Past Exhibition
Past Exhibition
Kate Elizabeth Bunce, Musica, ca. 1895–97, Oil on canvas in original frame, 40 3/16 x 30 3/16 x 1 3/4 in., Presented by Sir John Holder, Bart., 1897 © Birmingham Museums Trust, Courtesy American Federation of Arts.
The last half of the nineteenth century was a dynamic period for British art. Three generations of young artists and designers revolutionized the visual arts in Britain and beyond by challenging the new industrial world. Victorian Radicals: From the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts & Crafts Movement explores the ideas that preoccupied artists at the time—the relationship between art and nature, questions of class and gender, the value of handmade versus machine-made, and the search for beauty in an industrial age.
Drawn from the outstanding collection of the City of Birmingham, United Kingdom, the exhibition brings together an array of art to illuminate this period including paintings, sculpture, silver, glass, and jewelry. It features such pioneering artists as Ford Madox Brown, Edward Burne-Jones, William Holman Hunt, William Morris, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Many of the works have never been seen outside the UK.
“The exhibition represents the spectrum of avant-garde practices of the Victorian era and Britain’s first modern art movement,” said William Keyse Rudolph, Chief Curator and the Marie and Hugh Halff Curator of American and European Art. “Visitors will see many original, iconic works of the Pre-Raphaelites and the Arts & Crafts Movement that they may have loved from popular culture—as well as discover lesser-known treasures. Poetic, gritty, beautiful, powerful, strange, and wonderful, this exhibition has something for everyone.”
Victorian Radicals: From the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts & Crafts Movement is organized by the American Federation of Arts and Birmingham Museums Trust. This exhibition is supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional funding provided by Clare McKeon and the Dr. Lee MacCormick Edwards Charitable Foundation.
In San Antonio, Victorian Radicals is generously funded by The Brown Foundation, Inc. and The Elizabeth Huth Coates Charitable Foundation of 1992, Marie Halff, Dana McGinnis, and Barbie and Toby O’Connor. This exhibition is supported by the City of San Antonio's Department of Arts & Culture.
Frederick Sandys, Medea, 1866-68, Oil on composite wood with gilding, 11/16 x 5 3/8 in., Presented by the Trustees of the Public Picture Gallery Fund, 1925, © Birmingham Museums Trust, Courtesy American Federation of Arts
Henry Wallis, Chatterton (The Death of Chatterton), 1856–58, Oil on mahogany, 6 13/16 x 9 15/16 in., Presented by the Rt. Hon. William Kendrick, 1918, © Birmingham Museums Trust, Courtesy American Federation of Arts
Frederick Sandys, Morgan le Fay, 1864, Oil on composite wood, 24 13/16 x 17 5/16 in., Presented by the Trustees of the Feeney Charitable Trust, 1925, © Birmingham Museums Trust, Courtesy American Federation of Arts
Joseph Southall, Sigismonda (or Gismonda), 1897, Tempera on linen, 23 x 16 15/16 in., Bequeathed by the artist’s wife, Anna Elizabeth Southall, in memory of her husband, 1948, © Birmingham Museums Trust, Courtesy American Federation of Arts
Designed by William Morris, printed by Thomas Wardle & Co. and sold by Morris & Co., "Kennet," design registered 1883, Indigo-discharge block-printed cotton, 24 5/8 x 37 15/16 in., Presented by the Friends of Birmingham Museums Trust, 1941 @ Birmingham museums Trust, Courtesy American Federation of Arts
Designed and made by George Frampton, The Christabel Necklace, 1893, Silver gilt, champlevé enamel, pearls, and opals, Diameter of largest pendant 2 15/16 in., Presented by Mrs. Anne Hull Grundy, 198, © Birmingham Museums Trust, Courtesy American Federation of Arts
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, La Donna della Finestra, 1881, Oil on canvas with underdrawing in chalk and pencil, 38 3/16 x 34 1/4 in., Purchased, 1883, © Birmingham Museums Trust, Courtesy American Federation of Arts
Designed by William Frend De Morgan, manufactured by Merton Abbey Pottery, Peacock vase, ca. 1885, Earthenware, thrown and painted in colors over white slip, 13 9/16 x 4 1/2 in., Presented by Miss Bridget D’Oyly Carte, © Birmingham Museums Trust, Courtesy American Federation of Arts
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Proserpine, 1881–82, Oil on canvas, 39 9/16 x 24 3/16 in., Presented by the Trustees of the Public Picture Gallery Fund, 1927, © Birmingham Museums Trust, Courtesy American Federation of Arts
SAMA is more than a museum; it’s a place to explore the world.
