AN intriguing exhibition of rarely seen works by some of Britain’s most famous twentieth-century artists goes on show at the National Trust’s Mottisfont in Hampshire this weekend.

Over 50 drawings and sketches will be displayed, alongside works from Mottisfont’s own collection and drawings by contemporary artist David Breuer-Weil for his sculpture Alien, installed in the parkland at Mottisfont until the autumn.

The Schlee Collection: Drawings from Henry Moore to David Hockney features works by major artists including Graham Sutherland, Peter Lanyon, Stanley Spencer and Gillian Ayres.

Visitors will be able to enjoy portraits and landscapes, as well as observational drawings, abstract works and compositional sketches.

Highlights include studies by Sutherland for his crucifixion paintings, where stark black lines and dense shading create Christ’s agonised form on the cross. In contrast, Stanley Spencer used delicate pencil outlines to represent stretcher-bearers during the First World War. The show ranges from the energetic scribbles of Frank Auerbach, from which London landscapes take shape, to the exuberant colours of Gillian Ayre’s abstract work and Michael Rothenstein’s designs of birds.

This major private collection was put together by brothers Philip and Nick Schlee. They were businessmen, Philip organising conferences and Nick managing sea containers, in some ways tracing a line back to their grandfather who ran a tea business in Shanghai a hundred years ago. Both brothers also loved art: Nick took early retirement and became a respected artist, while older brother Philip (who died in 2011) provided funds for a family collection to be created.

Donated to Southampton City Art Gallery in 2013, it is one of the largest bodies of work ever to be given to the city. Mottisfont has collaborated with Southampton City Art Gallery’s Lead Curator Tim Craven to put together this new exhibition of highlights from the collection.

"The breadth of work is wonderful," notes Louise Govier, Mottisfont’s curator of exhibitions. "It really allows visitors to explore how and why artists make marks – to plan and be precise, to work out an idea, to express something deeply internal. There are fantastically detailed drawings such as Thomas Hennell’s pen and ink interior of Beaulieu Mill, and evocative sketches such as Dale Atkinson’s charcoal sketches, which bring cats to life on the page with just a few strokes and smudges. There’s also lots of colour – not all drawings are black and white! We’re delighted to be able to show such a wide range of work by so many well-known artists."

Home of art-lover Maud Russell in the 1930s, Mottisfont became a hub for literary and artistic figures in the early twentieth century and this is reflected with a vibrant series of changing exhibitions today.

The former Augustinian priory is also a permanent home to the Derek Hill Collection, an inspiring collection of art from the same period as the Schlee Collection, and including many of the same artists, a number of whose works are on show in this spring exhibition. Amongst the pieces on view is a drawing by Barbara Hepworth, which will be displayed with borrowed Henry Moore drawings, the artist she learned most from and also influenced in her turn.

The Schlee Collection: Drawings from Henry Moore to David Hockney will be on display from today until July 3.

See nationaltrust.org.uk/mottisfont or call 01794 340757.