Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Tate Britain

Ruth and I visited the Pre Raphaelite exhibition at Tate Modern a little while ago. link to the exhibition site here

Millais's Mariana.

I thought it might be a bit of a block buster show, and it certainly was busy. That's one of the problems I find personally, having to shuffle along side hundreds of people to get near a piece of work, without blocking other people.

The Death of Chatterton by Henry Wallis.

Still I was pleased to have gone, the Pre Raphaelites were one of the groups of painters that I first admired as a child. A lot of their paintings were in an art encyclopedia that we had at home and I remember spending lots of time regularly looking at such pictures as The Blind  Girl, Hope, The Lady of Shalott, The Scapegoat and The Death of Chatterton.

Such vivid detailing in the paintings influenced my teenage pictures of the natural world.

Ophelia by Millais.

There is definately a quality of light that I respond to now, rather than the detailed depictions, and the spiritual dimension in some of the work.

William Morris's bed from Kelmscott Manor.

Interestingly I found myself more desiring of some of the tapestries, carpets and furniture rather than the main paintings. They did reinspire me to take up decorating some of my furniture again when we've moved.