Sunday, January 30, 2011

Carlisle museum revamp will improve exhibitions




A museum in Carlisle has refurbished two of its permanent galleries to improve its nationally important collection of Pre-Raphaelite art.

The new development at Tullie House, which opens on Saturday, includes new interpretation including a multimedia programme.

The exhibition of the museum’s collection of works by Pre-Raphaelite artists, their heirs and related arts and crafts movement textiles, ceramics, metalwork, furniture and costume can be seen in Old Tullie House.

The exhibition occupies two galleries in the grade 1 listed building. The ground floor gallery has been completely refurbished, providing improved access and increased display space.

More than 70 works of art will be on display, of which almost half have not been shown recently.

The display includes 37 Pre-Raphaelite works and 23 works by their heirs.

Highlights include works by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a founder member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, his wife Elizabeth Siddal, and associates William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and Ford Madox Brown.

William Morris textiles and William De Morgan ceramics can also be seen. Later artists include Arthur Hughes, Charles Ricketts, Paul Nash and John Duncan.

Cumbrian works include Burne-Jones’s stained glass window designs for St Martin’s Church, Brampton, portraits of William Morris and Burne-Jones by George Howard (9th Earl of Carlisle), and a view of Windermere by Ford Madox Brown.

Keswick School of Industrial Art metalwork and Arthur Simpson of Kendal furniture will also be on show. Mr Howard, William Rothenstein and Gordon Bottomley were largely responsible for establishing this unique collection at Tullie House.

The refurbishment has been funded by Carlisle City Council, the DCMS/Wolfson Galleries Improvement Fund, MLA Renaissance North West and the Friends of Tullie House.

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