Victorian Art in Britain

Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
Chamberlain Square, Birmingham. B3 3DH.
Telephone: 0121 303 1966
www.bmag.org.uk

Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery has one of the most comprehensive collections of Victorian Art in the country. The reasons for this are not difficult to find. The city was, in the 19^th century the industrial powerhouse of the country. Large fortunes were made in the manufacture of goods, both in engineering, & in the manufacture of inexpensive homewares. The industrialists who accumulated these fortunes were the archetypal collectors of modern art of the mid to late nineteenth century. Much of the collections were donated by these men, & their families. Their motives, particularly in the case of artifacts were not entirely altruistic. It was realised that the industrial designers & craftsmen of Birmingham needed to be able to benchmark their designs & products against the best from other countries & cultures, if the city was to maintain it’s pre-eminence. The first small gallery was opened in 1867, extended in 1885, when they extended gallery was opened by the Prince of Wales (1841-1910, afterwards Edward VII), & further extended in 1911. The rise in the reputation of Edward Burne-Jones in the 1870s was another stimulus to the city’s collections. The large imposing gallery, attached to the Council House, was very much a product of the enlightened civic policies of Joseph Chamberlain 1836-1914, who was on a number of occasions Lord Mayor of Birmingham, first Chancellor of Birmingham University, & also a considerable national politician. He was the father of Neville Chamberlain, Prime Minister 1937-1940.

The Gallery Today Personal Impressions.

This is my local gallery, & I have visited it frequently over the last fifteen years. I have usually enjoyed my visits, & I am a member of the Friends of Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery which I recommend to you. The Gallery is not without it’s problems. The Round Room, the first part of the gallery entered by visitors at the top of the stairs, is top lit. The effect, except in bright sunlight is poor, & the light is dull. The dark maroon wall colour does not help this situation. Some of the pictures in the room are badly displayed, and the height at which they are hung, gives viewers little chance to enjoy, or even see the pictures properly. The three wonderful paintings by Albert Moore very insensitively hung, & are placed next to strongly coloured pictures which detract from them. Leading directly from the Round Room is The Industrial Gallery, whose collections are beyond the scope of this site. The Industrial Gallery is high, with wonderful wrought, & ornate cast ironwork, with a striking sympathetic colour scheme. This the leads to the Edwardian Tea Room, another brilliant example of 19^th century construction & interior design. It is also a very passable place to have lunch. The gallery is, at the moment, giving less space than in the past to it’s core 19^th century collection, which is a national treasure. I am fast coming to the conclusion that the staff of the BMAG is not proud of this wonderful collection, & indeed is slightly ashamed of it. The last twenty five years have seen a more balanced mature view taken of Victorian paintings, recognition of their artistic value, & a dramatic increase in their value. BMAG is giving the impression, that it is downgrading the importance of its 19^th century collection.

Many of the pictures by the above artists are amongst their most famous. Including the following pictures in the Galleries:

The Star of Bethlehem by Burne-Jones

This enormous watercolour (256.5 cm by 386cm) was commissioned by the Art Gallery Purchase Committee. It was completed and first exhibited in the gallery 1n 1891. The artist was paid £2000.00, & had worked on the canvass for intermittently three years. His wife Geogiana said that its commission by the artists own home town was a source of satisfaction to him. The design was later used by Morris & Co as a tapestry. The artist met William Morris at Exeter College Oxford, & they became lifelong friends & associates.

The Wizard by Burne-Jones

The wizard is modeled on the painter himself, & his female companion by his friend Frances Horner. The picture was bought direct from the studio sale of the artist, just after his death in 1898. The use of colour is spare, & dark, as in other late paintings, the viewer gains the impression that that artist painted the picture for himself, with no thought of sale or reward, having sensed that his reputation was in decline, & his day was gone.

The Last of England by Ford Madox Brown

Inspired by the emigration to Australia of Thomas Woolner, the sculptor, and original member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The actual models for the two main figures were Brown himself, & his wife Emma. The picture is dated, by the artist 1852. It shows the desperation of a couple, forced to emigrate with their young family by lack of opportunities at home. They are not from the “bottom of the heap,” socially, & are painfully aware of all they are leaving behind. The picture is beautifully painted, highly detailed & finished. It is a reminder that Brown, who struggled for most of his life to make a reasonable living, was perhaps the most original of all these artists. He had a difficult, & somewhat prickly personality, beneath which there was a kindly man. There are many instances on record of his assistance, generosity to fellow artists, & their widows in times of difficulty.

The Pretty Baa-Lambs by Ford Madox Brown

A revolutionary outdoor picture is also on display. The mother and child in the were modeled by Emma, the painters second wife, & their daughter. The picture was painted out of doors to record the effects of bright sunlight, & the naturalness of the grass, & the brilliance of the painting of the shadows is outstanding. The facial appearance of mother and daughter in the bright sunlight is also amazingly well-done. The painting was executed in 1851-1859, which, in reality, means that the estuary in the background was added later. This painting, recording the transient effects of light, must be the most amongst the most revolutionary in the whole BMAG.

Melody by Kate Elizabeth Bunce

This picture, painted in 1895 remains the painter’s best known work. It is brightly coloured, & highly detailed, & the model looks directly at the viewer. As became a religious single woman, the picture lacks any sensuousness, & sexual undertones. The use of the mirror, cleverly creates space in what is otherwise a densely packed picture. This is many years after the dissolution of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a painting showing all their hallmarks

The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple by William Holman Hunt

Hunt was, not the most naturally gifted of artists, but he made up for this by sheer, painstaking hard work. He alone of the original Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood flew their flag until the end of his long life. Hunt traveled to Palestine in 1854, specifically to find genuine backgrounds for religious paintings. This picture, painted between 1854-1860 was a great financial & critical success. He experienced serious practical problems finding models in Palestine, as local Jews were suspicious of his motives. He completed the picture when he returned home, using London Jewry in their stead. A relieved Mary & Joseph are shown finding the lost boy Jesus in the Temple. The picture is minutely detailed and the characterisations of the congregation are brilliantly realised.

The Long Engagement by Arthur Hughes

A beautifully painted, subtly coloured picture, thus saved from being overly sentimental. This picture was given to BMAG in 1902 by the executors of a Dr Griffiths, & is one of its greatest Pre-Raphaelite paintings. It shows an impoverished curate, & his fiance in a woodland setting. The two figures are expertly painted, & the wooded background is exquisite. It is one of the most famous pictures by Hughes one of the great painters of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, & a modest, retiring, kindly man.

The Lost Child by Arthur Hughes

A marvellous picture. Hughes was able to combine sentiment, & skill to an extent which was virtually unique amongst painters of the day. The child found by her father, against the dark woodland background is both brilliantly painted, & a celebration of the family love which was so important to Hughes.

Lilium Auratum by John Frederick Lewis

Lewis 1805 –1876 painted watercolours for most of his career. He lived, for eleven years in Cairo, and many of his pictures are of oriental subjects, imaginary harem scenes for example. This late oil, detailed, beautifully painted, and subtly coloured is a great pleasure to see. Each time I look at it I notice a different facet of it.

The Last Chapter by Robert Braithwaite Martineau

This picture says much about Victorian family life, particularly the role of women. The young women, safe, secure, & protected, is finishing her novel in the light of the fireside glow. Outside, through the window, can be seen the wider, & more perilous world. The picture itself, the young woman, her clothing, & the glow of the fire are all very well-done.

The Blind Girl by Millais

This is one of the painters most outstanding early Pre-Raphaelite works dating from 1854-1856, combining fidelity to nature, & social comment. The beauty of the picture makes it easier for the viewer to sympathise with the blind girl. The lack of any assistance to young, disabled beggars like the girl. The background landscape is not of a single area, being a combination of Sussex, & the home of Millais wife Effie near Perth. The painter always had difficulties in combining figures with landscapes, but in this picture combines both most successfully.

La Donna Della Finestra by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The picture was bought from his studio sale in 1883, following his death in 1882. It is unfinished, but a simple & effective illustration of his later style. The lone woman in the picture is, of course Jane Morris.

Morgan-le-Fay by Anthony Frederic Sandys

This picture returns to a favourite topic of the painter, that being evil, malicious women, with an atmosphere of repressed, dominant female sexuality. Sandys was a brilliant draughtsman. Morgan-le-Fay is a product of the Arthurian legend that Victorian painters loved so much. She was the jealous, vindictive sister of King Arthur. The colours of the picture are somewhat restrained, which is untypical of Pre-Raphaelite practice, though the fastidious painting & attention to detail is not.

Medea by Anthony Frederic Sandys

Strikingly similar in topic to the later Morgan-le-Fay. This picture started off its life as a subject of violent controversy when it was rejected for showing at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The quality of the picture was obvious, and the rejection was seen as perverse, and the result of internal politics and jealousies. Unhappily this was not a rare event. The painting yet again conveys an impression of powerful, and evil female sexuality. The draughtsmanship, as ever with Sandys, is excellent, and the picture also creates a claustrophobic atmosphere.

The following Pictures Hang In the Round Room.

A Condottiere by Lord Leighton

This picture was presented to the gallery in 1873, by the Public Gallery Picture Fund.

Dreamers by Albert Moore

This famous picture, together with two others by Moore is, unhappily, very badly displayed, poorly lit, & surrounded by brightly coloured pictures which detract from its subtle integrated colour scheme. The two other Moore pictures, Sapphires & Birds, both of single female figures, are also in addition hung too high. A great shame, that the beautiful pictures of this most fastidious of artists, are treated in such an insensitive manner.

Pheidas & the Frieze of the Parthenon by Alma-Tadema

This picture was painted in 1869,making it a fairly early example of the artists work. It is, though, a striking example of his virtuosity, having wonderful effects of light, shadow, & perspective. In common with all Alma-Tademas ancient scenes, it is thoroughly well-researched as a piece of ancient historical record

An Audience in Athens During the Representation of Agamemnon by W Blake Richmond

A large, rather static, picture of an Ancient Greek theatre crowd during a dramatic moment of a play

Phoebus and Apollo by Briton Riviere

In his lifetime Riviere was regarded as the successor of Landseer as an animal painter, but was very much less successful.

An English Hayfield by Benjamin Williams Leader

Painted in 1884, one of his best pictures.

A Roman Lady by G F Watts

The painting is so high on the wall that given the sombre tones often favoured by him, it is difficult to form a satisfactory impression of the picture.

Other pictures in the gallery's possession include :-

Burne-Jones - Pygmalion and The Image - The Godhead Fires
Burne-Jones - Pygmalion and The Image - The Soul Attains
Augustus Leopold Egg - Travelling Companions
Arthur Hughes - Amy
Edward Robert Hughes - Night with her Train of Stars
William Holman Hunt - Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus
Benjamin Williams Leader - February Fill-Dyke
Albert Moore - Sapphire
Albert Moore - Birds
Frederick Sandys - Autumn
John Liston Byam Shaw - Boer War
Simeon Solomon - Bacchus
Dante Gabriel Rossetti - The Boat of Love

John Brett 1831-1902 has one of his vividly coloured Pre-Raphaelite coastal scenes hanging here also.
There are also two Seascapes by Henry Moore 1831-1895, brother of Albert, both in his characteristic vivid both in his characteristic vivid blue.l