The Art Gallery of Ballarat
The Art Gallery of Ballarat is delighted to feature a special exhibition featuring works never before seen in Australia from The Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England, Pre-Raphaelites: Drawings and Watercolours. Alongside, in a special double feature is an exhibition of historical and contemporary Australian artworks drawing from the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites, In the Company of Morris.
Both exhibitions are now open until Sunday 6 August to the surprise and delight of art lovers.
Click here to watch Gallery Director, Louise Tegart speaking about the importance of these historical works.
The Pre-Raphaelites exhibition is a first for Australia as the drawings and watercolours featured haven’t been seen widely, even at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. As they are works on paper, they can only be displayed for very short periods of time. It’s an incredible opportunity for visitors to the Art Gallery of Ballarat to see these rare and fragile works.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood are amongst the best-loved artists of the 19th century. They looked back to the simplicity and directness of Mediaeval and Renaissance art with naturalistic poses and the use of brilliant colour, painting with originality and authenticity. They celebrated their friends and heroes and took inspiration from the art and poetry about which they were passionate.
These works offer an intimate and rare look into the world of the Pre-Raphaelite artists, models and friends. It includes works of extraordinary beauty, from the portraits they made of each other, studies for paintings and commissions, to subjects taken from history, literature and landscape.
The group had a common interest in a return to nature in art. They were the first artists who took canvases out into nature and painted. Back in this was mid-19th century this was regarded as morally shocking and objectionable. Also in this exhibition, are works by Elizabeth Siddal, who was Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s primary muse, who he later married. A talented artist on her on right and was paid a salary by John Ruskin, who was one of the group’s inspirations and patrons, which indicates how highly regarded her work was at the time.
This outstanding international exhibition draws from the extraordinary collections of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to tell the story of the artists, their lives and loves, bringing to life the world of John Ruskin, William and Jane Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, John Everett Millais, Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Lizzie Siddal.
In the company of Morris will showcase historical and contemporary Australian artworks alongside the Pre-Raphaelites. Aiming to explore the lasting impact of the Brotherhood and the connection between Ballarat and the movement. During the gold rush era, Pre-Raphaelites like Thomas Woolner, Bernhard Smith, and Edward La Trobe Bateman came to Ballarat to promote the Brotherhood. This is an untold Australian story that the exhibition hopes to shed light on. The exhibition aims to highlight the ongoing influence of the Pre-Raphaelites and William Morris on Australia, relating it back to our own history and collection.
In the Company of Morris features work by artists such as Louis Abrahams, Janet Beckhouse, Glenn Barkley, George Baxter, Stephen Bird, Frederick Cartwright, Dagmar Cyrulla, Emma Davies, Robert Dowling, HH Floate, Emily Floyd, Cathy Franzi, Web Gilbert, Lucy Hardie, Fiona Hiscock, Henry James Johnstone, Louiseann King, Deborah Klein, Emma Van Leest, Lionel Lindsay, Norman Lindsay, Percy Lindsay, Ruby Lindsay, Marguerite Mahood, ex de medici, Ernest Moffitt, Alice J Muskett, Julie Nash, Klytie Pate, Ana Petidis, Elizabeth Pulie, Charles Douglas Richardson, Kate Rohde, Gwen Scott, Bernhard Smith, William Strutt, Philippa Taylor, Kati Thamo, Tiffany Titshall, Christian Waller, Napier Waller, Carole Wilson, Thomas Woolner, Jemima Wyman and Paul Yore.
ART GALLERY OF BALLARAT
40 Lydiard Street North, Ballarat
artgalleryofballarat.com.au/
Images and resources are available here. Interviews with Louise Tegart available on request.
The Art Gallery of Ballarat
Founded in 1884, the Art Gallery of Ballarat is the oldest, largest and most significant art collection in regional Australia. The Gallery brings in over 200,000 visitors annually and is a major part of Ballarat’s visitor economy as well as a focus for visual arts in the Ballarat region. A recognised leader in regional arts, the Gallery is known for mounting high-profile, high-quality exhibitions that contribute to national conversations and debates about culture and identity.
Image credits
Top left: Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Jane Morris in Icelandic costume, circa 1873 Pen and ink on paper, Private collection
Bottom Right: 2019.22.a-p, Elizabeth Pulie, Italian, 1994, acrylic on canvas, Purchased with funds from the Colin Hicks Caldwell Bequest, 2019, © Elizabeth Pulie
