Pre-Raphaelite Exhibition

I had a couple of days off work last week and treated myself to a day out to visit an exhibition with my friend Pam (you know, the one who was 60 recently – remember? Shhhhhh – I didn’t say a word!!!!). It was the ‘Poetry of Drawing: Pre-Raphaelite’ Exhibition at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. I’ve always loved this period of art and design ever since I studied William Morris for ‘A’ Level at school.

The exhibition includes works by the original brotherhood members, Rossetti, Millais, Holman-Hunt and John Ruskin and also the 2^nd generation of Pre-Raphaelites, Edward Burne-Jones and Simeon Solomon.

‘Proserpine’ (an ancient Roman Goddess apparently) by Rosetti has to be one of my favourites – I suppose it’s her hair that does it – it’s so beautiful.

I wasn’t really familiar with Simeon Solomon, so it was good to see several of his works there – this is one of them called ‘Bacchus’.

Much of Simeon Solomon’s work was said to have been an attempt to explore his own homosexual identity, which is quite apparent from much of his work on show at the exhibition.

And while we were at the Art Gallery, we also popped in to the ‘Staffordshire Hoard’ Exhibition and it was fascinating to see just how intricate the work was from Anglo Saxon times. This is an example of some Gold decorated with a Latin inscription, but there's lot more besides to see

The Exhibition was free to go into too, so it’s well worth a visit if you’re in the area.