The Victorian Radicals featured in this exhibition were attempting to go back to the future, although, at points, they got lost in the past. The exhibition, based on the collection of the Birmingham Museums Trust, explores three generations of progressive British artists working between 1840 and 1910:
These artists’ initial inspiration was the art that preceded the High Renaissance. Their emphasis was on a naturalism that involved bright colours, minute details, and moralistic content. In doing so, they were building on two earlier movements: the Gothic Revival initiated by Augustus Welby Pugin and the work of the Nazarenes, who aimed to revive spirituality in art by seeking inspiration in the spiritual art of the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance.
Pugin aimed to rebuild Britain as part of Gothic Catholic Christendom by teaching that architecture, society, morality, and faith were all interconnected and that the finest buildings could be raised only when the society from which these buildings emerged was equally fine. He specialised in everything from furniture and metalwork to fabrics and wallpapers, collaborating with friends, such as John Hardman in the Jewellery Quarter of Birmingham, whose company rose to fame as makers of fine medieval-style metalwork based on Pugin’s research, drawings, and publications. As such, Pugin pre-empted the approaches of William Morris, who, in the second wave of Pre-Raphaelitism, secularised the approach while continuing to create for churches.
A tracery light from the east window of Holy Trinity Church, Grazeley, made by John Hardman Powell and designed by Pugin, can be contrasted with Morris’s stained glass panel of ‘Winter’. The latter, made for a domestic setting, has a repeated floral wallpaper-like background that synergies with the patterns found in the Pugin light. A similar contrast could be made between the goblet, jar and glass designed by Morris’s friend and collaborator, Philip Webb, for the Whitefriars Studio and the ecclesiastical chalice made by John Hardman Powell to Pugin’s design. The rich ornamentation of the chalice gives way to the fluid clarity of Webb’s minimalist aesthetic.
The key works of Ford Madox Brown from the late 1840s provided a link between the Nazarenes, who formed a quasi-monastic brotherhood first in Vienna and then in Rome, and the early Pre-Raphaelites. A journey to Rome in 1845 exposed him to the work of the Nazarenes and the hard-edged, crisply drawn outlines that pre-figured the linear precision of early Pre-Raphaelite drawing. While not a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB), his work was consistently admired by its artists and synergistically used the same approaches and similar content, as is apparent here in ‘Pretty Baa-Lambs’, ‘Walton-on-the-Naze’ and ‘Work’. Alongside the brushwork’s scientific precision and brilliant colours are contemporary moral and spiritual themes expressed figuratively and through naturalistic symbolism. That precision of observation and depiction was also found in the work of John Ruskin, who first influenced and then actively promoted the PRB.
The result can be seen in the great works of the first two waves of pre-Raphaelitism included here, compellingly complemented by a wide range of related work that led directly, via Morris in particular, into the achievements of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The third aspect of this exhibition is primarily focused on Birmingham-based artists, particularly those connected with the Birmingham School of Art in the early twentieth century.
Radical themes within the movement are illustrated with select but striking work choices, mainly works by Elizabeth Siddall and Simeon Solomon. The works in this central section tackle social commentary, faith, gender relationships, and more. The movement’s initial impetus shifts, with the second wave becoming more secular, faux-medieval, and anti-industrial.
Throughout, the radicality of the Pre-Raphaelites is shot through with the paradoxes and contradictions of those on the cusp of significant change. From beautiful images condemned initially as being “mean, odious, repulsive, and revolting” through radicality combined with sentimentality, support for women’s suffrage tempered by patriarchy, images imbued with “the love that dare not speak its name” and crafted goods unaffordable to the masses, to medievalism at odds with modernity, Pre-Raphaelitism always had breadth, depth and, therefore, a contradiction. Its strengths and weaknesses are inevitably displayed in a show such as this. The curators seek to address this reality with a section inviting viewers to reflect on themes ranging from Empire, migration, postmodernism, and more.
However, despite a period of twentieth-century disregard for Victorian art, the legacy of pre-Raphaelitism remained strong, as curator Tim Barringer notes. It extended through the work of Fernand Khnopff, Vasily Kandinsky, and Salvador Dalí as a precursor to Symbolism and Surrealism. More widely, it was also part of the inheritance of “many of the twentieth century’s utopian enterprises from the founding of the British Labour Party to Bauhaus design theory and even Mahatma Gandhi’s political philosophy”.
Its influence can readily be seen at Wightwick Manor, a Victorian house in the West Midlands with design and decoration reflecting a commitment to the principles of the Aesthetic Movement and the ideals of ‘art for art’s sake’. The influence of Oscar Wilde and his 1882 lecture on ‘The House Beautiful’ is apparent in the collection of objects from Japan and China and the designs of William Morris and his British Arts and Crafts contemporaries. Later, a remarkable collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings was added by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, Simeon Solomon, Marie Spartali Stillman, Elizabeth Siddal, and many others. That collection, formed by the Mander family, is now one of Britain’s largest public collections of female artists, including a separate gallery dedicated to 19th-century painter Evelyn De Morgan and her husband, ceramicist William De Morgan.
As a result of his collaborations with William Morris and Burne-Jones, William De Morgan is prominently featured in ‘Victorian Radicals’. At the same time, Evelyn De Morgan was a crucial artist in the third wave of pre-raphaelitism. ‘Look Beneath the Lustre’ in the Malthouse Gallery at Wightwick Manor showcases the artistic achievements of this creative couple. The work of Evelyn De Morgan takes forward many of the themes explored by ‘Victorian Radicals’, as her work reflects her socio-political concerns such as suffrage, spiritualism and pacifism. As the foremost ceramicist of the Arts and Crafts Movement, William De Morgan delighted Victorian audiences with his fantastical beasts, Middle Eastern flora, fauna, and wondrous iridescent lusterware. The exhibition explores the processes and people who assisted in creating their work, as well as the pre-Raphaelitism that inspired them and the Manders.
‘Out of Darkness Cometh Light’, the current temporary exhibition at Wightwick Manor, is inspired by the motto of Wolverhampton and offers a glimpse into the intricate processes behind the creation of Arts and Crafts stained glass. The exhibition includes ten works on paper, preparatory watercolour designs, sketches, and pastels by eminent artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their associates, in addition to stained glass fragments. Drawings of great vigour by Ford Madox Ford depicting ‘Christ Walking on the Water’ and the ‘Woman with an Issue of Blood’ are included, as is Evelyn De Morgan’s luminous ‘The Angel Gabriel’.
William Morris became a trailblazer in the revival of stained glass artistry when he established Morris, Marshall Faulkner & Co. in 1861. This company, and the subsequent Morris & Co., produced windows of unparalleled quality and design – some of which can be seen at Wightwick. The exhibition highlights the collaborative nature of stained-glass creation, showcasing the contributions of artists such as Edward Burne Jones, Ford Madox Brown, and Phillip Webb. Under Morris’ guidance, these artists brought his designs to life, infusing them with luminosity and depth.
Top Photo: Evelyn De Morgan
‘Victorian Radicals’ is open until at least Christmas 2024 in the Gas Hall at Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.
‘Look Beneath the Lustre’, Malthouse Gallery, Wightwick Manor.
‘Out of Darkness Cometh Light’, 6 April – December 2024, Wightwick Manor.