PRS book offer

Extension to Pre-publication offer on new book title

Pre-Raphaelite Society members recently received their latest mailing – contents included a new book offer flyer ‘Episodes in the Gothic Revival – six church architects’ edited by Christopher Webster – the flyer stated that the offer applied to all orders received by 10 December 2011 – RRP of £34.95 reduced to £25.95 – the publisher (Spire Books Ltd) have now extended the offer date to 29 February 2012 – using the special offer flyer.
www.spirebooks.com

Needlework query

The PRS has been asked for any thoughts on this piece of needlework. It may well be Arts & Crafts/Pre-Raphaelite; the verse (if it is unclear in the image) is from Spenser’s The Faerie Queene, and Walter Crane illustrated an edition of this in 1894-1896. The panel measures 63 x 29cm (excluding modern frame), and the only labels are for a London framers. There doesn’t appear to be a signature anywhere on the piece. The quality is far beyond the average needlework panels.

If you have any thoughts on this, please comment below.

Pre-Raphaelite website and blog

Dinah Roe – author of the recently published title “The Rossettis In Wonderland: A Victorian Family History” (Haus Publishing 2011) has her own website http://www.dinahroe.com and has recently launched an interesting blog – Pre-Raphaelites in the City – http://www.dinahroe.com/blog

Pugin on TV

Pugin: God’s Architect

Thursday 19 January 2012 9.00pm BBC4

Make a note to watch the documentary devoted to the eminent Victorian Gothic architect Augustus Pugin – this year marks the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Friends of the Centre for West Midlands History Annual Lecture

Friends of the Centre for West Midlands History

Annual Lecture

Monday 23 January 2012, 6.30pm to 8.15pm
Lecture Room 3, Arts Building, University of Birmingham

‘A Provincial from Birmingham’: the Career of Artist and Archaeologist Henry Harris Lines (1800-1889)’
Dr Connie Wan

Connie Wan recently completed a PhD on the Lines dynasty of Birmingham artists and their contributions to the history and culture of the city. She currently works at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. Connie is also co-ordinator of research seminars for the Friends of the Centre for West Midlands History and co-edits their newsletter.

Refreshments from 6.30pm followed by the lecture at 7.00pm with questions to follow
All Welcome

Pre-Raphaelite Poetry event

Members of the PRS might like to know that there is another performance coming up of Live Canon’s Pre Raphaelites programme on the 23rd January at the Bloomsbury Theatre, including poetry by Christina Rossetti, William Morris, GD Rossetti, Algernon Swinburn, Lizzie Siddal, George Merdith and John Ruskin. Live Canon actors perform all the poetry from memory – it should be a real treat.

It follows on from the series of recordings of Pre Raphaelite poetry we made for the V&A’s Cult of Beauty exhibition. You can book and find out more at www.livecanon.com

William Morris event

WILLIAM MORRIS
Designer, Craftsman, Local Celebrity
Discover Leyton’s special connection with this world-famous artist

An exhibition at Leyton Library, High Road, Leyton, London E10 5QH

The exhibition will be opening to the public on 1st February and
running until 18 August 2012

This is a small exhibition based in the local community of Leyton, not
far from the William Morris Gallery. The exhibition will introduce new
visitors to William Morris and his work whilst exploring his historical
connection to the local area. Visitors will also be able to find out
more about the Development Project to transform the William Morris
Gallery.

The spectacular Peacock and Bird carpet designed by Morris & Co. forms
the centrepiece of the show. The carpet was donated to the William Morris Gallery in 2010 and is the only one of its kind known to exist in the world. The exhibition’s normal opening hours will be Wed – Sat 10.00 – 17.00 with
some late evenings and a programme of family activities.

Donations of Pre-Raphaelite Books

Do you have any surplus new or used Pre-Raphaelite books (or related art movement) which you could donate to the Pre-Raphaelite Society? Book sales have proved to be extremely popular with PRS members in the past and all sales proceeds go to the Pre-Raphaelite Society – where practical we will try to arrange collection of books – if you are able to support the Society in this way, please e-mail: info@pre-raphaelitesociety.org

Pre-Raphaelite Society events for 2012

The Society organises a varied programme of lectures and visits to exhibitions and places of interest each year. Our schedule for 2012 includes:

21 January 2012
Visit to Manchester City Art Gallery to see the exhibition ‘Ford Madox Brown: Pre-Raphaelite Pioneer’ – Coach leaves Colmore Row, Birmingham at 08.30 a.m.
This is the first major exhibition of Ford Madox Brown’s work since 1964 and the show brings together 140 works from public and private collections including his epic paintings Last of England and Work.

11 February 2012
Lecture by Dinah Roe – ‘Frame the Sonnet: Word and Image in Pre-Raphaelite Art’
Venue: St. Philip’s Cathedral, Colmore Row, Birmingham – Lecture starts at 11.00 a.m.
Dr Dinah Roe will examine the connections between word and image in Pre-Raphaelite painting, paying special attention to the use of poetry in paintings and picture frames.

03 March 2012
Lecture by Lucinda Hawksley – ‘Charles Dickens and The Pre-Raphaelites’
Venue: Birmingham & Midland Institute, Margaret Street, B’ham – Lecture starts at 11.00 a.m.
Lucinda Hawksley is the great great great granddaughter of Charles Dickens – her talk will trace Dickens’s earliest awareness of the PRB, the artists who became a part of his life and how the writer’s opinions on art changed between 1850 and his death in 1870.

21 April 2012
Lecture by Stephen Wildman – ‘High and Low Art: John Ruskin in Cartoon & Caricature’
Venue: Birmingham & Midland Institute, Margaret Street, B’ham – Lecture starts at 11.00 a.m.
Professor Stephen Wildman from Lancaster University, will examine some of the many appearances of John Ruskin in caricature, including a number of rare and little-known examples, as well as celebrated images by Frederick Sandys and Max Beerbohm.

05 May 2012
Lecture by Rikky Rooksby – ‘Swinburne: The Visual Record’
Venue: St. Philip’s Cathedral, Colmore Row, Birmingham – Lecture starts at 11 a.m.
Rikky Rooksby has collected many images of Algernon Swinburne, his family and places he lived and visited – in this talk he will show and comment on many of the images, as well as referring to important connections between Swinburne, the Pre-Raphaelites and the world of art.

02 June 2012
Lecture by Christiana Payne – ‘Pre-Raphaelite Landscape Painting’
Venue: St. Philip’s Cathedral, Colmore Row, Birmingham – Lecture starts at 11 a.m.
Christiana Payne will examine the connections between the PRB’s landscape paintings and a range of contextual factors, including the writings of John Ruskin and developments in contemporary photography.

07 July 2012
Lecture by Caroline Arscott – ‘William Morris Carpets: Action in Design’
Venue: St. Philip’s Cathedral, Colmore Row, Birmingham – Lecture starts at 11.00 a.m.
Professor Caroline Arscott will discuss Morris’s imitations of action in carpet design and the role played by Morris in building the collection of carpets held at the South Kensington Museum.

22 September 2012
Visit to Tate Britain, London to see the exhibition ‘Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde’ – Coach leaves Colmore Row, Birmingham at 08.30 a.m.
This major exhibition will bring together more than 150 PRB works across differing media, including painting, sculpture, photography and the applied arts.

27 October 2012
Annual General Meeting and Founder’s Day Lecture by Robert Hewison – ‘Ruskin and The Pre-Raphaelites’
Venue: Birmingham & Midland Institute, Margaret Street, B’ham – Lecture starts at 12.00 p.m.
Lecture details to be posted as soon as available.

24 November 2012
Lecture by Victoria Osborne – ‘One of the very last votaries of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: E.R. Hughes and the Death of Pre-Raphaelitism’
Venue: St. Philip’s Cathedral, Colmore Row, Birmingham – Lecture starts at 11.00 a.m.
Lecture details to be posted as soon as available.

For further details relating to any of the events mentioned above please email
info@pre‑raphaelitesociety.org

Please note:

• Admission for all regular lectures is charged at £7.00 (includes refreshments) – there is no admission charge for our Founders Day lecture. Charges for visits are available on application.
• Pre-booking for all lectures is strongly advised – the Undercroft lecture space of St. Philip’s Cathedral has limited seating capacity and if you attend without pre-booking you risk being turned away.
• The Society reserves the right to allocate lecture applications on a first-come, first-served basis where demand for places exceeds venue capacity.
• The Society reserves the right to cancel, alter, or postpone any events, as it may consider expedient or necessary.
• Members are reminded that they should have adequate personal and travel insurance cover when attending any Society event.
• Disclaimer – participation in any event is entirely at your own risk. The Society cannot accept any liability for injury, loss, or damage, however caused.

Call for artists: ‘Love Is Enough?’ An open exhibition inspired by Morris’s poem

The Friends of the William Morris Gallery together with The Mill, the new community centre at 7-11 Coppermill Lane, Walthamstow, E17 7HA ( the old James Street library) present: Love Is Enough? An exhibition inspired by Morris’s poem of the same name, and open to artists to submit work.
Morris wrote Love is Enough in 1872, a play that draws inspiration from an ancient Welsh saga, The Mabinogion. It tells of a king who gives up his kingdom for the love of a commoner and was described at the time as a “fantastic little book, chiefly lyrical”. Love is enough is better known as a poem from the book:

LOVE is enough: though the World be a-waning,

And the woods have no voice but the voice of complaining,

Though the sky be too dark for dim eyes to discover

The gold-cups and daisies fair blooming thereunder,

Though the hills be held shadows, and the sea a dark wonder,

And this day draw a veil over all deeds pass’d over,

Yet their hands shall not tremble, their feet shall not falter;

The void shall not weary, the fear shall not alter

These lips and these eyes of the loved and the lover.

Without wishing you read the whole book, but bearing its theme in mind, we are using the poem Love is enough to base an exhibition around. The book and poem should give sufficient scope to anyone concerned about love, society and the environment to submit an entry, so it does not have to be all hearts and flowers, please note the question mark in the exhibition title.

Events during the exhibition

There will be a grand meet the artists night on 14 February, 6-9pm, a printmaking workshop on Saturday 18 February, 12-4.30pm, and a discussion with speakers Wednesday 23 February, “Is Love Enough?” William Morris and the struggle for a better world”, 6.30-8pm. All are free to attend.

How to enter

Entries will be accepted for members of The Friends of the William Morris Gallery and people living in the area around The Mill. The exhibition will run from Tuesday 7 February to Saturday 3 March. The Mill is open 10am-8pm, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday; 10am-6pm Friday and Saturday, and 11am-2pm Sunday.

Any media is acceptable, a painting a print a sculpture or a poem, but there is a size limit of 1m in any dimension and a submission fee of £2.50 per entry. Any work sold during the exhibition will attract a 20% commission in favour of The Mill. We will attempt to exhibit all the entries, space permitting, but some selection may take place.

All work must be delivered to The Mill, 7-11 Coppermill Lane, Walthamstow, E17 7HA. Thursday 2 February, 10am-7pm, Friday 3 and Saturday 4 February, 10am-6pm. And picked up from The Mill after the exhibition on Sunday 4 March 11am-2pm.

Please contact Martin Adams for an entry form.