Friends Chairman Joanna Brown and President Francis Greenacre joined Fine
Art Curator Dr Jenny Gashke and 185 Friends members at the special preview event ahead of the opening of the newly
refurbished Gallery 6 (Victorian Art)
The
refurbishment and re-display of the gallery was made possible thanks to
a £50,000 donation from The Friends of Bristol Art Gallery, which
included a generous bequest from Mrs Marjorie Price, a long standing
Friend.
The new display, called Places of Desire,
presents some of the highlights of the museum’s art collections of the
Victorian and Edwardian eras from the 1840s to the 1920s. Improvements
to the gallery include: the glazing and protection of paintings; the
conservation of oil paintings and their historic frames; new improved
low energy lighting; renovation of historic gallery features, re-display
of art works and redecoration of walls and floors using environmentally
friendly materials.
The
three themes of travel, romance and modern life have been rooted within
the gallery showing the extraordinary range of styles and subject
matter that artists were experimenting with during this exciting period
in British and other European art.
The Pre-Raphaelites are represented
with works by Millais, Burne-Jones and Arthur Hughes. The display also
highlights some of the best work from the city’s 19th and 20th century collections, including La Belle Dame Sans Merci painted by Frank Dicksee. This is the featured painting on entry
to the Gallery, and other works not seen for a long time,including such
as Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones’s St George and The Dragon, are also on display.
