Online Talk: Love and Hope in Pre-Raphaelite Storytelling

• Region: All Regions
• Type: Talk
• Cost: Free

When art collector Cecil French came across paintings by Frederick Cayley Robinson, such as Threads of Life (on display as part of the current Leighton House exhibition Victorian Treasures from the Cecil  French Bequest) he exclaimed that they cast a potent ‘spell’ with their ‘visionary strangeness’.

This online talk, led by art historian Ayla Lepine, will connect this quality of uncanny beauty with stories of love and hope in late Pre-Raphaelite works of art by Edward Burne-Jones, William Waterhouse, and Robinson himself. Tales familiar to their audiences, from the Christmas story of the Nativity to the antics of Cupid and the twists and turns of good or bad luck, were depicted afresh by these revolutionary artists.

In drawing and painting scenes from Greek mythology, the Bible, and poetry by Alfred Lord Tennyson, Pre-Raphaelite artists forged a new way of seeing simultaneously into the past and the future, offering new perspectives on the beauty and anguish of love, and the persistence of hope. 

15 February 2024, 6:30pm-7:30pm (GMT)

Please note that this is an online event delivered via Zoom. A dedicated link will be sent to all participants within the order confirmation email.