Victorian Radicals - A Sight for Sore Eyes

Apologies for my absence from Blogland this week, I'm having eye issues and needed to limit my screen time. I had to laugh when I spotted a box of Pop Art occlusion patches in a charity shop earlier today, they might help explain away the reason why I'm stumbling around in sunglasses in the middle of Winter!

 Anyway, enough of my woes. On Wednesday I caught the train over to Birmingham to catch up with my pal, Annie, who I'd not seen since Birmingham hosted The Commonwealth Games back in the Summer of 2022. As Annie buses it into town, we met outside The Rotunda and she treated me to a pint in The Old Joint Stock on Temple Street, one of Birmingham's most beautiful Victorian pubs.

Annie's off to Espana very soon so we celebrated with a Cruzcampo. (I pinched this photo from Annie!) 

And, of course, the obligatory toilet selfie. You can tell that the Old Joint Stock is posh, there's hand cream alongside the handwash!

Our destination was Victorian Radicals which the Birmingham Art Gallery & Museum's website described a lot better than me. 

Three generations of British artists, designers and makers revolutionised the visual arts in the second half of the nineteenth century. The Pre-Raphaelites, William Morris and his circle and the men and women of the Arts and Crafts movement transformed art and design.

Selected from the city of Birmingham's outstanding collection, Victorian Radicals presents vibrant paintings and exquisite drawings alongside jewellery, glass, textiles and metalwork to explore their radical vision for art and society.

Fresh from an award-winning tour of the US, Victorian Radicals is the first comprehensive showing of the city’s Pre-Raphaelite and Arts and Crafts collections in Birmingham for over five years. Discover the story of the Pre-Raphaelites themselves and their influence on artists and makers well into the twentieth century – especially in Birmingham itself. Paintings made by artists including Kate Bunce, Joseph Southall and Arthur Gaskin combined the poetry and intensity of the Pre-Raphaelites’ work with a distinctive identity all their own.

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has been temporarily closed since March 2020 but reopened briefly over the duration of the 2022 Commonwealth Games attracting more than 400,000 visitors, including Annie & I. Victorian Radicals is being held in Gas Hall, which adjoins the main museum. 

I've visited most of these artworks regularly for most of my life but due to the museum's closure it's been several years since I've seen them and they're still as astonishingly beautiful. I probably took photos of every exhibit on display, it was really hard to choose which to include in my post. 

Portrait of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (c.1882) by William Holman Hunt 

Elijah and The Widow's Son by Ford Maddox Brown (1864) 

The Annunciation by Arthur Hughes (1858)

 Pretty Baa Lambs by Ford Maddox Brown (1851 - 1859)

Two Gentlemen of Verona by William Holman Hunt ( 1851)

The Blind Girl by John Everett Millais (1854 - 1856)

The Long Engagement by Arthur Hughes (1854 - 1859)

On every student's bedroom wall in the 1980s (including mine!) Chatterton (The Death of Chatterton) by Henry Wells (1855 - 56)

 Work by Ford Maddox Brown (1859 - 1863)

Winter (Stained glass panels by William Morris) 

Morgan le Fay by Frederick Sandys (1864)

La Donna della Finestra by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1881)

Found by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1854 - 55) and a study of Fanny Cornforth's beautiful face especially for my friend Elaine. 

Bacchus by Simeon Solomon (1867)

A Young Woman Holding a Rose by Emma Sandys (1870 - 1872)

Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1881 - 82)

Medea by Frederick Sandys (1866 - 68)

Beate Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (and completed by Ford Maddox Brown), the painting that piqued my interest in the Pre-Raphaelites. I was shopping in Birmingham's legendary Oasis Market at the age of 16 and was sent to the art gallery to find this painting by one of the stall holders who said I looked just like her. 

The Last of England by Ford Maddox Brown (1852)

The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple by William Holman Hunt (1854 - 60). The woman in the foreground is one half of a fascinating and very glamorous couple I got chatting to, she was wearing THIS  brooch by Erté and they owned a couple of his original artworks. 

Morris & Co. stained glass panel depicting St Mark and designed by Edward Burne-Jones. 

Above, The Wizard by Edward Burne-Jones (1891) and below, The Holy Grail Tapestries (11890 - 91), also by Burne-Jones.

Aesthetic movement jewellery, made in Birmingham's Jewellery Quarter (swoon!)

The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer imprinted by William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones for the Kelmscott Chaucer (1896).

Edward Burne-Jones Pygmalion series.

The Keepsake by Mary Elizabeth Bunce. I don't know which dress I love more! 

 Musica by Mary Elizabeth Bunce (1895)

Above - Sigismonda (or Gismonda) and below- New Lamps for Old both painted by Joseph Edward Southall and gilded by Anna Elizabeth Baker

Choosing the Red and White Roses in the Temple Gardens by Henry Albert Payne (1908 - 10)

After purchasing a few souvenirs from the museum gift shop (sadly the exhibition catalogue has already sold out) we headed across town for lunch at The Indian Brewery where, as usual, I ordered a Chaart Attack and a pint of their finest Birmingham-brewed ale. 

Thanks for a fabulous day, Annie...let's not leave it so long next time!

I treated Jon to a Victorian Radicals lollipop from the gift shop...well, it was Valentine's Day!

Victorian Radicals 

10th February until 31st October from 10am - 5pm

(Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.)

£11 adults 

Book HERE or pay on the door (card payments only)

Victorian Radicals is astonishing and worth every penny of the £11 entrance fee, it certainly won't be my last visit!